75th Anniversary Edition – State of the Planet

Last Saturday, over 2,000 visitors from all over streamed through the welcome tent and onto the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory campus for the 2024 edition of Open House—a cherished tradition dating back decades. This year’s event also celebrated the 75th anniversary of Lamont, offering guests a wide array of installations, experiments, and lectures. From a giant inflatable JOIDES Resolution to an augmented reality sandbox, VR games, and a “warming stripe” installation, attendees were treated to a multitude of engaging activities. Classic attractions like bathtub science, exploding volcanoes, art displays, sticky glacier goo, rocks from space, and informative lectures on topics ranging from seafloor mapping to nanoplastics, earthquakes, and black holes were also featured. The event showcased the Lamont Core Repository, the most extensive collection of deep-sea sediments on Earth, as well as demonstrations on making “oobleck” goo and exploring the connection between research and art. Visitors had the opportunity to delve into climate disasters inspired by great masters, witness weather systems in a rotating tank experiment, learn about Atlantic sturgeon at Lamont’s Hudson River Field Station, and even uncover the complexities beneath Antarctica’s ice sheet. It was a day filled with wonder and education, and as Lamont celebrates its 75th anniversary, we look forward to seeing what next year’s Open House will bring.