While it can't compare to the sensation of seeing the multitude of datasets projected onto a nearly 6-foot diameter sphere suspended in a darkened room, you can now experience a close second at home or in the classroom with the just-released Science on a Sphere Explorer.

It is a program that you can load onto a PC or Mac, and then manipulate a 3-D view of the earth with the same kinds of weather, geological, environmental, geographical and astronomical visualizations, some with interactive displays, that are used on the spheres in museums around the world. Articles about the new program do alert us that it is a big download (it'll require around 15 GB on your hard drive), so if you're interested do make sure there's plenty of space on your system.