Advertisement

A visual tour of the Pokémon Research Lab

There's no better way to inspire children into a career in animal taxonomy and species classification than Pokémon. Possibly. A temporary Pokémon Lab in Japan is opening its doors to wannabe researchers (and their parents), offering them a Poké ball and 12 different stations to test and identify the critter inside. Once you've derived the specific pocket monster (fortunately, at this junior research center, it's limited to a pool of around 30), there's also a healthy spoonful of real science and biology at the end -- oh yes, it's edu-tainment. This part of the exhibit tries to convey how important discoveries have occurred through observation and categorization of animals and creatures (the game's creator was famously fascinated by categorizing insects as a child). There was also a giant Pikachu in a lab coat to assist where needed -- although he didn't really help all that much.