Time and the Universe: The universe observable by astronomers in 1999 is thought to be about 13 billion years old and evolving. After lifetimes of millions or billions of years, all individual stars eventually exhaust their nuclear fuel and die. Some destroy themselves in cataclysmic supernova explosions. Cosmic time is represented here by an Albion iron meteorite — 4.6 billion years old, composed of iron-nickel metal.

Time and Biology: The aging process of humans is determined to a great extent by genetically controlled, internal processes: every population within every species has its own internally governed, average life span. Adult mayflies last less than a single day; American women have a life expectancy of 80 years; redwood and bristlecone pine trees of the American West can survive for hundreds, even thousands of years. Five global mass extinctions have radically altered the composition and evolutionary course of life during the past half-billion years.

Time and Civilization: As far as we know, only humans have the ability to contemplate time and attempt to predict, plan and control events. Thousands of years ago, people invented devices to indicate the time of day, and calendars to measure the passage of time over longer periods. Cultural time is captured here in a 500-year-old Ball Court Ring with carvings that evoke the famous Aztec Sun Stone.

Encapsulating Time: A history of time capsules is delineated in a timeline consisting of text and images of, among others, the 1977 Voyager 1 and 2 with cultural icons affixed to them by astronomer Carl Sagan; Time Capsule Expo '70 from Osaka, Japan; the Crypt of Civilization — a 2,000-cubic-foot university swimming pool transformed into the largest time capsule to date containing 640,000 pages of microfilm; the American Museum of Natural History cornerstone which was laid by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1874; and the first time capsule known to be opened according to plan — the Century Safe created by Civil War widow Mrs. Charles Diehm — the contents of which were revealed to the nation by President Gerald Ford in 1976.

introduction | what is time? | notable entries
winning design | contents of times capsule | visitor information
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