Catching a glimpse of the largest animal ever to reside on our planet requires no foray into science fiction; it swims in our oceans to this day. The blue whale possesses a heart so large a child could crawl through its chambers. Kids can now do just that with last month's arrival at the American Museum of Natural History of a new exhibition dedicated to our great marine mammals.

The show, "Whales: Giants of the Deep," presents a gallery of models, films, fossils, and interactive displays illustrating the evolution and lives of whales, dolphins, and porpoises (referred to collectively as cetaceans) and their historic relationship to people and the culture of seafaring.
As anyone who read a certain whale tale in their high school English class will remember, that relationship has been fraught.