The California Academy of Sciences is a world-renowned scientific and cultural institution located at 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California. It is also one of the largest natural-history museums in the world.

The Academy started as a learned society in 1853, three years after California became part of the United States. Since then, the Academy drew about eighty thousand visitors yearly, making it one of the most popular destinations in the western United States. However, the Academy lost its home and most of its specimens in the Great Quake of 1906. Its second home was the North American Hall in Golden Gate Park, but in 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck, leaving major damage in the building.

The Academy formally reopened to the public on September 27, 2008. Everything was new for the Academy: location, structure, vision, and idea of the entire museum experience. The current building was designed by Renzo Piano, and it has the distinction of being the world?s greenest museum.

The Academy houses seven exhibits. The Steinhart Aquarium is home thirty-eight thousand live animals from all over the world. The Morrison Planetarium is the world?s largest all-digital planetarium. The Kimball Natural History Museum focuses on the evolution and conservation of life on Earth. The Rainforests of the World is contained in a spherical glass dome. With a ninety-foot diameter, it is the largest in the world. The Upper Gallery Exhibit features anthropology collections. The Project Lab enables guests to see real science in the flesh, with the Academy?s scientists showing their work to the public.