If one picture speaks a thousand words, then architect Renzo Piano's design of the California Academy of Sciences (www.calacademy.org/) is singing a flood of words and sweet music. This aerial view which you see above is necessary to understand what the intentions are behind the new concept and design of the Academy.

In his own words, Renzo Piano says that "With the new Academy, we are creating a museum that is visually and functionally linked to its natural surroundings, metaphorically lifting up a piece of the park and putting a building underneath. Through sustainable architecture and innovative design we are adding a vital new element to Golden Gate Park and expressing the Academy's dedication to environmental responsibility."

And its not just about visuals either. Their impending Platinum LEED certification is proof enough that it is one of the greenest buildings in the world, and certainly none of the other museums in the U.S. are anywhere close to being as green as the California Academy of Sciences.

If you compare this with other tourism development plans like the plan to turn Alcatraz into a luxury resort, or Mayor Bloomberg's plan to modify Coney Island into an East Coast Disneyland clone with 5 star hotels and other stuff, you can see what a huge gap there is between conventional tourist attractions and the Academy.

Now for the details.

The Academy is actually the sum of a four-story rainforest, an aquarium, a planetarium, and a natural history museum - All under one roof. And what a roof - Its a 2.5 acre living roof which creates new habitat for native birds, butterflies, and other beneficial insects. The seven hills of the living roof roll over the Academy's major exhibits and echo the hilly topography of San Francisco.

Morrison Planetarium: The world's largest all-digital planetarium, where a live presenter takes you through the solar system and far beyond, using the latest information from NASA to produce an incredibly detailed and accurate digital universe. Captain Kirk would probably give an arm to have this kind of technology on the Enterprise.

Philippine Coral Reef: Take an unvarnished look into the world's deepest living coral reef tank, without having to don a wetsuit and dive into the water. Through 5 onservation windows set deep underground, watch Nemo and 4000 other reef fish darting in and out of a multihued forests of coral, see garden eels poking their heads out of their underground burrows, and bored giant clams hanging about cooly like its just a walk in a park. Back on the surface, take the boardwalk across the mangrove lagoon, with sinister looking sharks, rays and turtles cruising under your feet.

Rainforests of the World: Step inside a 4 story living rainforest, say hello to Borneo's bat caves, meet chameleons from Madagascar, and climb into the tree-tops of Costa Rica, where long lines of industrious leaf cutter ants march along vines and hundreds of tropical butterflies flutter like colorful confetti. Finally, descend in a glass elevator into the Amazonian flooded forest-the land of anacondas, piranhas, and electric eels. An acrylic tunnel allows you to walk beneath the Amazonian river fish that swim overhead.

African Hall: Virtual world of lions and cheetahs and zebras mixed in with a few live ones like tortoises, lizards, and a colony of African penguins.

Altered State - Climate Change in California: Has an 80 ft blue whale skeleton, a massive T Rex, and even a live rattlesnake, bringing you uptodate with California's ecological history. Comprehensive info on how climate chnage is presently altering Califoirnia and the world, and what you can do to prevent climate change. Allows you to measure your daily carbon consumption.

Related exhibit is the California Coast, which highlights the Golden State's diverse marine emvironments. There's a giant Pacific Octopus, a red tailed hawk, a hermit crab and a 165 pund sea bass.

Islands of Evolution: Has specimens from the islands of Madagascar and Galapagos. You can net virtual butterflies with Wii gaming wands and set pit-fall traps for virtual beetles.

Water Planet: Has over a 100 aquarium tanks choc-a-bloc full of fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and other invertebrates. Once an hour, the lights go down inside the tanks, the room transforms into a 360-degree projection theater, and visitors are immersed in a five-minute video about the most precious resource on the planet: water.

The Swamp: Home of the Academy's star animal - An albino gator who is startlingly white. He's got the company of plenty of his more 'normal' chums, along with alligator snapping turtles. Snakes, frogs and salamanders are comfy in smaller tanks nearby, and sometimes a biologist comes out with a great horned owl.

Admission: Prices include access to all components of the Academy experience, including all museum exhibits, aquarium displays, planetarium shows, and the living rainforest. Adults: $24.95, Youth (ages 12-17): $19.95, Senior (ages 65 and over): $19.95, Child (ages 7-11): $14.95, Ages 6 and under: FREE

Discount for taking public transportation to the Academy: $3 per person

Speaking about public transportation, if you're planning San Francisco vacations, then you might want to take note of the Culture Bus operated by the SFMTA, which hit the streets around the same period when the Academy re-opened on the 27th of Sept 2008. The Culture Bus goes along a route from Downtown San Francisco to the Golden Gate Park, stopping at Museums and cultural Institutions along the way, including the California Academy of Sciences. Buying one ticket for the bus allows you unlimited travel in either direction from 8:40 a.m. and 5.50 p.m., with on and off priviliges, so you can hop off the bus, see one museum, then hop on again and move to the next one.

All photos courtesy & copyrights - The California Academy of Sciences.