Stars Wars exhibition in Boston

Boston: It's a Star Wars fan's dream ?the first public display of props and costumes from all six films in the series.

The $5 million exhibit goes beyond entertainment and turns Star Wars into an educational tool for science and technology.

Star Wars creator George Lucas?s Lucas Film Ltd and Boston?s Museum of Science developed the exhibition, Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination, opening on Thursday in Boston.

The exhibition aims to give a scientific basis to the fantasy of the films.

Luke Skywalker's gravity-defying Landspeeder appears on stage in original form, accompanied by lessons in magnetic levitation and the powerful electromagnets that can hurtle high-speed ?maglev? trains at speeds of up to 310 mph.

Rows of Star Wars androids and Anakin Skywalker's prosthetic right hand from Episode III ?before his transformation into Darth Vader ?are used to explain advances in robotic technology and modern medical prosthetics.

Boston?s Museum of Science president and director, Ioannis Miaoulis, said he feared U S schools were failing to produce enough future engineers to meet competition from Asia, putting pressure on museums like his to play a more influential role.

''We are producing generations of people that have no understanding about how most of the things they interact with in their day-to-day life work,'' he said.

Competitive Edge

Backing Miaoulis' concern is data showing China producing the world's largest number of science and engineering graduates ?at least five times as many as in the United States, where the number has fallen since the early 1980's.

''We used to be the leading country in engineering graduates, and now Asia has that role,'' said Miaoulis.

About 80 props from Princess Leia's white dress to Darth Vader's mask and R2-D2 sprawl over 10,000 square feet in the museum.

Some of the lessons, such as the exhibit on spaceships and floating vehicles that harness ?maglev' technology, highlight areas in which the United States trails other nations.

''We're using Star Wars as a way to jump start the way people think about things in the real world,'' said Ed Rodley, an exhibit planner.