Consider that the multimedia exhibit covers six galleries and represents the most extensive collection of artifacts on the past, present and future of medicines ever compiled. Sponsored by Glaxo Wellcome, the U.S. subsidiary of a leading international pharmaceutical research firm, "Medicines" will be displayed at the Tampa museum through May 7, 2000.

Through the exhibit, visitors travel through a 1920s pharmacy stocked with actual medicines and explore the various healing methods used throughout the world. They see how medicines have changed five generations of American society by curing many illnesses. And they follow a medicine through U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval via a movie, "Molecule to Medicine."

Exhibits on the medicines of tomorrow detail gene therapy and innovative vaccines. Guests can create their own drug to treat a patient with a brain tumor through an interactive video game, "Make a Medicine."

Complementing the medicine show will be "InnerSpace," a multimedia planetarium presentation, in MOSI's Saunders Planetarium. "InnerSpace" takes viewers through the human body, including journeys into the skin, arteries, organs and cells, so they can see how medicines work. Modern diagnostic tools, fitted with cameras, make it appear as though the viewer actually is traveling through respiratory, nervous and digestive systems. Sky-Skan Inc. is sponsoring that part of the show.

The largest science museum in the southeastern United States, MOSI also is home to the first IMAX Dome theater in Florida.

Opening in the IMAX dome on Dec. 17 is "Alaska: Spirit of the Wild." Narrated by Charlton Heston, "Spirit of the Wild" shows how life triumphs over great odds in the wintertime as well as the summertime among such wildlife as salmon, grizzlies, wolves, polar bears, caribou, whales and sea lions.

MOSI is open 365 days a year with a starting time of 9 a.m. daily. Closing hours are seasonal. Admission is $12 for adults ages 14-49; $10 for seniors 50-plus; $8 for children 2-13, and free to children under 2. Phone: (813) 987-6300. Web: www.mosi.org