CCTV9英语新闻：Rubik's Cube turns 40（在线收听）

It’s been four decades since Hungarian inventor and architect Erno Rubik created his best-selling puzzle cube. To celebrate the anniversary, the 69-year-old has paired up with the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, for a special exhibition.

It houses the world’s most expensive Rubik’s Cube ever made. Created by Diamond Cutters International, it’s an 18 karat gold cube set with 1,360 jewels, estimated to be worth 2.5 million U.S. Dollars.

The Rubik's Cube Masterpiece, made up of 1,360 jewels, considered to be the world's most expensive cube, is on display as part of Liberty Science Center's newest exhibit, "Beyond Rubik's Cube," opening on Saturday. (Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal.)

"If you have a family you have the family. And naturally part of what your family is doing, you are loving it, you are criticizing it and you try to modify. But it’s your family. So you can’t say you are not part of your family. So my relationship with the cube is that, the cube is my oldest child," said Rubik.

Titled 'Beyond Rubik’s Cube’, the exhibit explores the puzzle’s humble beginnings, its first prototypes made out of wood and rubber bands.

The cube was first launched in 1974 in Budapest. Since its international release in 1980, an estimated 350 million cubes have been sold worldwide. About one in seven people have played with the famous puzzle.

The exhibit will mark the 40th anniversary of the Rubik's Cube.

Rubik said: "It’s a very interesting thing. Everybody has it at home. So it’s hard to show them something else, something different. But we were able to do that because the cube has so many different sides. Not only six that are in practice. And the cube has made lots of inspiration all around the world."

For the artistic-minded, a mural installation has visitors create specific patterns which can be put on the wall to create a "cube painting." There’s also a robot that can take over and solve your cube when it gets too hard, showing every step it takes on a monitor. The ultimate goal is to use the Rubik’s Cube to show visitors that the boundaries between science and art are not clearly defined.

The exhibit will be open to the public for seven months at the New Jersey location, before heading out on a global tour.

Erno Rubik, the inventor of Rubik's Cube