Blinding Me With Science...

With a little over three months left in my tenure at the History Museum, I have decided to make a concentrated effort to milk my job for all the perks I can. I've booked a slew of doctors' appointments to garner maximum utility from my health insurance while I still have it, and, building off last weekend's trip to the Field Museum, I have decided to try to make it to all the remaining institutions in Chicago that have reciprocal free admission privileges for museum staff. Since today was Pi Day, and I am not much of a pie baker, I decided that it would be fitting to celebrate with a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry.

I very seldom make it to the MSI, largely because the distance to Hyde Park seems insurmountable when there are so many other fine museums closer to home. Prior to this weekend, I hadn't been there since my freshman year of college, when I brought my friends to Chicago for Spring Break. However, now that I am older, wiser, and more open-minded about public transit, I discovered that the #10 bus can get me to the doorstep of the Museum of Science and Industry in about 15 minutes, and its schedule is considerable more flexible than that of the Metra, which operates about every two hours on the weekend. In the future, I'll be able to visit the MSI with much greater frequency.

Which I might need to investigate, as the lure of Pi Day had drawn me to the museum on a day when there was little to see. It was the last weekend for "ART + Science = Architecture," an exhibit of Chicago and global landmarks constructed from Legos. However, the website made the exhibit seem much larger than it actually was -- there couldn't have been more than eight buildings all together. They were impressive, but they wouldn't have been worth the price of admission, if I'd had to pay to gain entrance in the first place.

A new temporary exhibit, "Science Storms" which explores the science behind natural disasters is scheduled to open next week, and perhaps I should have held off another week to see it, because aside from the massively crowded new, "You: The Experience" exhibit that investigates the human body, there was nothing new that I hadn't seen before. "You" employed a number of interesting and innovative interactive experiences, however, there were so many other guests in the exhibit that it was difficult to get close enough to any of them to use them. Perhaps it would have been more user-friendly on a weekday in the middle of the day, but I don't happen to fit into the demographic of people who are free at that time.

My disappointment over the Museum of Science and Industry's offerings should not be misconstrued as translating into an unpleasant experience. To the contrary, I had a rather fun day at the museum, getting reacquainted with the old exhibits. It was comfortable, like hanging out with an old, dear friend. And for the price, how could I complain?