Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry Opens Science Storms Exhibit

Posted on March 16, 2010

The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago (MSI) will unveil Science Storms on March 18th. Science Storms is a new permanent exhibit in the newly-named Allstate Court that reveals the science behind some of nature's most powerful phenomena--tornados, lightning, fire, tsunamis, sunlight, avalanches and atoms in motion. The MSI exhibit says you can "be blown away by a 40-foot tornado swirling before you, see bolts of lightning crack over your head, trigger an avalanche and unleash a tsunami wave."

Here is a list of some of the things visitors to the exhibit can do:

Control a 40-foot tornado and experiment with air pressure and wind speed.
Trigger a 20-foot avalanche to reveal the beauty of granular dynamics.
Witness a high-voltage lightning storm from a giant Tesla coil, 20 feet in diameter, to discover electricity and magnetism.
Wage a battle of fire vs. water in a live-fire experiment, and see how a flame reacts to different conditions.
Make your own giant rainbows with optical prisms, recreating Newton's famous prism experiment, to observe the physical nature of light.
Discover the power and motion of waves by unleashing your own tsunami across a 30-foot wave tank.
Transform water into vapor, then into ice and back to water again to explore states of matter.

"Creating transformative experiences that get people excited about the world around them is what the Museum of Science and Industry does best, and exhibits like Science Storms are our most powerful teaching tools," said David Mosena, president and CEO of the Museum of Science and Industry. "This exhibit will provide real experiences that reinforce essential scientific principles--as well as curiosity that lasts a lifetime."

WEATHER
LIGHTNING