Chicago Museum of Science Confuses Science with Magic
USA Today reported this morning that The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry is opening a new exhibit in the hopes of gaining visitors in this troubled economy. The new exhibit will be dedicated to Harry Potter, and designed to capitalize on how much children like the character. Simultaneously, the museum is hoping to capitalize on how much children dislike science.
The president of the museum, David Mosena, explained that the museum wants “to exceed expectations, and surprise people.” I will admit, I am surprised by how much they have exceeded my expectations. One can only assume that since magic is now in a museum, science must have discovered magic.
I’ve been lobbying for years for more intensive research on wand technology, but I always thought nobody was listening. It turns out that David Mosena was listening with his crystal ball all along, and has used it to invent flying cars and discover unicorns.
It almost sounds too good to be true. Oh, no. Wait a minute. Mosena went on to say that “This is all about imagination, and this is a museum about imagination and innovation.” Hold on. This is a science museum, right? The only imagination I ever used in my chemistry class was to imagine that I wasn’t in chemistry class. I imagined I was in magic class.
Now I’m concerned that the magic they have on display may just be imaginary magic. What a disappointment! There’s a huge difference between an imaginary flying broomstick, and an actual flying broomstick. Just ask my cousin Frank. One blink means “Yes,” two blinks means “I broke my spine trying to fly on an imaginary Hippogriff.”
How could they lie to us about magic? I thought the only display that was a lie was the stuff about The Big Bang. Now I have to worry that other science might not be true as well? Is this any way to raise our children, doubting the veracity of anything from Big Foot to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity? To be fair, I have seen significantly more video footage proving Big Foot’s existence than I have relativity.
One museum official tried to rationalize the decision by saying, “Museums must recognize that if popular culture can get kids excited… then we can expose them to 14 acres of science.” You’re going to use popular culture to lure children inside your dark, musty museum and show them your magic wand? That sounds an awful lot like an Amber Alert waiting to happen.
Sure, times are tough, but that doesn’t mean we want our scientists to be acting like creepy old wizards. Get with it museums. Economic hard times are no excuse for manipulating the common man. You don’t see bankers lying in order to convince people that assets exist when they really don’t. Well, you don’t see that anymore, because you all had to go and use science to prove those assets didn’t exist, which is what got us into this economic mess in the first place.
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