Museum of Science and Industry

Despite what popular culture would have you expect, scientists almost never become supervillains. But sometimes a study comes along that makes you perk your ears up and reach for the Bat-Signal. Researchers in Copenhagen have pioneered a new method for DNA monitoring that’s as easy as taking candy from a baby, except instead of candy, it’s blood! And instead of a baby, it’s a hideous mass of leeches.

By collecting leeches and testing the blood in their tummies, researchers can get a basic...

I absolutely love learning about cool things. MSI is full of exhibits where you can discover different things that real scientists, inventors or engineers get to work on! As you go through the Museum, you might notice that most of the featured scientists happen to be adults. But being a scientist is definitely not...

Scientists who study animals in the wild like to know just how many are actually out there, but animals don't usually sit still long enough to be easily counted. Some scientists have come up with clever ways to measure their numbers, but one team studying emperor penguins faced...

Pop quiz! Name things that you can shake. Okay, I hear "Polaroid pictures," a few mischievous "cans of soda," and I think we even have a couple of rump shakers here! But did anyone say an entire building? Engineers at the University of California...

Man, the popular monkeys have it so easy. All the bananas, and all the pretty monkeys want to groom them, and they get… all the good vines and stuff. And now they get stronger immune systems, too.

A recent study indicates a strong link between a monkey’s social status (roughly, how popular and powerful it is in monkey society) and its gene expression. “Gene expression” is a term for the changeable way your...