Museum of Science and Industry

One: Animal lovers, brace yourself! MSI’s cute-o-meter needle is buried in the red with the opening of Born to Be Wild. This Omnimax movie follows the work of two women who work to raise, rehabilitate, and release orphaned elephants and orangutans back to the wild. This film is incredibly adorable, so don’t miss it!

Two: Speaking of rehabilitating elephants, have you ever thought about elephant prostheses before? Not many people have. When an elephant hospital in Thailand welcomed a couple of pachyderm pals with legs lost to land mines, they had to invent prosthetic devices they thought might be impossible – kind of like MacGyver! The hospital’s achievements have inspired a documentary currently being shown at film festivals.

Three: No elephants in your life? Well, what about dogs? Dogs with limb issues are candidates for inventive prostheses, too! Locally, Fifty is an awesome dog that gets around on just two paws, and Seven Five is a young pup that plays on three – both dogs have received or been fitted for prosthetic limbs.

One of the neatest things about animal prosthetics is how creative the engineers can be – devices range from peg legs to wheels to springy crescents for running!

The World’s First Bionic Elephants [Wonderland] »

Image: The Eyes of Thailand

Related at MSI: YOU! The Experience's story of Jesse Sullivan's bionic arm.