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If you happen to be in, or travel to, the United States, you can tour a real German U-boat at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Check the website and call ahead if that is of interest to you.

U-505 Submarine

Enjoy the movie.

I can name a few museums or "centers" that are very geek driven. One of the best of them is the Exploratorium, which is a must visit location for any geek. The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is another major geek-out site that is well worth the trip. Visiting any number of planetariums are also places that you will generally not regret ever visiting.

That said, I think this museum is likely to become a rival to these other major geek museums and education centers.

One thing at the Museum of Science and Industry, that any self-respecting geek would not miss: the U-505.

She's a German Type IX-C submarine, captured off of Cape Verde, in 1944. Two M4 Enigma machines and over 900 pounds of codebooks and crypto publications were recovered from her.

http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/u-505/activities/capture/

Since you are going to Chicago.

Museum of Science and Industry

I loved going there as a kid, they had (maybe they still do), this HUGE model train display.
Of course they have a lot more, but I dont know how much has changed.

Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin still holds the world's largest refractor in a beautiful 19th century building. The Astronomer royale of Scotland once called it, "The Taj Mahal of astronomy" and perfectly fits the stereotype of what an observatory should look like. Their visiting hours are meager and much of the lovely grounds was turned into a housing development during the property bubble, but it's well worth a visit.

Venture further north to the Wisconsin Dells, a down-to-earth tourist trap where you'll find water parks, Indian trading posts and.... the Mir space station? Yep. One Mir copy fell out of orbit, the other is somewhere in Russia and this one is in Wisconsin.

The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry isn't my favorite science museum, but it is big and was recently updated.

The university of Chicago's old Stagg Field was demolished (happily, via non-nuclear means) but you can visit a sculpture at the site of the world's first man-made atomic pile.

Absolutely no visitors overnight or when the Museum is closed to the public.

And yet, we have this, which says:

We're looking for someone to take on a once-in-a-lifetime assignment: spend a Month at the Museum, to live and breathe science 24/7 for 30 days. From October 20 to November 18, 2010, this person's mission will be to experience all the fun and education that fits in this historic 14-acre building, living here full-time and reporting your findings to the outside world.

So, there will be at least one visitor there overnight.

From http://www.msichicago.org/matm/the-details

Agree to very limited contact with the outside, and limited and/or prohibited personal use of cell phone, texting, e-mail, Facebook, etc., during the residence period.

Absolutely no visitors overnight or when the Museum is closed to the public.

You must be available to live in the Museum for 30 days with no outside personal or work responsibilities.

It seems like they're really missing out, there. One of the best ways to promote something like this and popularize the museum is to require regular social media postings to places like Twitter, Facebook, etc. so people can get excited about what the person is doing. What a loss.

It would also be great for things people would always want to do in the museum, but never are allowed to, due to safety, security, or just too many people...

• Just walked through the mine exhibit with only headlamps. Forgot about the drain pool and feet are wet.
• Tried to play against self in the brain activity game. I lost.
• Ran myself to exhaustion and tested the giant heart rate monitor. Sounded like a dance club.
• Fixed six of the broken exhibits I wanted to play with.
• Tried to mess with the torpedo tubes on the sub.
• Farmville doesn't really relate well to raising chicks. Hid the evidence in the torpedo tubes.
• etc.

From http://www.msichicago.org/matm/the-details

Agree to very limited contact with the outside, and limited and/or prohibited personal use of cell phone, texting, e-mail, Facebook, etc., during the residence period.

Absolutely no visitors overnight or when the Museum is closed to the public.

You must be available to live in the Museum for 30 days with no outside personal or work responsibilities.

Absolutely no visitors overnight or when the Museum is closed to the public.

Just spend most of the time sleeping in a room of the futuristic 'green home' which is at the museum. It'd rob much of the novelty but still get you the bragging rights and one month of your life rent-free not to mention ten grand and the gadgetry and t-shirt.

For bonus points get two sandals made mostly out of carbon to emphasize your greenness by having a good carbon footprint. Also grow a beard beforehand and spend time giving tours to guests, slipping in green slogans and propaganda. Demand access to the website and change tidbits like this...

"More than just a body, you are a complex blend of your choices, your personality, and your environment. Who you are depends on how you care for yourself and enjoy your life."

To this: "More than just a body, you are a complex blend of your choices, your personality, and your environment. Environment. Who you are depends on what you eat, how you dress, and whether you drive a car. Through choosing a low-mpg, economical vehicle and spinning your own cloth plus having an allotment for vegetable and plant-matter growth whilst not private jetting around the world each week to promote your environmentalism straight-faced and with no sense of irony...you can become a true child of the planet.'

Upon the conclusion of the month you can then speak about how shockingly un-green the museum was, except for the house which was 'viable if expensive'. State that the lifetime membership means you will be the self-anointed Enviromaster of Chicago Museum of Science; this means you can consult with them for a lifetime for cash on the side. It's nice to get a bit whilst you save the planet man!

spend a Month at the Museum, to live and breathe science 24/7 for 30 days. From October 20 to November 18, 2010, this person's mission will be to experience all the fun and education that fits in this historic 14-acre building, living here full-time and reporting your findings to the outside world.'

Touched a dinosaur: man! those things are delicate!

The U-Boat was awesome!

Farm equipment was pretty good. Drove the tractor around a little bit before it ran out of gas.

At the baby chick hatchery. They're so cute! Awe shit! I left the door open! brb...

Went to Jim Hensen's Fantastic World and had a threesome with Kermit and Miss Piggy.

U505 at Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. It's Wikipedia page, and it's Museum page.

Another strong agreement for both The Henry Ford and Greenfield Village.

Right next to it is the automotive hall of fame which is quite a bit smaller but a must for any car lover interested in the inventors behind their inventions: http://automotivehalloffame.org/

There seems to be this car thing we're all into in South East Michigan :-) .

(in b4 bankruptcy: shut it up)

While you're in the midwest you should also go to Chicago's Field Museum (its huge, you would need a whole day): http://www.fieldmuseum.org/
The Museum of Science and Industry (they have a captured U-Boat and an enigma machine there http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/u-505/ !): http://www.msichicago.org/
And you can always stand in front of the Seurat like Cameron did in Ferris Bueller's Day Off at the Art Institute of Chicago: http://www.artic.edu/

Another strong agreement for both The Henry Ford and Greenfield Village.

Right next to it is the automotive hall of fame which is quite a bit smaller but a must for any car lover interested in the inventors behind their inventions: http://automotivehalloffame.org/

There seems to be this car thing we're all into in South East Michigan :-) .

(in b4 bankruptcy: shut it up)

While you're in the midwest you should also go to Chicago's Field Museum (its huge, you would need a whole day): http://www.fieldmuseum.org/
The Museum of Science and Industry (they have a captured U-Boat and an enigma machine there http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/u-505/ !): http://www.msichicago.org/
And you can always stand in front of the Seurat like Cameron did in Ferris Bueller's Day Off at the Art Institute of Chicago: http://www.artic.edu/

• Ask your local science museum if they have an AI Mind exhibit. If they do not, volunteer to install MindForth as an AI exhibit.See which museum is the home of the oldest living artificial intelligence.Albuquerque NM -- New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
• Baltimore MD -- Maryland Science Center Berkeley CA -- Lawrence Hall of Science Bloomingtown IN -- Wonderlab Museum of Science, Health, & Technology
  Boston MA -- Museum of Science
• Brantford, Ontario, Canada -- Personal Computer Museum
• Charlotte NC -- Discovery Place
• Chicago IL -- Museum of Science and Industry
• Columbus OH -- Center of Science and Industry (COSI)
• Detroit MI -- Detroit Science Center Jersey City NJ -- Liberty Science Center Kansas City MO -- Science City at Union Station
• Los Angeles CA -- the California Science Center
• Louisville KY -- the Louisville Science Center
• Manchester UK -- Museum of Science and Industry (MoSI)
• Mobile AL -- the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center
• Mountain View CA -- Computer History Museum
• New York City NY -- the New York Hall of Science
• Norwich VT -- Montshire Museum of Science
• Philadelphia PA -- the Franklin Institute Science Museum
• Pittsburgh PA -- Carnegie Science Center
  • with RoboWorld exhibit showing how robots
    • sense;

While others have mentioned both the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry, it should be noted that they are co-located with the (also excellent) Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium. Not far away is the world-class Art Institute of Chicago. Much of this is the legacy of the 1893 Chicago World Fair, and in terms of density of world-class museums, is more bang for your time and dollar that you'll get anywhere outside of Washington DC (Smithsonian, etc) and perhaps London. You can get a multi-day pass to all of these museums for anywhere from about $70/person, and it is well worth it.

Chicago does have the Museum of Science and Industry, but also houses the Field Museum, Adler Planetarium, and the Shedd Aquarium. While it seems that this would be less interesting, it's worth mentioning the Chicago Art Institute too. All of these museums are fairly close to each other (with the exception of the Museum of Science and Industry).

Exploratorium in San Francisco
Balboa Park in San Diego
Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago
Kennedy Space Center in Florida

I saw one of these at The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. It was in the smart house exhibit. They said that biking for 20 minutes will power a T.V. for 30 minutes. http://www.scienceshareware.com/bike-generator-using-a-car-alternator.htm http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/smart-home/

you do realize that people still go down into coal mines to work? Now? in the US?

If you are ever in the Chicago area, I highly recommend visiting the Museum of Science and Industry. They have an old coal mine there that they give tours of. They show both antique and modern methods of mining for coal, including the problems that regularly occurred before the advent of modern methods. You can even see the areas that had previously been dug out by both methods.

The U-505 -now at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry was captured in '43 near Africa and hauled to the Bahamas:

http://www.msichicago.org/exhibit/U505/index.html

I was there last week and it is a pretty cool exhibit -although the rest of the museum is pretty kids oriented. That enigma machine looks a little smaller and lighter than the one on eBay. The whole story of saving the sub from scrap and moving it from the Bahamas to Chicago is an interesting one too.

the sailors captured were held incommunicado in violation of Red Cross and international law because the US did not want the Nazis to know that we might have an enigma machine. Probably justifiable at the time, but one of those slippery slope-type situations like Lincoln jailing journalists under the sedition act....like Gitmo...

-I'm just sayin'

There are lots of real science museums. These are just the ones I've been to, but they're probably all around.

Ontario Science Centre
Chicago science museum
Boston science museum
Ann Arbor Hands on museum

My desk neighbour has a U-505 submarine sitting on his monitor that he got last year at the Museum of Science and Industry. The mold for it is probably 50 years old and still going strong. (By the way, the new exhibition space for the U-505 is worth a trip to Chicago just to see that.)

I know we got at least one - I've seen it. The U505 was captured with Enigma and codebooks intact despite the crew's best efforts to scuttle the sub. It now resides, as I do, in a museum in Chicago :) This was a large part of the story from the movie.

Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry has a beautifully re-vamped exhibit there, they built it it's own underground "pen" to live in. You walk in 3 stories above the bottom of the "drydock" at standing on deck level, then go around a huge spiral ramp outside the craft until you get to the bottom were all the artifacts are.

They have the Enigma there on loan from the NSA, and no, I don't work there.

Have you been to Science and Industry Museum in Chicago? The main floor is so commercial, I can't call it a museum anymore.

The Farm exhibit might as well be called John Deere.
Or the Petroleum Planet. It has a kid-targeted exhibit/game called "41 Days to Glory". Instructions (literal quote):
  "Transport crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the Chicago area in time for the big NASCAR race."

Another quote:

"Our national reserve currently has approximately 150 billion barrels of crude oil - enough for another 70 years".

Umm, yay? Or the Enterprise Exhibit. It features a climbing wall/"adventure game" for small kids (pic). Quote on the wall:

  "Our competitor is suing us over our juggling reindeer campaign. Should we: a) settle the lawsuit? b) go to court?"

So, yes, based on this I'd say we should keep corporate money out of museums.

Have you been to Science and Industry Museum in Chicago? The main floor is so commercial, I can't call it a museum anymore.

The Farm exhibit might as well be called John Deere.
Or the Petroleum Planet. It has a kid-targeted exhibit/game called "41 Days to Glory". Instructions (literal quote):
  "Transport crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the Chicago area in time for the big NASCAR race."

Another quote:

"Our national reserve currently has approximately 150 billion barrels of crude oil - enough for another 70 years".

Umm, yay? Or the Enterprise Exhibit. It features a climbing wall/"adventure game" for small kids (pic). Quote on the wall:

  "Our competitor is suing us over our juggling reindeer campaign. Should we: a) settle the lawsuit? b) go to court?"

So, yes, based on this I'd say we should keep corporate money out of museums.

Have you been to Science and Industry Museum in Chicago? The main floor is so commercial, I can't call it a museum anymore.

The Farm exhibit might as well be called John Deere.
Or the Petroleum Planet. It has a kid-targeted exhibit/game called "41 Days to Glory". Instructions (literal quote):
  "Transport crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the Chicago area in time for the big NASCAR race."

Another quote:

"Our national reserve currently has approximately 150 billion barrels of crude oil - enough for another 70 years".

Umm, yay? Or the Enterprise Exhibit. It features a climbing wall/"adventure game" for small kids (pic). Quote on the wall:

  "Our competitor is suing us over our juggling reindeer campaign. Should we: a) settle the lawsuit? b) go to court?"

So, yes, based on this I'd say we should keep corporate money out of museums.

Have you been to Science and Industry Museum in Chicago? The main floor is so commercial, I can't call it a museum anymore.

The Farm exhibit might as well be called John Deere.
Or the Petroleum Planet. It has a kid-targeted exhibit/game called "41 Days to Glory". Instructions (literal quote):
  "Transport crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the Chicago area in time for the big NASCAR race."

Another quote:

"Our national reserve currently has approximately 150 billion barrels of crude oil - enough for another 70 years".

Umm, yay? Or the Enterprise Exhibit. It features a climbing wall/"adventure game" for small kids (pic). Quote on the wall:

  "Our competitor is suing us over our juggling reindeer campaign. Should we: a) settle the lawsuit? b) go to court?"

So, yes, based on this I'd say we should keep corporate money out of museums.

And if you're in Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry has a great exhibit for a couple more weeks, "Game On". It's a hands-on exhibit and historical/cultural look at video games. From the Museum's website...

"Forty years ago, video games didn't exist. The Nintendo Company made playing cards, Sony made black and white televisions and Sega imported instant photo booths. Families played games by rolling dice or dealing cards."

Cool Exhibit!

The sub (a German vessel captured during WWII in a successful mission to obtain codebooks) is currently not on exhibit because it's been moved to a new underground display area. There's a wealth of information, including video of the move, at the exhibit website.

Is there a "wet smythsonian"?

I certainly agree, but why would they need a "wet Smithsonian"? Get it close on a ship and truck it to the site.

Here in Chicago we have a big-ass WWII German submarine on land in a museum. Yes, it is near Lake Michigan (several hundred meters), but it is definitely on land, now indoors.

I have no idea how it got from the lake to the museum, but this was done 50 years ago, and it is much, much larger than Alvin. I am quite confident Alvin could be dropped on a flatbed and trucked to the main Smithsonian (or whatever museum) quite easily (at least relatively easy compared to the German sub). It is definitely a "wide load", but not much more than one of those pre-fab houses you see on the highway occasionally, and D.C. is accessible to the ocean via the Potomac so you can get darn close by ship and truck it the last several kilometers.

Ultrasonics aren't necessary to delivery focused sound waves. There's a whispering gallery exhibit at chicago's Museum of Science and Industry demonstrates this. The technology is simply to have send and receiver of hte sound at the foci of an ellipsoid. The speaker and listener don't even have to be facing one another.

The Musuem you speak of is the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago...

Thanks for the suggestion. Here is the actual link. (You had a spelling error in your link.)

Any other suggestions?
Gino's East, man. Can't go to Chicago without getting pizza. And what geek visits the Windy City and skips MSI?

And one of the really neat things they have at the Museum of Science and Industry is the U-505 U-boat

Alaska is seen as more outdoorsy than geeky, and it is (thank God). But if you find yourself up here, be sure to check out the Poker Flats rocket launching site. It's the only non-federal, university owned and operated range in the world and the only high-latitude, auroral-zone rocket launching facility in the U.S. You can find a launch schedule at the website, and the personnel are really into it and enthusiastic about what they do.

That said, few geeks are geekier than marine biology geeks, so if you fall into that category you'd probably like the Alaska SeaLife Center, where you can check out sea lions and puffins and things, and check out their research.

Finally, I want to give a shout out to one supergeeky site that someone else mentioned but was somewhat passed over: The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. I visited it when I was just a little mini-Alaskan, and was blown away by all the buttons you get to push, levers to pull, etc. Plus, you get to tour a real German U-Boat. 31337! Or, as I would have said at the time, neato!

Alaska is seen as more outdoorsy than geeky, and it is (thank God). But if you find yourself up here, be sure to check out the Poker Flats rocket launching site. It's the only non-federal, university owned and operated range in the world and the only high-latitude, auroral-zone rocket launching facility in the U.S. You can find a launch schedule at the website, and the personnel are really into it and enthusiastic about what they do.

That said, few geeks are geekier than marine biology geeks, so if you fall into that category you'd probably like the Alaska SeaLife Center, where you can check out sea lions and puffins and things, and check out their research.

Finally, I want to give a shout out to one supergeeky site that someone else mentioned but was somewhat passed over: The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. I visited it when I was just a little mini-Alaskan, and was blown away by all the buttons you get to push, levers to pull, etc. Plus, you get to tour a real German U-Boat. 31337! Or, as I would have said at the time, neato!

• National Museum of American History: Everything from a Morse's original telegraphs, Bell's original telephones, an Enigma, an ENIAC, a Hollorith Tabulating Machine, to a Trash-80 in the Information Age Exhibit located in the lower level
• Air and Space: The Wright Brother's Flyer, the Spirit of St Louis, the X-1, and if you visit after Decemeber of 2003, head out to Dulles Airport to see Udvar Hazy Center which will have even more aircraft including a SR-71, the Enola Gay, and the original space shuttle Enterprise.

In Boston, check out the Computer History Museum

In Chicago

• the Museum of Science and Industry is worth a visit.
• Plus there are plenty of Frank LLoyd Wright buildings to visit.

In the Bay Area there is

• the The Tech Museum in San Jose which is okay but if you plan far enough in advance (reservations are required)
• the Computer Museum History Center in Mountain View is probably the best collection of computers since the 50's.
• Intel has a museum at it's San Jose campus.
• Also dont miss a visit to Weird Stuff in Sunnyvale.

As long as you are in the Chicago area, you might as well check out Fermi Lab (though it looks like security is a little more of a pain recently) and The Museum of Science and Industry.

That's because you probably saw an OMNIMAX (aka ""IMAX DOME") as opposed to an IMAX. The OMNIMAX has a round screen & more immersive experience, but there aren't as many screens or movies out there. Most OMNIMAXes usually just show IMAX movies w/o taking advantage of the larger screen. Same company though, and essentially the same technology.

Try the Museum of Science and Industry. It's famous for a replica of a coal mine, a new model railroad exhibit and lots of other great tech stuff. The best exhibit of all is the U-505. A captured German submarine from WWII.

IMAX is Flat, OMNIMAX is a dome, like here. So is it a Omnimax or Imax?