On the science museum, part of my view, I think, is that HMNS is trying to do what two different Chicago museums are covering: the Field Museum (classic archaeology / natural science) and the Museum of Science and Industry (modern science, and technology of the industrial revolution to present).
The Chicago Field Museum is a classic "natural science" museum: a very large, multistory lobby greets you, with a monumental dinosaur reconstruction. The building is also impressive, from some century-ago world's fair. The rest of the exhibits, on the other hand, range from good to being quite obviously 100 years old with no love given in the preceding century (sometimes this is nice and quaint, sometimes annoying). It feels more impressive to me than HMNS, but HMNS might have better exhibits. The latter certainly has a nice gem collection.
But if you want something more sciencey, the Museum of Science and Industry is really nice. There's an entire simulation of a coal mine you can go down into, exhibits on the history of trains, on urban history, and on the history of agriculture, and even a captured German U-505 submarine. It was definitely my favorite museum as a kid, and I didn't find much like it in Houston.
The Chicago Field Museum is a classic "natural science" museum: a very large, multistory lobby greets you, with a monumental dinosaur reconstruction. The building is also impressive, from some century-ago world's fair. The rest of the exhibits, on the other hand, range from good to being quite obviously 100 years old with no love given in the preceding century (sometimes this is nice and quaint, sometimes annoying). It feels more impressive to me than HMNS, but HMNS might have better exhibits. The latter certainly has a nice gem collection.
But if you want something more sciencey, the Museum of Science and Industry is really nice. There's an entire simulation of a coal mine you can go down into, exhibits on the history of trains, on urban history, and on the history of agriculture, and even a captured German U-505 submarine. It was definitely my favorite museum as a kid, and I didn't find much like it in Houston.