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Uncover Mysterious Life Of Creatures Large, Small

Adventures await at the Ontario Science Centre, which has an Amazing Aging Machine and electricity demonstrations that will make your hair stand on end.

For 114 days, a team of explorers encountered dangerous rapids, deadly crocodiles and hippos, gunfire from bandits, malaria, and the fierce Sahara sun as they descended the world's longest river—the Nile.

Opened in 1969, the Ontario Science Centre pioneered the concept of the interactive science museum. Photos courtesy of the Ontario Science Centre

You and your family can join them in this chilling descent when you visit the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto in conjunction with APA's 2006 annual meeting. The trip has been captured in an IMAX film shown at the center's OMNIMAX Theatre.

If crocodiles and hippos aren't your style, you can view another IMAX film called "Bugs! A Rainforest Adventure." It provides extraordinary images of those "creepy crawlies," whether they are evolving to maturity or preying or being preyed upon.

Or if insects aren't your passion, you might take in an IMAX film called "The Human Body." It offers film footage of bodily dramas that you never viewed in medical school. For instance, you can view a tomato being blended by the stomach and a red cell zipping through 100 miles of veins and arteries. The film is a combination of live action, computer-generated graphics, microscopy, the latest medical imaging, and cutting-edge cinematic techniques.

Still other titillating adventures await you and your family if you visit the Centre's Weston Family Innovation Centre, Phase One, which opened in March 2005.

It is sort of a scientific Times Square where visitors can explore current science issues—say, avian flu or tsunamis—through multimedia presentations and live updates presented on a stage. Among the more popular displays are "electricity demonstrations with the Van de Graaff generator Hot Spots that are hosted by our science hosts throughout the day," Ellen Flowers, media relations officer for the Ontario Science Centre, told Psychiatric News. These demonstrations will literally make your hair stand on end.

In the Weston Family Innovation Centre, you can also read field diaries from scientists working in various countries. For example, Mike Quinn reported on November 11, 2005, from Zambia, where he was helping sorghum farmers improve their harvests: "On the upside... I get to bomb around on my motorbike," he explained, "but on the flipside, it's hot... and life moves very, very slowly. A meeting scheduled at 9 a.m. happens at 10:30 because time in the rural areas is pretty meaningless, and much of my day consists of sitting under a tree trying not to die from thirst or heat or hunger."

But perhaps the most unusual undertaking you can embark on in the Ontario Science Centre is to enter the Amazing Aging Machine. Located in the Human Body Hall, the machine will show you what you will look like a few years hence. The shock is tempered, however, by the reminder that computer-software aging is not inevitably destiny—that how people care for their bodies over the years can make a big difference as far as the course of aging is concerned.

Altogether the Ontario Science Centre has some 800 interactive exhibits in 10 gargantuan halls, Frommer's 2005 Guide to Toronto points out. So in order to see and enjoy everything, it is a good idea to arrive at the center at opening time.

"It has been called a museum of the 21st century, but it's much more than that," Fodor's 2006 Guide to Toronto declared. "Where else can you stand at the edge of a black hole, work hand-in-clamp with a robot, or land on the moon?"

The Ontario Science Centre is located at 770 Don Mills Road (at the corner of Eglinton Avenue East), about seven miles northeast of downtown Toronto. More information is available by phone at (416) 696-1000; e-mail at call_centre{at}osc.on.ca; or online at <www.ontariosciencecentre.ca>.

The Ontario Science Centre offers hair-raising adventure for kids. Photos courtesy of the Ontario Science Centre

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