Saint Louis Science Center — Attraction in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS SCIENCE CENTER: A BEAUTIFUL BASTARDIZATION OF REALITY AND WONDER

It was sometime between noon and complete mental breakdown when I found myself standing under a godforsaken fiberglass Tyrannosaurus Rex, its eyes full of plastic fury and synthetic majesty, its claws beckoning me into a prehistoric hallucination. I lit a cigarette—forgot where I was—and remembered only when a kind Midwestern volunteer in a lab coat smiled sweetly and said, “Sir, you can’t smoke in here.” This was no ordinary place. This was the St. Louis Science Center. A temple to human curiosity. A madhouse of joy and education. A cathedral to madness wrapped in a planetarium dome.

You can’t just visit this place—you submit to it. You surrender. You strap yourself in like it’s a Saturn V and hope you don’t come out the other side with your brain peeled like a banana.

First stop: the Planetarium.

A slick, dark cave of cosmic seduction where you lie on your back and let Carl Sagan’s dreams pour into your corneas like intergalactic absinthe. The voiceover was something between Morgan Freeman and God’s younger cousin with a communications degree—smooth, relentless, and oddly arousing. The stars twisted and danced in the ceiling like LSD-laced fireflies, explaining the cold and merciless beauty of the cosmos to a crowd of children and half-sober parents trying to remember if Pluto was a planet or a punchline.

Then there was the bridge. The damn bridge.

A science fiction hallway over a highway—literally! Built over I-64 like some futuristic observation deck from a Bradbury fever dream, complete with radar guns and floor windows so you can look down and watch your dignity plummet into the traffic below. I caught myself clocking cars like some narcotics-fueled highway patrolman. “That blue Corolla is doing eighty,” I whispered to no one. A grandmother in a Cardinals hoodie nodded knowingly. “They always do.”

Robots. Drones. VR headsets.

I spent twenty minutes fighting a virtual wildfire while sweating through my shirt and praying I wasn’t being filmed. A child named Brayden asked if I was “okay, mister.” No, Brayden. I am not okay. I’m in a warehouse full of intelligent machines, mechanical dinosaurs, a physics playground, and more interactive exhibits than the Pentagon could explain. I had a flashback to a government blacksite in Nevada and nearly tried to interrogate the Mars Rover exhibit.

And the BodyWorks Lab? Sweet mercy.

Rubber organs. Touchscreens with pumping hearts. A plastic colon the size of a Buick. I lost my mind somewhere around the third interactive digestion station. Kids were gleefully crawling through a giant ear canal like it was the McDonald’s PlayPlace of Anatomy. “We’re learning!” they cried. I saw the light leave a father’s eyes when his child asked, “What’s a rectum?”

Gift shop? Hell yes.

It’s like if NASA and a toy store had a baby and raised it on quantum theory and Pop Rocks. I bought a Newton’s Cradle, a pair of astronaut socks, and a book called The Quantum Universe for Dogs. I don’t even own a dog.

Final thoughts, if such things exist:

The St. Louis Science Center is a riot of electrons and sugar-fueled enlightenment, a place where the boundaries between education and entertainment melt like crayons on a Missouri sidewalk. It is not for the faint of heart or the poorly caffeinated. It is loud, chaotic, brilliant, and exactly what science should be—fun, terrifying, and completely out of control.

I went in seeking information. I came out reborn in static electricity and Cheeto dust, muttering something about gravitational waves and static friction. Five stars. Would recommend. Just bring caffeine, courage, and maybe a...

I love the St. Louis Science Center. It's located in Forest Park and had free admission. There is a charge for special exhibits. I went to First Friday last night and had a ball. Every first Friday of the month the Science Center is open past there regular close time at 5pm and stays open until about 10pm. I saw the Live in the Sky last night which was free admission because it was 1st Friday. Every 1st Friday has a different theme and last night it was a movie making theme. There was various schools there educating us on how to create a film from start to finish...lighting, story telling, sound and actually playing a short role in your own film. All this and other exhibits were free last night as is every 1st Friday. There was various vendors present as well and of course food and snacks for purchase at the Science Center. We parked for free at the Planetarium's parking lot. There's a few cool exhibits outside before entering the Science Center. This place is awesome for any age kid at heart. They now sell alcohol for adults. There are 2 gift shops as well located inside the Planetarium and the other in the main building. There's an awesome section called Grow. This is an outside garden area where the Science Center grows food that is uses at its eateries. Very sustainable from the garden to the table. They even have live chickens and roosters with various stations that show you how to milk a cow and the use a tractors. Take pics with all of this and everything inside of the Science Center. There are 2 virtual reality rides inside in the Planetarium building. There is a fee for these rides and they're fun as I experienced one last year. It was awesome. The Omnimax is a huge circular movie theatre inside the Science Center. It's the biggest screen I've ever seen and they have various movies showing for a fee. This place is a...

Had an awesome time at the St. Louis Science Center! Honestly, I wish we had gotten there earlier in the day so we could have had more time to explore all the exhibits.

Shout out to Tyreka in the Planetarium Section's gift shop. She's an awesome person and made checking out pleasant.

Another shout out to Cheyenne in the body/saltwater aquarium/turtle/x-ray/frog/salamander/axolotl exhibit area. She expanded my knowledge of human anatomy, helped me learn how to read x-rays more proficiently, educated me on the anatomy of a sea urchin that they had in the tank (what the orange spot on it's head is 😂, and what the white spots around its head are (hint, it gives a sea urchin 360° vision)).

They have a new Game Exhibit section where you can play the first computer game ever designed, play through level 1 of super mario bros nintendo with a friend on a giant controller, play hungry, hungry dragons on a floor through VR projection and much more. Hand sanitizer locations were everywhere and everyone over the age of 5 was required to wear a mask.

Parking at the museum itself is $10. If the lot is full, there is street parking within walking distance. Entry to the museum is free. They do have paid attractions indoors for more immersive experiences.

All proceeds from the gift shop goes to supporting the museum, so be sure to grab some sick merch on...