ongoing - through Tues. Jan. 1

 True story. We’re not making this up, as Dave Barry used to say. We  - my wife Roza and I – are en route to “CSI: The Experience” exhibit at the Museum of Science, when, along Memorial Drive, we spot six Cambridge black-and-whites pulled over to the side of the road, and three cops with guns drawn, searching the shrubbery for … well, we don’t know. But it was a crime scene investigation. We drove past to the MoS and then asked the staff whether it was all a plant to whet interest on press night.
It was not. But it did get us even more in the mood for this multi-media interactive event very much based on the hit show(s). Now, I can solve virtually none of the various cases presented on CBS’s “CSI” and its spinoff shows. Never figure ‘em out. Always amazed at the stealth of the criminals and the cleverness of the investigators.  But at the Museum of Science, I am a star – well at least a qualified “rookie crime scene investigator” – after I complete a tour of “CSI: The Experience,” a merger of pop culture and science. (I’ll explain how later.) Now, if you scoff at the merge – and a little bit of me does – think back to seeing the dinosaurs at the same place when you were a kid. Was that not similar? Is this not related to that? (You reel ‘em in with the “sexy” hot subject, maybe they stick around for more. And every museum is doing this sort of thing.) Plus, I’m a fan of the TV show and was even when CBS launched it in the Friday night dead zone, eons ago, and had a much lower budget.
At the Museum of Science, “CSI” series creator Anthony E. Zuiker welcomes you on film and explains what inspired him. A real life scientist then explains the science in the exhibit. Finally, Gil Grissom – the show’s co-producer and lead actor William Petersen – issues the challenge to solve a case, reminding us, as he does so often on the show, “The dead can’t speak for themselves.” So true. And now we are Nancy Drew or one of the Hardy Boys, armed with modern technology.

We are assigned one of three “cases” to solve using digital evidence, latent prints, impression evidence, toxicology/drug chemistry, forensic entymology and forensic biology/DNA. Or at least those were on our list after we walked in to find this woman “Penny” lying dead outside a hotel dumpster, with a white packet of what we assume to be drugs outside her body. We note other clues: a broken cell phone, a tire tread mark across her stomach, her torn up “actress” photo, her purse. … We move on through the assembly line, building up our roster of clues, through the help of the friendly computers. And believe me, they pretty much walk you through it. You’d have to be a bit of an idiot to not add up the clues, and figure out the victim’s real identity, parents and likely killer. (There’s an autopsy involved, but don’t fret – it’s pretty benign and you don’t do any of it.) It’s kind of giddy fun – all this matching up of this and that - and you can spend more time with the real-life MoS humans who explain things about DNA and skeletal remains. Oh, and when I say “fun,” I mean in the fictional way, the same way we watch the show. Real crimes: hideous. TV/museum crime: entertainment, coupled to a “There but for the Grace of God …” undercurrent. Few plan think their destiny is to be a violent crime victim after all.
One more point: The exhibit doesn’t reference what’s become a real issue in the courts. Modern juries – glued to “CSI” – demand DNA evidence and other high-tech stuff they’ve seen on TV. This is not the reality in most crime labs, of course. Martin Dekker, CEO of the local (Waltham) presenter, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., told us, “What you do see in the laboratory work is very authentic … and it allows young minds to get more interested in science.” His press guy, Scott Bauman, added – re, the jury question – that “CSI” has allowed police departments the latitude to request more high-tech gear to solve crimes and be heard by those controlling the purse strings.
It all winds up  New Year’s Day. Check their website for details. Entrance to the exhibit is $23, and gets you into other Exhibit Halls, too.

Science Park, 617-723-2500  www.mos.org