Day 6 Manchester Science Festival 2010

Thursday 28^th October. I was at the Manchester Museum, Oxford Road again today, the whole day this time. My contact is the same lady I met last year and I remember her because of her funny name. She, however, didn’t seem to remember me. This years theme at the museum is Chinese Technology. I enjoyed working with 2 other Ambassadors this time, the very quiet, young asian named Ashwin and Becky who likes to get stuck into things. We were told there would be a talk about the history of the museum at 12,30pm and one of us would need to evaluate that. I volunteered though felt a bit mean because I think one of the others should have done it as I had that experience already on Tuesday. However I got picked to do this, probably because I know what to do. Anyway we helped to set up our event which was about silk worms and given a crash course. So we were silk worm experts for the day. There were arts and crafts for the kids to do. They could either make a silk moth or a silk gown. We helped cut out the shapes using a template so that there were plenty of each. Didn’t want to disappoint any of the kids. Two of us, one who was always me lol sat at a small desk near the entrance. We had pictures of the life cycle of the silk moth to talk to the kids about as well as a small glass case containing all the stages of a silk moth from eggs to moth. I learned a few things myself, and the kids seemed genuinely impressed. It was very interesting. The worms can only grow to a maximum of 3mm and their entire diet consists of just one leaf! Their cocoon is composed of the silk and once they have emerged as a moth the cocoon is submerged into water and drawn out as a thread. It is awesome. We have samples of different silk threads to show people too, light fabrics and heavy ones. So at 12.30pm I was lead upstairs to the lecture theatre and introduced to the speaker. To my surprise she was accompanied by a quirky guy I remembered from last year. His very entertaining talk in my favourite pub last year was one of the high spots of the festival for me. I told him this, he thanked my and asked if I wouldn’t mind giving out flyers because he was doing it again tomorrow night. I knew this and had every intention of seeing the talk again. This lunchtime talk was very informative and lasted an hour. It had the odd title of ‘Arguments and umbrella stands: Victorian Manchester’s natural history collections’. It was an interesting history lesson elucidating the origins of today’s collections within this museum. At the end of the talk a mysterious object which had been referred to as ‘the artefact’ was brought into for us all to see. I forget its exact name but it was something like ‘stratological scale’. It was discussed and judging by the questions which were asked, some audience members knew what they were taking about.
Totally a new area for me though this was.

Artefact

 I was sat at the back for the talk itself as I had an evaluation for to fill in for the festival. Chatting to the speaker, and James afterwards I told them I would seem them tomorrow night at his talk. Apparently the talk I’m going to this evening is by a friend of theirs so I shall see them tonight. Back to being a silk moth expert for s while. I had a late lunch and went for a wander. I sauntered along the area behind the Manchester Museum and really enjoyed it as, I’d never been here before, despite living in Manchester for 11 years! The museum is always super busy during the festival but I had a great day. During the afternoon session, I had my name written in Chinese! 

This evening’s talk at The Briton’s Protection was by Manchester University’s Dr Carsten Timmerman. He is a historian of medicine and his talk was entitled: ‘Cigarettes and smoking bans-The science and the history’. For 3 years now smoking has been banned from all enclosed public places in England. This talk deals with 6 decades of concern over the dangers associated with cigarette smoke. He talked about the politics and the epidemiology of it. Dr Richard Doll discovered the link between smoking and cancer. It was many many years before people believed that there actually is such a link.We were invited for a few drinks by todays museum speaker and James. Glynn had to work the following day so we said we would gladly have a drink with them tomorrow night. Another great day at the festival as far as I am concerned. Went home happy

Manchester Science Festival day 5

Day 5, Wednesday 27th October. I was at MOSI all day mostly participating in busking in the upstairs lobby.Late afternoon I evaluated an event called 'seeing is believing' and I went and had a go myself before they cleared everything away. It was weird but amazing! Organised by the British Science Association, this was a combination of art and science allowing us to look at the science behind out of body experiences. I placed by right hand on the table underneath a wooden box where I couldn't see it. On top of this box is a hand made from a rubbery flexible material which simulates my own hand. The lady kept stroking, massaging and rubbing the fake hand. I felt nothing........at first! After a while my actual hand felt as though it was being stroked and manipulated. So it is possible to trick your mind even though I could clearly see the lady playing with the fake on. Oooooh creepy! A sad note was that this was Zena's last day of the fesival, sniff! I had worked with her a fair bit and she was full of fun and a very lovely person. I was sad to see her go as was one of the STEM managers who happened to be around. We hugged and got emotional. I managed to snap this smiley pic of her before she left and was sorry she couldn't make our xmas meal.

After going home to get changed I came back to MOSI, as a member of the audience.Therw was an awesome event happening this evening which concluded the RSC's 350th anniversary celebrations. Four reknowned speakers were invited along to talk about the latest developments in their fields. See photos ;) These research fellows were Prf Andrew Sharrocks discussing biomedicine (cancer research), Prof. Barbara Maher from Lancaster University discussing climate change and enviromental pollution (magnetite particles). The third speaker was Dr. Alexander Oh discussing particle physics. The fourth speaker was from Manchester University and was this years joint Nobel prize winner for physics! Both nobels work at the materials department here and won it for their discovery of graphene in 2004. Dr Konstantine Novoselov spoke about this and he was very funny. Alas Prof. Andre Gheim couldn't be with us this evening. Each talk was very interesting and at the end they formed a panel at the front and answered questions. A most enjoyable evening. Fellow STEM Ambassador and award winner lol Claire was also there.

A geeky meal and awards ceremony.......

Lastnight, tuesday was an amazing night. It was the christmas event for us STEM Ambassadors which is MOSI's way of thanking us for all our hard work at the science festival ;) We all met up at a fantastic indian restaurant which is just near MOSI. It was wonderful to see everyone again, I had hoped for a big turnout. Nice to see happy faces and everybody having fun. The food was fabulous and we had the biggest naan breads I've ever seen! They were served up on a metal rack and placed in the centre of the table where you could just tear a piece off. After the meal were thank you speeches and 3 prizes were given out so it was abit of an awards ceremony really. I was most surprised and thoroughly delighted when the first award winner was me! I hadn't expected it because at the end of the festival itself I was presented with a bottle of red wine for my sterling efforts ;)  Below you can see a photo of the award. Isn't it beautiful? This is for my outstanding dedication during the Manchester Science Festival. I was there for the whole time expect one afternoon. Loved it! This award is now a treasured possession and I am really touched. Thank you MOSI. xxx

The number that is Lady Gaga

Day 4, i.e. Tuesday 26^th October.  Catchy title for a public lecture eh? 

http://www.eee.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/LadyGaga.html

Of the evening events I attended this year, this was far and away my favourite. It was mind blowing! It started at 7pm and was mean’t to be a 90 minute talk but overran. As if that wasn’t a long time to be speaking. It included visuals and audio and covered a whole range of topics including, quantum mechanics, relativity, string theory which left you wondering what this has to do with Lady Gaga. However as Professor Gaydecki. said a few times, all would become clear in the end and have relevance, and it did! It was essentially about digital systems and a breakdown of their  various components and how they work and integrate together (reductionism). It makes you question reality! I guess he could have chosen any artist but of course Lady Gaga is known by the youth of today, and so it would appeal to them.  The show ended with a montage and I think it would be nice to see this on YouTube. It was accompanied by a really touching tune which I’ve heard before but don’t recall the name of the artist. ‘Light up’ I think the song is called. The Prof said that scientists may be good at communicating their subject but not so good at expressing how it makes us feel. That is what the video was mean’t to convey. I am glad I was sat at the back because I felt quite emotional. It featured images such as the Apollo 11 astronaut team, newborn babies. Awesome. Thank you Prof, I shan’t forget this lecture and I do hope that I get to see it again some time. That is, if it doesn’t pop up on YouTube first.  I hope these pictures, give a flavour. 

Days 3 and 4 of the Manchester Science Festival 2010

Day 3, Monday. From 9am until 4.30 pm as usual. I was on the information desk downstairs for the whole morning. This was chilly but fun and I stood up in the end to help customers coming in. We were all given Festival hoodies to wear but alas we weren’t allowed to keep them. After lunch I was sent along to the Super K again. I was thrilled about this of course! I noticed straight away some improvements from the first day. We were better briefed and thus better able to give the public a better experience. It was also explained to them that we were only role playing ;) We all had a go in the boat today. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though still never witnessed the live link to the real thing in Japan. I did take this opportunity to take another awesome photo though. 



Day 4 Saw me spending the morning science busking at MOSI. Again it was cold and we wore the hoodies. We periodically spent the morning doing this just outside the museum too. Shivering fun. Here are the lovely Zena and Becky.

Zena

In the afternoon I was drafted on my ownsome to The Manchester Mueseum where I had a fantastic session seeing some live animals during  what was colloquially named ‘The frog talk’!  The talk was 1 hour long and the kids loved it. I sat at the back, evaluating the talk. It was most enjoyable and as you can see I got some rather nice pictures ;) The guy giving the talk was really, really nice. I hope I’m in just as good shape when I’m his age. I hope you enjoy these photos and manage to get a good look at the animals in them. All sorts of amphibia.

snake!

tiny little leaf frog

I had taken more pix of these beautiful creatures but unfortunately it doesn't seem as though you can get a good look at em. You can always google and visit The Frog Blog!  This talk was given twice this afternoon so I had double the pleasure ;) Thank you to Dr Andrew Gray of the University of Manchester for a wonderful talk. 

Days 1 and 2 of the Manchester Science Festival 2010

Finally, it is here! Day one saturday 23rd october. I have so much to say already. Day one was very exciting and great fun for me. I did both the morning shift (9am start) and the afternoon session so basically I was there from 9 until 4.30pm ;) I arrived early and was keen to check out the new look MOSI which has spent many recent months undergoing refurbishment. It looks wonderful and happily still recognisable. This year we are meeting up every morning in the new Lovell suite to be allocated our event. When I got there, plenty of volunteer’s were there already and I got my first glimpse of this years t-shirt. Bright green! One of the event managers whom I haven’t seen since last year remembered me. The ‘Hi Sarah’ was a nice surprise. I saw a few familiar faces, folks I’d met last year. I wondered if I would. Nice to see them again and so many new STEM Ambassadors. So I received my festival bag and t-shirt along with festival info and proceeded to collect some snacks and bottles of water to see me throughout the day. Time for a coffee and a chat before our general briefing. A high profile event which is in fact headlining this years festival is the Super Kamiokande Sonic Boom! (‘Super K’). I hoped I would at least get to see this sometime. I needn’t have worried. I was told I would be going to the Super K event today and be there for the whole day, so I was happy already! This event was only there for the first half of the festival and the venue was at the Manchester Metropolitan University which I had never been to before so I was curious about this too. The real Super K in Japan is designed to detect Neutrino’s. It looks like this

http://atlasobscura.com/place/super-kamiokande

The replica of this at the festival was made using 1000 gold helium balloons to represent the photomultiplier tubes (PMT). Passengers (representing neutrinos!) were rowed along a pool of water in a small rowing boat with a scientist who explained the physics of and the nature of the Super K project. 

The team. Why is my suit undone?

When we first arrived we were of course shown around and briefed by the lady, Nelly, who had designed this replica and then allocated our roles. We were to be the security team which mean’t wearing tyvek suits, wellies and hard hats. Our passengers would be kitted out with this stuff too.
 

I look more mad scientist than a mean one.

As well as the Super K itself there was a mezzanine floor which was a balcony really so that people could view the installation from above. Also there were a series of short films and a live link to Japan. Alas I never got to see that. There were talks also given by some of the scientists there. We had to do some role playing and were told we had to be unfriendly to the people. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with that and I feel my fellow STEM Ambassadors thought the same thing. I was the oarperson which mean’t sitting at the back of the boat and simulating the rowing motion with my plastic oar. This was great fun and mean’t I heard a lot of science. I couldn’t really row because the water was too shallow and was ultra pure which is apparently dangerous if we touch it anyway. I’m sceptical about that lol. Every 10 minutes the sonic boom went off. This was actually a light simulation of the sonic boom. As the oarperson I was to be the meanest of all. I wasn’t allowed to smile at all or speak to any members of the public. Fortunately only 2 families asked me questions, just after lunch. I felt abit mean but better than being told off by Nelly! 

There was a film crew there the whole time and I was excited about either being on the news this evening or ending up on Youtube. However, it turns out it was for french television so there’s a good chance I’ll never see it. That’s probably for the best lol. I was asked to film a specific scene too. It was of me turning the water pump handle just before getting passengers into the boat. It needed 2 takes as I was too fast the first time. All in all a good start to the festival for me, I enjoyed meeting and working with new people. I felt quite tired surprisingly early but then it was completely dark with no windows. There were some teething problems which you would expect on the first day. I felt our briefing was rushed and it was taking too long to get people through it. Things did sort themselves out though I believe.   I hope I have enough energy for the rest of the week.

Day 2 Sunday 24^th October. This was the only time during the whole festival when I wasn’t there for the whole day. I was sent to the MMU again with 2 lovely young scientists Zena and Jordan whom I worked with quite a bit and we had a lot of fun. I enjoyed it at least. I enjoy busking and soon got into it again. I was disappointed that we wouldn’t be doing the lava lamp demo this year. As a chemist it is my favourite. We still had a blast though. It was rather quiet too so they decided not to do any busking there in the afternoon anyway. We did meet a couple of lovely and very funny men who work at the university. One was a Jamaican ex NASA mathematician and the other guy had done a lot of things including acting. Happy memories. There was a robot dog there too who was very cute as you can see from the photo’s. 

 

They still don’t know everything about it. Does it know its name? (Oh no I’ve forgotten it. There is something to be said for writing a blog entry as soon as possible! lol) Does it even respond to sound? It had some cute moves though. I went home at lunchtime after another happy day ready for the hectic but fun week ahead. I love science festivals. Back soon with news of day 3 xxx

Manchester Science Festival 2010

It will soon be here! Put these dates in your diaries 23-31 October. I am excited and looking forward to actively participating in my second science festival as a STEM Ambassador. As usual this takes place over the half term holidays giving parents and their kids alike an opportunity to find out how science is really done. So come along and see for yourselves how fun science really is and we also hope to dispel any misconceptions you may have about scientists too ;) Anyone can have a career in it if they want to! We want to inspire you. See here for the full list of events taking place in the Manchester area

http://www.manchestersciencefestival.com/

and look out for our science buskers all over the area too. They will give you demo’s which show how much fun science is and a taster of what you can expect at the festival. They are identifiable by their matching brightly coloured shirts. I don’t yet know what colour they are this year, though some people might. Last year was my first one and I found it awesome which is why I’m doing it again. Its wonderful to meet like minded enthusiastic people too. You will be able to pick up a programme from the festival and most events do take place at The Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in the centre of Manchester. Speaking of programmes, I’ve just received by schedule for it and I will be there for most of it. Hope as well as doing my job I get a glimpse of some of the events. If you see me, Sarah, there, please do come up and say hi ;) Most importantly of all, enjoy and learn :D You will find out about the latest research going on and perhaps see some well known faces. I will be back with more festival news/updates in the near future. Over and out x