The BioBus Daily News

In the first day of our fundraising drive to fix the BioBus engine, you’ve blown me away with your support: 46 of you gave $4375 in less than 24 hours!! We’ve received donations ranging from $10 to $1000, and everyone is playing their part in getting the BioBus back on the road again. Please donate if you have not yet:

http://biobus.org/donate/

Several people have asked me if it makes sense to put this kind of money into an old bus. I’ve thought hard about it, and it does. Thanks to the blessed weather of the Bay Area (its former home), the body of the BioBus is in fantastic shape, as confirmed by multiple mechanics. The transmission was rebuilt after driving East in 2008, which should last a million miles with proper care. Then there is all the work that’s in the BioBus: paint, insulated walls, rubber floors, woodwork, electrical system, ceiling fans, plumbing, solar panels, microscope stations, wind turbine, roof garden, sky lights, and the list goes on. Sure, we could move some of that stuff to another bus, but it would take three months of labor at least, and would probably end up costing $10,000 or more on its own. And, even if you buy another old bus (trust me, we can’t afford a new one), you never know how long its engine is going to last.

So, if you haven’t donated yet, please help us get the BioBus back on the road, helping kids make movies like this one:

http://biobus.org/donate/

The BioBus is having an engine emergency, and we need your help.

Broken Down on the Side of the Road

It all started on our cross-country trip to Chicago, when a radiator valve failed, causing a coolant line to burst, and overheating our engine. In the process, we damaged multiple pistons, cylinder liners, and main bearings in our engine. We limped the bus to the N&W garage in Columbus Ohio, loaded our microscopes into a U-Haul, and setup tables on the floor of the Chicago Convention Center for the annual Biotechnology Industry convention. Folks there loved our microscopes, but everyone wanted to know, “where is the BioBus?” My heart was broken.

The folks in Columbus got us back on the road, and we managed our way back to NYC, hoping that the situation might improve. But the engine has only started smoking worse from oil that is being pushed past burned up cylinder seals. We have been told we’ll need at least $11,000 to properly fix the engine.

Burnt Cylinders

Since I started the BioBus, I’ve partnered with scientists across NYC and the country to create a unique science learning platform. We’ve engaged over 20,000 minds, primarily in economically disadvantaged communities, to think about life, about the environment, and about everyday materials around them in new and fascinating ways. The BioBus has been mine  dream come true, and it makes my stomach turn to think this dream might end just as we’re getting started. Our schedule is already filling up for next fall, and we’re developing a group of new lessons focusing on climate change, algae species, and materials science.

Several different mechanics have inspected the bus and have assured me that it is in great shape, except for the engine. With your help, the rebuilt engine will move BioBus science another 500,000 miles forward. I believe the investment is worth it, and I hope you do to. For science; for education; for the BioBus: I need your help.

http://biobus.org/donate/

Thank you for your support.
Ben

A thousand people explored science on the BioBus last Sunday at the World Science Festival, learning about the nature of life, physics, and green technology.

Inside the BioBus, Dr. Ben led hundreds of enraptured families over the course of the day  in an experiment called watching paint dry. Normally an activity reserved for the meditative or extremely bored, paint drying under the microscope reveals a flurry of latex particles held in aqueous suspension. As the water evaporates, latex particles rapidly coalesce onto the advancing, ‘drying’ edge, as you can see in this video recorded aboard the BioBus. Developed in collaboration with faculty and students at NYU’s new Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, watching paint dry is a wonderful example of how the BioBus can give regular, curious people dramatic experimental insights about the physical world around them.

Outside of the BioBus, the New York Microscopical Society (NYMS), gave hundreds of curious passers-by the opportunity to observe water bears, paramecia, algae, fossils, and insects under the microscope. NYMS volunteers braved gusting winds and huge crowds of children exciting to use their simple, durable, easy to use microscopes.

Meanwhile, at the back of the bus, Marco Castro and his team showed off the flourishing green roof recently built on top of the BioBus, giving New Yorkers a glimpse of a green technology that could some day cool our city down on hot, summer days. Marco, a graduate student at NYU, helped build the green roof as part of his ‘Bus Roots’ thesis. The roof has already survived several thousand miles of driving during our recent cross country tour, and seems to be here to stay.

BioBus Green Roof

Thanks to everyone who came out to see the BioBus, our energetic volunteers, and the World Science Festival organizers for bringing us to this wonderful, public science celebration. Also, thanks to Shahrzad Noobaloochi for writing nice things about Dr. Ben and the BioBus!

Is the BioBus good?

Could someone please add a comment that the BioBus uses waste vegetable oil, which is definitely good?

The Scientist Magazine has a really thoughtful article in their current issue about mentoring minority students and researchers. I’m beginning development of a full-fledged mentorship program for the many talented and driven students I meet on the BioBus.  Articles like this one have been helpful in shaping my thoughts, and I would greatly appreciate anyone who has other articles, resources, or know people who you think are running really top-notch science mentoring programs, to please send the info my way. Thanks!

Oh, and check out this cool movie of a Daphnia’s Heart Beating that students made recently on the BioBus. We just received a generous donation of a pretty high speed laptop that should make future movies a little less jumpy!

The BioBus along with 8 students from the Community Health Academy of the Heights (CHAH) were featured in two, three minute long T.V. segments that aired live on the Japanese national network NHK yesterday. Below are some photos I took from the scene – as soon as the piece goes onto the web I will be sure to post it here. While I understand only a handful of words of Japanese, Ms. Udo, the anchor, explained to us what the segment was about. “Japanese scientists spend all of their time in the lab,” she explained. “We hope that the BioBus will give them some inspiration to get out of the lab and do their own outreach to the community.” Thank you, Ms. Udo and the entire NHK staff for your attention and for an unforgettable experience. I hope to see a BioBus full of Japanese scientists this time next year!

Ric and I rounded out the BioBus 2009 Mid-West tour back in NYC today at Angelo Patri Middle School in the Bronx. We had a great day with 4 different classes – the first classes on the BioBus in its new configuration. The refurbished BioBus not only looks really nice, but is much more functional. We have room for many more students in both the front and the back of the bus, and everyone is more comfortable. Also, I know have a big whiteboard space at the front to use in my lessons. I will post some pictures of actual students on the BioBus soon, but below are some unpeopled shots of the interior.

Another exciting development – I might be on live Japanese television next week. Did I mention we’re big in Japan? (Sorry, lame joke, but I’ve always wanted to say that.) It will probably be either this coming Thursday or the Thursday at between 5 and 6pm. So, if you are a school-age student or you know any school age students who would like a mini-lesson on the BioBus at that time and want to be famous in Japan, let me know.

Often people ask me – is it difficult to find grease to put into the BioBus fuel tanks? Well, Sunday I spent the day wandering around Columbus. Started out downtown, where I confirmed the rumors of good breakfast at First Watch, a nice relaxed joint in German Village. I then headed North to the Buckeye Hall of Fame, meeting Donovan and his girlfriend’s father to watch the Browns lose to the Steelers – the football waas bad, but the conversation was good. Next I headed to the COSI ScienceCcenter, a science museum in downtown Columbus, which was on my itinerary last year but was skipped because I was busy working on the grease system.

COSI is great, and busy too! One of the coolest exhibits was where you get to play with a real time digital effects processor – someone else stands on stage and you get to make them look grainy, gigantically big, and walking through a snowstorm. Big foot! Not sure if Werner Herzog would approve, but it was fun. Stopped by the museum shop to pick up a mineral set to look at under the microscopes on the BioBus, and talked to some of the staff about possible collaboration the next time the BioBus is in town. They were very excited about the idea.

Columbus is in the process of building a river walk, and they are making very nice progress. A neat new pedestrian bridge, nice paths, parks, and sculpture are coming together to bring folks to the water – something I love and that I admire a lot in a city. I hope that NYC continues its public redevelopment of water-front. It is bizarre that in much of NYC you can easily forget you live on a small island surrounded by water. I watched another nice sunset while sitting on the side of the river – Columbus seems to have an inordinate number of beautiful sunsets.

The only negative side of the river-front development in Columbus is that it adjoins the business section of downtown Columbus, which is, as expected, totally lifeless on a Sunday evening. So I hopped back in the van lent to me by the Farber’s and drove further north on High Street to a neighborhood adjacent to Ohio State. Seeing a cool looking Thai restaurant, I stepped in, and being alone, sat at the bar. I quickly entered into a conversation with what turned out to be two local business owners, including Chor, the owner of the restaurant.

The food was great, and Chor is very excited for me to come back for the 80 gallons of clean vegetable oil behind her restaurant. Score! I replaced a seal in the grease pump head, so that’s working again, and 80 gallons of veg should get me all the way back to NYC.

Can’t wait to see what progress Farber makes tomorrow, I’ll be sure to post the pics as they come in.

Check out Channel 1′s super cool piece on the BioBus that came out today. Channel 1 is a high school news network that reaches millions of high school students and their teachers every day. We’ve been getting lots of nice messages from folks across the country who saw the piece, from Debra in Texas to Scott in Arizona to Nancy in Tennessee. We might have to make the next tour national! Also, you can vote for the BioBus as your favorite eco-ride – but don’t worry, $10,000 is not at stake this time.

Ric and I were in Akron today for the final day of teaching on this tour at Coventry High School. It was a really nice day, especially because the students are on a block schedule, which means I had extra time with relatively small groups of students. Ms. Phillips, our host teacher at the school, made sure everything went smoothly, and even lent us her car to go grab some lunch! We also discovered that the eggs of the pregnant cyclops picture in an earlier post has hatched into about a dozen babies. I am so proud. Also, I’m looking forward to reading the article about the BioBus that should appear soon in the Akron Beacon Journal.

Some bad news – while we found a really great dumpster full of waste grease behind the Chinese Buffet across from the high school, after a few minutes of pumping the motor on our grease sucking rig started to malfunction. So we currently don’t have enough grease to make it back to NYC. However, I have 6 days in Columbus while the Farber Specialty Coach folks work on remodeling the BioBus interior, perhaps I’ll be able to get things patched up and find some local grease for the ride home.

Finally, sadly, the fellowship is broken – Ric rode back to NYC today. He had originally planned to return with the BioBus, but since I extended the trip by a week to stay at the Farber shop, that turned out to be impossible. We made a great team on this tour and accomplished everything we hoped for and more. We’re already looking forward to the next adventure, but seeing that the snow is already starting to move in, that won’t likely happen until the Spring.

Dr. Ben and I had a wonderful time in Champaign and Urbana, Illinois!  On Monday, Ben was interviewed live on morning television for the local news channel.  Today we taught eight classes at Leal Elementary school, where Ben’s brother Alex attended classes as a kid!  After that, we headed over to Countryside School in Champaign where we saw almost 60 kids.  We spent all day looking at Daphnia and talking about the energy cycle / food chain.  We had some really nice sun and made a lot of electricity in our solar panels!

Now we are headed back East, where we will make a stop at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and again at Farber Custom Coach in Columbus, OH before heading to a school in Akron on Thursday.  We are looking forward to getting some new equipment for interior improvements to the bus from the generous folks at Farber.  For now, though, it’s the open roads of Southern Indiana, and travelling always makes me wax poetic..

The highway stretches before us like an artery in this great organism called America, trucks and cells passing silently in the night.  The nation – the world, even – is like some living, breathing beast; each person within is but a single piece of the creature.  Each cell has its job to do.  Liver cells, kidney cells – these remain stationary, performing their function time and time again.  But blood cells, lymph cells, and other types of motile cells take to the road, moving through the highways of the organ systems, transmitting goods, food, supplies, nutrients.  The neural pathways connect us almost instantaneously over great distances, keeping us in touch with friends and family and allowing business to occur despite spacial differences.  The lack of a centralized ” brain” does not prevent our world from functioning – indeed, it gives us strength.  We are many brains and we are one; with redundancy upon systemic redundancy, our survival is ensured.

The study of life always amazes me.  The parallels that can be drawn, from inorganic molecules all the way up to the most complex animals, seem infinite in either direction.  Just as you and I have organs in our bodies, every single cell within those organs has organelles of its own.  Those organelles, in turn, are made up of different types of specialized molecular structures, each of which is made up of unique atomic structures.  Consider a city as a living thing – each factory, each home, each school and office building and grocery store is an organ.  Those organs are made up of living cells.  And just as the cells within our bodies create extracellular materials with which to work, we create the buildings and tools that allow us to function as a society.  There are so many levels of life.

When one paints a picture of life with this broad view in mind, it is difficult not to love and respect all living things.  As I said today to the students at Leal, all living things depend on the other.  Your kidneys can’t function when your liver fails, and your heart can’t pump if your lungs aren’t working.  When the deserts flood the rainforests dry up, and even the insects wouldn’t be happy without the spiders that eat them.  We are all part of a whole; mutual respect is necessary.

R.