Erica Tunick, H.S. science teacher, as quoted by Andrea Cardia for Scientific American

It’s official: together we’ve raised $11,000, and the BioBus engine repairs have been paid for. The BioBus is on the road again, visiting summer camps, teacher trainings, and festivals, making sure everyone gets a chance to see how cool science is, even on these hot summer days. If you’d like to hear our roaring new engine, we have a number of public events coming up in September; we’ll email the final dates soon. And special thanks to Science House for giving us the matching grant that drove us to our goal.

New engine and a new name. We’ve long since moved beyond just biology; our students explore topics ranging from physiology to physics, from pond water to paint particles, with more topics to come. I look forward to announcing our new name in early fall.

However, these changes are more than skin deep. It’s time for this project to mature beyond being what some have described as “The Dr. Ben Show,” and we’ve got two new volunteer staff members, Sarah and Marco, to help make that happen. Sarah and Marco will be taking over some of the day-to-day operations, leaving more time to grow with an eye to the future. We’ve even got another bus in the works! Sarah and Marco are also leading BioBus science outreach team, a new paradigm for creating cutting edge outreach programs.

Excited?! Join a science outreach team!

* Energy & Climate Change (Marco is team leader)
* Cell Biology & Microbiology (Sarah is team leader, and what a team!)
* Materials science (Ben is team leader)
* Neuroscience (Great, active group, but needs a leader)
* Mathematics (New group, can you be the team leader?)
* Algae (New collaboration with the New York Botanical Garden, needs a team leader)
* Molecular biology (New group with DIYBio)

Here’s that link again: http://biobus.org/volunteer/

Science teams are groups of scientists, educators, artists, grant writers, and anyone with a passion for science education. Teams develop experiments and lessons for the BioBus, perform press outreach, write grants, teach on the BioBus, and more. Our science teams have proven to be a really fun way to get a lot of work done in a collaborative environment. Please join us by giving us a little info that will help us connect you with a team:

http://biobus.org/volunteer/

Even if you’ve volunteered with us before, I would be grateful if you could fill out this new form. And please, forward this link along to any friends or colleagues who might also want to work to change the face of science outreach!

With Gratitude,
Ben

Four days ago, I asked you to help raise $11,000 to fix the BioBus engine. Since then, fifty four BioBus believers have given what they could – $10, $20, $50, $100, $200, even two gifts of $1000 – totaling $5,680. We’re halfway to our goal!

http://biobus.org/donate/

Students are transformed onboard the BioBus. They discover, alongside real scientists, that they are capable of exploring and understanding the microscopic world using research equipment. Students who tell me “science is boring” at the beginning of the lesson are jockeying for more ‘scope time by the end. For almost all students, the BioBus experience positively changes their attitudes toward science. For others, like Taccara at Frederick Douglas Academy III in the Bronx who wants to be a cell biologist after recording a bacterium dividing aboard the BioBus, the BioBus leads to new life aspirations. Here is her movie:

The BioBus cannot continue its mission without your help. No donation is too small; please pledge your support today by visiting:

http://biobus.org/donate

I’d also like to thank you for telling your family, friends, and colleagues about our emergency fundraiser. We’ve received a number of donations this way, so please continue to spread the word! And remember, continue to check out updates on the BioBus Blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

Thank You,
Ben

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/

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

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!

BioBusBen

Stephen, Ben, and Latasha discuss lab procedure

Last Wednesday afternoon, Stephen Colbert stepped on the BioBus to have his cells “immortalized.”  Using the same research microscopes we use to teach thousand students a year aboard the BioBus, I captured several time-lapse videos of Colbert’s crawling white blood cells. Working on-location outside underprivileged schools in the Bronx and across the country is our specialty – this time we just happened to be outside the studios of the Colbert Report! I was assisted by two BioBus Visiting Scientists, Lynn Biderman of Columbia Univ. and Latasha Wright of Cornell Medical Center, who are adept at getting celebrities and BioBus students alike excited about science. Thanks for your help, Lynn and Latasha.

We were rewarded for our work with front row seats to last nights screening of the Colbert Report. The videos we captured using the high-power microscopes and digital cameras aboard the BioBus were featured in an interview segment on last night’s show. Mr. Colbert interviewed Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a book discussing ‘immortality’ found in the unauthorized harvesting and reproduction of cells from an African-American tobacco farmer in 1951.  Those cells can now be found in labs across the country, and have been used for genetic research ranging from mapping the human genome to finding a cure for cancer.  Though I did not immortalize Colbert’s living cells (one of the issues the book deals with is the legality of keeping someone’s cellular materiel), he captured them in another way that may last even longer! Check out the clip below, and remember, while getting a mention of TV is nice, we need support from you to keep the BioBus rolling.

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