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!
