From July 21st to July 24th, 2011, the BioBus was busy attending the Gathering of the Vibes, a four day music festival in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It was a huge hit and as word spread about its powerful microscopes depicting an almost alien world of creatures, people flocked to sneak a peek. A local radio station interviewed Sarah Weisberg about the BioBus, and numerous listeners who heard it on their way to the festival couldn’t wait to see for themselves.
Every morning at 11:00 AM, Dr. Ben and his anxious helpers would visit the water during high tide and collect samples. The samples would be observed throughout the day utilizing the professional microscopes. They were extremely diverse: krill, snails, lipids, barnacles, baby starfish, sand worms, crabs, and hermit crabs were just a few of the organisms collected from the Long Island Sound that fascinated the spectators. Once the festival-goers were taught to use a microscope they would visit the white pail teeming with life and choose what to discover next. A young man stood in awe in front of the screen projecting the magnified barnacles and exclaimed it appeared to be another world—one of the many reactions to seeing organisms that, without a microscope, appeared to be little more than tiny moving specks. Those fascinated by the BioBus would often come back later with companions and introduce them to an unbelievable new way to look at ordinary animals. People of all ages realized that there was so much more in our world than what can be perceived through the naked eye.
—Juliana Castrillon