(NHI Nanoblog) What does Scotch tape have to do with the burgeoning development of super-small devices and materials? This week and next, some local museums are offering you the chance to find out.
Several area museums are celebrating NanoDays 2012 with special events, many of them hands-on and aimed at kids. The larger nationwide effort is shepherded by the National Informal Science Education Network, or NISE Net, a consortium of researchers and science educators.
NanoDays is all about demystifying nanotechnology, explaining its potential — and possible risks — in a basic way. The goal is to foster understanding, along with discussions about the pros and cons of various ultra-tiny materials.
Nanotechnology leverages the often-unique properties of super-small particles (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter) to create products with amazing qualities. These materials can make better batteries or lighter and stronger bike frames, as well as new medical instruments and medicines that can save lives. They’re increasingly common in consumer products, from “mineral-based” sunscreens to stain-repellent pants to boat paints that resist algae growth.
Nanomaterials are believed to hold great promise for a wide variety of applications. But their ultra-tiny size also gives them different properties, and scientists are struggling to figure out whether that can make them dangerous in the process, and how and why it happens.
Opinion surveys show that the average person doesn’t know much about these cutting-edge developments. That’s where NanoDays comes in.
Several Connecticut museums have nano-related activities on their schedules over the next 10 days.
The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History has trained the high school students in its SciCORPS (Science Career Orientation & Readiness Program for Students) to run demonstration booths that give kids and parents the chance to experience nanotechnology. The students will be at the museum’s “Night at the Peabody” event Saturday, which requires a ticket bought in advance.
The students will also run the demonstrations Sunday and the weekend of March 31 and April 1, from the museum’s opening time (10 a.m. on Saturdays, noon on Sundays) until about half an hour before the 5 p.m. closing time.
The nano demonstrations are a little different from the Peabody’s dinosaur skeletons and dioramas. But David Heiser, the museum’s head of education and outreach, said the event fits nicely with its mission.
“We’re a natural history museum, but we’re interested in increasing, in general, scientific literacy amongst the public,” he said.
The Discovery Museum and Planetarium in Bridgeport is celebrating Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum will have more than 20 hands-on stations for kids to check out, including using Scotch tape to create their own nanomaterials and a game called “I Spy Nano,” which challenges players to see how nanomaterials are all around them. (Full details on the event are here.)
Stepping Stones Museum for Children, in Norwalk, is running two schedules. The first began Tuesday and runs through Sunday, and includes a way to glean what’s in sunblock (a common use for nano-sized titanium dioxide and zinc oxide) by rubbing it on black paper. The second slate starts March 27 and runs through April 1, with the exception of March 31, when the museum closes early. Those activities include a way to make your own graphene, a super-thin carbon material.
The Norwalk museum will also offer the “I Spy” game, and some other activities, during both weeks.
In Hartford, the Connecticut Science Center will offer NanoDays activities daily from noon to 3 p.m. The events start Saturday and run through April 1.
Museum spokeswoman Tracy Shirer said the museum will also have a striking visual on display: A balloon replica of an ultra-light, super-small carbon nanotube. Construction will start Saturday and should be finished by Sunday, she said, and the display will stay up through April 1.
