By Alison Luk
Imagine the thundering footsteps of hundreds of enthusiastic young scientists running towards you… Wave after wave of students swarmed towards the booths at the Australian Museum like microbial chemotaxis. Last year, over 7000 students attended events at the museum during the festival! As alarming as that sounds, the JAMS booth was well equipped to handle the situation. We presented a collection of microbial wonders: pond life whizzing around under the microscope, microbial colonies growing on agar plates, microbes immortalised as plushies, story books starring microbial protagonists, and the student’s choice – a hand-held microscope.
The hidden world around us
From the fabric weave of your clothes to the scab on your arm, everything looks amazingly different when magnified 200 times. Who hasn’t secretly wondered what their nostrils look like to a tiny insect? The hand-held microscope was undoubtedly the favourite. Friends compared dirt on their hands, while the teachers were on a mission to screen for nits on their students.
The giant microbe plushies were informative as well as adorable. Although it’s not unusual to hear someone saying, “I want botox”, having young children ask if they can bring dengue and gangrene home was something different. It was definitely a smart decision to have the plushies tied down to the table!
Apart from the activities at the booth, one of the highlights was seeing the look on student’s faces when we told them that they are more microbe than human. Overall, our three-hour shift at the JAMS booth consisted of answering endless strings of questions, “What is this?”, “How about this one?”, “What does this do?”. For me, the best part was seeing students pull their friends over, shouting, “Look, this is so cool!”
Celebration of Science
With over 200 events during Science Week this year in Sydney, it was difficult to choose which amazing science talks and hands-on events to attend. At the Australian Museum, my personal favourites were seeing quirky new designs in 3D printing and admiring frogs chilling out on branches. Although many events were geared towards encouraging the next generation of scientists, I will admit that I shamelessly waited in line in the middle of young kids to have a go as well! Looking forward to the Science Festival next year, hope to see you there!
Alison Luk is a PhD candidate in microbiology at The University of Sydney. When she isn’t out advocating for microbes, Alison is busy researching how to feed our microbial selves.
