Last week, I managed to brave the weather to join the fun at Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI). One of the coolest parts of this year’s Science Festival is Aravind Vijayaraghavan’s idea of building a huge model of graphene, with the help of museum visitors such as myself. Graphene- a material stronger than steel, more flexible than rubber and more conductive than rubber, is discovered in Manchester by Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov. Both scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physicsin 2010 for their discovery of the said material. Here’s how we created the gigantic model:
First, we were given a template and pieces of plastic tubes and ‘joints’:
We then assemble the parts to resemble the template:
We then gave our finished ‘bit’ of the model to the people in charge, who then gave them to the people who built the model outdoor:
I never got to see the finished product, but doing my bit was a lot of fun!
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Next up, I visited the Ice Lab exhibition, which is also in the same museum. This exhibition, which runs until 6 January 2014, shows the architecture and different research that are being conducted in Antartica. Visitors can learn about how the buildings and research facilities are made and what considerations are taken when planning and building them. It also gives the visitors the chance to experience the sounds and other sensations that one might experience in Antartica. Here are some pictures:
Iceberg Living Station:
Bharati Larsemann Hills:
If you haven’t yet, make sure to check out Ice lab and other exhibitions at the Museum of Science and Industry at Manchester! Click here to visit their website: www.mosi.org.uk
Understanding and Embracing Diversity 