#lifesciencecentre

[wildlife-renegade]

Attending the ORCA marine mammal training course today! #orca #orcaweb #lifesciencecentre #lifecenter #newcastlelifecentre #marinemammals #whale #dolphins #seals https://www.instagram.com/p/B4o7wKFnYSn/?igshid=2i2ogeogcw6b

[uglybugscribbles]

Kind of want one as a pet 😄😄 #lifesciencecentre #dinosaurs #workconference (at Science at Life)

[yvonnechoo]

Maker Faire UK 2015

What is Maker Faire?

“Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning and who love sharing what they can do. It’s a venue for makers to show examples of their work and interact with others about it.

Maker Faire is primarily designed to be forward-looking, showcasing makers who are exploring new forms and new technologies. But it’s not just for the novel in technical fields; Maker Faire features innovation and experimentation across the spectrum of science, engineering, art, performance and craft”. - Makerfaire.com Here’s my visitor brochure and bracelet. I’m all set and ready to go!

My Experience

I have always heard of Maker Faire from those around me but have never been to one. So today’s my first and I had SO MUCH FUN :)

Being surrounded by Makers/inventors/enthusiasts in their respective fields for approx. eight hours had given me the drive/motivation to “MAKE”. The experience as a whole was truly inspiring!

I’d seen lots of 3D printers today! Some are conventional ones, some made with open design from RepRap Project; some with thermoplastic filament as “ink” while some with CHOCOLATE. I’ve also learned how to solder, how to fold “Project Space Plane”, how to make gloop, etc. basically things that I am not used to doing. I enjoyed every bit of it though :)

Here’s to another Saturday well spent with educational/random/sciency/ “recreational”/ exciting/(out of my lab) activities/event ^_^ Will let the pictures do the talking~! To beat the crowd, I arrived around 9.30am this morning and so I was one of the first few in line waiting for the 10am countdown :)

Spot the Decahex Project (half globe setup)

Behold the very colourful Osmosis Machine at Zone B

3D printer from Maplin Electronics LTD

It’s harder to doodle with a 3D Doodle pen than I thought XD

Chocolate 3D Printer from Velleman

Zoom in view of the printer. What’s better than printing chocolate? :D

Close-up view of the object printed by another 3D printer

Another kind of printer by DIY Segway + Low Cost DIY CNC Plasma Cutter

The masterpiece :)

Awesome looking “Space Hack Machine” by York Hackspace

Nice lanterns by Illuminating Geometry

Upcycling creations: Functional Musical Instruments

Giant Drawing Machine

Gloop making session: Learned how to make Gloop from scratch! All you need is the right ratio of PVA, water and Borax :)

Testing out the properties of Gloop!

Making plastic holder

“Follow Your Dreams!” ~ Yvonne

More Awesome Stuff:

The Making of Glass Beads by Suzanne, the Lampwork Artist

Automatic Drink Prep

Light and Sound Guitar

Sound Vibrations create ripples that looks great!

Beauty by the Geeks (that’s a catchy phrase! haha) They had beauty products ranging from bathbombs, cosmetics to dry shampoo!

Paper Plane by Andy Chipling

Here’s one of the most exciting part of my day! Learning how to make a paper plane, not just an ordinary paper plane, but THE ONE that was designed/made by Andy Chipling!

My Picture with Andy Chipling, the Professor of Paper Planes!

He was involved in paper aircraft design for “Project Space Plane” with Samsung! Guess what, his plane (which is the one that I was taught to fold) flew from 122,000 feet above the earth (launched 22 miles above Germany) and landed in the U.S., Canada, Russia, India, South Africa - and even in Australia, can you believe it?! A paper plane flew approx. 10,000 miles away!! Cool eh! :D

The best part is that I was taught by the expert, himself! I am truly honoured!

He even autographed my plane!! :)

To read more, check out: (http://projectspaceplanes.com/post/1312317076/meet-andy-chipling)

Random appearances of Robots/Star Wars Characters/T-rex

Some pictures of showtime!

Spark!

The Human Machine

Close-up: When ice meets fire!

Bubbleman

Kids are having fun :) Check out the large bubble he made!

Mantis Hexapod!

EepyBird

What I have made :)

My very first soldering attempt! *Proud* LOL

A “I Make Polymer” + “I LOVE CHEMISTRY” badge (2 in 1 haha)

Monster Pancake!

That pretty much concludes my visit to Maker Faire UK 2015! I’m looking forward to the one next year!! I’m definitely gonna be there again next year, maybe as a volunteer/Maker or just a visitor again? Who knows? haha :P

[yvonnechoo]

Good Friday Science Adventure

After much anticipation, my four-days-long Easter break have finally begun! Hooray! And the most exciting part is that I've decided to spend my first day, more specifically "Good Friday" at my favourite place-to-be....*drumroll* Newcastle's one and only, CENTRE FOR LIFE a.k.a. LIFE SCIENCE CENTRE. Why? Because their new experiment zone is finally here and I just have to be there to try it out! So I boarded the bus early morning and was all pumped up for the adventure. Did I mention this is not my first visit to LIFE? In fact, this is my third visit. I usually revisit whenever they change their exhibitions/events/shows. Which means, all of the events on the What's On Today? board are new to me :) All set! Now it's time to have fun! First stop, THE NEW EXPERIMENT ZONE! "Welcome to The New Experiment Zone where YOU are the scientist!" At this point, I was already in awe. Totally impressed by how the zone actually looks! That little kid in me was already jumping for joy, super excited to spend hours and hours in there, but from the outside, I could only "display" a quarter of that excitement I have inside (well, I'm guessing it would be kinda weird to see an adult jumping for joy in the public over an experiment zone like that?) LOL. I've decided to go for the Extracting DNA experiment because the other experiments are actually things that I have been doing in the lab. When I stepped into the zone, that's where I couldn't stop smiling. Boy this area looks awesome! Like the science lab you would imagine Jimmy Neutron in or other science lab you could see in movies/series etc. How I wish I had the chance to see such an amazing setup when I was young! Labcoats on my right... (LOVE the Life logo on the labcoat!) Nitrile gloves on my left... I put on PPE (labcoat, safety glasses and gloves) and moved to my lab desk. You know what!! They even have a touch screen monitor on each lab desk! (I have always dreamed of having a touch screen gadget near my lab fume hood so that I could look at the reaction scheme while I set up my reactions! So this was actually like a DREAM COME TRUE) So I started the experiment with the help of the touch screen monitor. The instructions were clear and easy to understand (saying this from a kid's perspective) haha. Waiting for my mixture to settle. Waiting for the "white stuff" = DNA to work their way through the bottom layer (water + surfactant + wheat germ) to the top (cold ethanol). Can you see the white stringy stuff in the top layer? It's DNA, million strands of it! :) Here's me in PPE with my extracted DNA sample :) So that was the end of my experiment. After cleaning up the apparatus, I've managed to have a chat with one of the facilitators/supervisors in red lab coat (totally resembles the red lab coat PhD demonstrators use in the Chemistry Department at Newcastle University). During the chat, I found out that the experiment zone was designed in such a way that it encourages family to work together (most of the time, parents would take up the role as "facilitators"). This learning environment will initiate more discussion within each family, allowing more "science-related topics" to be brough home to their dinner table. Thereby exposing kids to science in a long term. As a science (Chemistry) enthusiast myself and as a person who would like to inspire younger generations to pursue science related subjects, I think that this new experiment zone is a smart and precise move. This sciency environment will give kids/general public the opportunity to explore Science in a "user-friendly" way and experience being a scientist for a day :) Next stop, the science theatre! Time to learn more about our brilliant brain! I enjoy every bit of the presentation, especially the part when he told the story of Phineas Gage. Our body work wonders with the help of our brain :) Then I went for the Easter Chocolate Workshop and made some delicious choco egg :) And I've learned more about this plant and its pod! Went for the 4d ride right after. Guess what? It's SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS! *Spongebob's fans would definitely love this ride! and all the hidden spongebobs in the building LOL 3d glasses :) Spongebobs! There's even spongebob face painting! XD If you're a superfan, you should come and get one on your face haha. The planetarium show: We Are Astronomers was so good to the point that I actually shed a tear. It is amazing to see how much time and energy astronomers have sacrificed to reach where we are right now. All for the name of Science. Kudos fellow researchers! And so this is how I spent my day at the Centre for Life! Though this is my THIRD visit, I still find its content very interesting. I like the sense of surprise that I'd get in every of my visits. Will definitely come back for more!! Next visit would be.... Maker Faire 2015! Looking forward to that :)