Science Sensations

I spent a Saturday afternoon with science on February 15, when I went to the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Chicago to see the exhibits at the 2014 AAAS Annual Meeting.  I had been looking around at science related things online when I stumbled upon the meeting website and found out it was being held in Chicago.  I primarily went there to see the exhibits that were open free of charge to the public, including the science displays that were part of the Family Science Days.

After getting my badge, I headed down into the lower levels of the Hyatt.  I wound my way around the exhibits, and then into the posters.  I stopped to take a closer look at a poster by a graduate student from Arizona State University that examined the reasons for skepticism on global climate change.

Then, I headed into the Family Science Days area, where I met up with Mike Mogil at the table for How the Weatherworks.  I met Mike at the 2013 AMS Annual Meeting in Austin.  His company has as its mission telling people, especially students, how the weather works, as its name suggests.  He's very involved in efforts like summer weather camps and fun weather demonstrations.  I spoke with him briefly at the table, and spent a while watching him run his demonstrations for the kids that stopped by.  He showed them how raindrops form through using little bubbles on pieces of wax paper and ping pong balls and a wind machine--at least, that's what he called it: most others would refer to it as a hair dryer.

A little later, he held a science demonstration on the stage for Family Science Days, in front of a larger audience.  He did some of the same demonstrations on stage, but he started off with a demonstration that had a very astute conclusion.  He took three cups, and poured water into each.  He then poured the cup out on a volunteer from the audience standing under an umbrella.  Each time, he asked the audience for what chance in percentage it would rain on the person.  The first time, everyone said 100%, figuring the water put into the cup would fall right out.  And that's what happened.  But the second time he did it, after the audience said 100% chance, Mike poured the cup, and nothing came out.  The third time it happened, it was a 50-50 chance, as it could rain water or not.  When Mike poured the cup, powdery snow came out.

All of this was to demonstrate that meteorology is a hard science because meteorologists really don't know what's in the atmosphere, as they try to determine what the weather is going to be like.  While Mike admitted that he cheated for the purposes of his demonstration, by putting chemicals into the cups to absorb the water, and change it to snow in the other, in reality, there's so much going on in the atmosphere, and it's no easy task trying to figure out what's really going on.  Maybe that's why one of my professors remarked that meteorology is actually harder than rocket science.  So meteorologists work with the tools they have to determine what's going on up in the sky, which sometimes works out well, and sometimes doesn't.

I then wandered over to the Argonne National Laboratory table, which had a tornado chamber, simulating the funnel formation.  It was actually made by the daughter of a meteorologist who works at Argonne, and who happens to be the brother-in-law of one of my dad's bosses.  It reminded me of the tornado machine the ValpU meteorology department has in the Weather Center in Kallay-Christopher Hall.

Next to the Argonne table was the Museum of Science and Industry, which had a 3D printer on display.  This is a printer that uses a wax-type material to recreate an object that is designed on a computer.  This is certainly an interesting piece of up-and-coming technology.

After stopping by the NIU STEM Outreach table, the last thing I stopped at was the NIST booth.  Before going there, the only thing I knew about the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) was that the atomic clock I have in my bedroom receives its time display from a signal from the NIST's facility in Colorado.  The man at the table explained to me how that facility in Fort Collins re-broadcasts a signal sent out from an International Standards facility in Paris, which is measuring the vibrations of an atom of cesium, which occurs about once a second, and is used as the most accurate way to measure time.  He then went on to tell me how scientists are working to measure a second even more precisely, which can help make length measurements more accurate, which is important when an army is launching air strikes, or astronomers are determining the location of something in outer space, light years away.

Then, he explained to me some of the other things the NIST does, which I wasn't aware of.  They develop standard samples for things like DNA testing, food products, and bullets.  For example, if a company is seeking to produce 2% milk, to ensure that their machines are producing milk that has 2% fat, instead of 4%, they get a standard sample from the NIST, and run it through their equipment.  If the machinery produces 2% milk from the sample, then they can be sure it will produce 2% milk from anything run through it.

I was so fascinated hearing about what the NIST does, and I probably spent 10-20 minutes at that table soaking in all this information.

What an afternoon it was having some fun in the world of science.  As a person who studied science in college, it was great getting to meet people who do science work, and learn about all different parts of this broad field of study, and how it all fits into our lives in many relevant ways.