- By Lea Elleseff
- Around Town
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A Sciencenter-built exhibition introduces visitors to the biological wonders of things that are too small to see with just your eyes – and the tools scientists use to see them. It’s a Nano World opens Saturday, June 12, with special hands-on activities planned for both Saturday and Sunday of that weekend, from 12-4 p.m. Opening day activities will give visitors the opportunity to mix chemicals, generate electricity, and see invisible light in an exploration of the exciting new field of nanotechnology. Visitors will also be invited to play cooperative games that "self-assemble" into different shapes.
Home from its national tour that kicked-off at the EPCOT Center, It’s a Nano World is back at the Sciencenter with 13 exhibits that make a nano scientist out of everyone who interact with them. Kids can peek through a Giant Magnification Glass, use a measuring tool to figure out how many nanometers tall they are, and zoom in one step at a time to see things they wouldn’t ordinarily be able to see.
Young visitors can frolic inside a “Giant Blood Drop,” a dome filled with hundreds of small red plastic balls; the dome represents a drop of blood and each ball represents a red blood cell. The challenge is to find the few white blood cells among the many red blood cells. Visitors can also watch the famous Powers of Ten film by Ray and Charles Eames, and experience travel from space, to Earth, to people picnicking in Chicago and finally, into a person’s hand.
This exhibition is on display at the Sciencenter through the summer of 2010. It’s a Nano World is a 3,000 square foot Sciencenter exhibition that was developed in partnership with the Nanobiotechnology Center at Cornell University and Painted Universe, with support from the National Science Foundation.
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