Archive: Around Town

NanoDays will be held at the Sciencenter on Saturday, April 2, from 12-4 pm, and the Wilson Lab at Cornell on Sunday, April 3, 12-4 pm.  Visitors will explore nanoscience and nanotechnology through hands-on activities, family-friendly presentations, and special exhibits.

The event will investigate super-thin, flexible solar cells, encounter forces stronger than gravity, make a butterfly change color with the touch of a button, and play with sand that doesn’t get wet, even under water! Other activities include using your nose as a nanodetector and trying out the special clothing real nanoscientists wear when they study and make tiny things. Over 20 special activities will be ongoing throughout the day, with special presentations at 1 pm, 2 pm, and 3 pm.

Special presentations include Super Small Storyime, X-ray Secrets, and Wheel of the Future.

Wilson Laboratory opens its doors for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based Sciences and Education. The event will feature tours, special demonstrations, and hands-on activities for the whole family.

Funded by the National Science Foundation, the laboratory is built atop a powerful linear and circular particle accelerator, operates a half-mile long electron storage ring (CESR) located 40 feet underground, and produces high-energy, high-power X-ray beams. The CESR X-ray beams are some of the most powerful in the world, with intensities a thousand to a million times greater than those from medical X-ray equipment. Visitors will learn how these beams are generated and what scientists from throughout the country study using the X-rays at the CHESS facility.


NanoDays in Ithaca is part of an annual, nationwide festival of educational programs about nanoscale science and engineering. This community-based event is the largest public outreach effort in nanoscale informal science education and involves science museums, research centers, and universities from Puerto Rico to Alaska.

The Sciencenter has an important role in making NanoDays happen! Right here in Ithaca, we develop the primary set of educational activities used by hundreds of organizations every year.  Each spring, visitors to NanoDays in Ithaca get to preview and try out activities that will become part of the national NanoDays events the following year.

Admission to the Sciencenter is free for NanoDays. NanoDays is cosponsored by the Sciencenter and Cornell University.

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