The fifth and final day of the British Science Festival was a Museum of Liverpool takeover. The museum, housed in an iconic building overlooking the docks and the River Mersey, hosted lots of family-friendly, interactive stands dotted around the permanent exhibitions, as well as talks and workshops in quieter spaces.
On the ground floor, visitors found Robo-chemist: meet your new lab partner, hosted by researchers from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Liverpool. A real robot arm was in attendance, and the team provided a live demonstration of the arm moving small vials of liquid to be spun and scanned by a specially positioned camera. This sort of technology could be incredibly useful in all sorts of lab settings.
On the first floor, among several stands that were part of the Festival were Seeing with sound and Mosquito control.
Seeing with sound, run by Tobiasz Trawinski from Liverpool Hope University, is all about how music affects how we take in art. Participants wore glasses with cameras that track eye movements, and headphones playing classical music. They sat on a couch for a couple of minutes or so, looking at a large painting of a man and woman dancing, with the special glasses tracking their eyes.
Those happy to leave their email address will receive a postcard showing the journey their eyes took across the painting.
At Mosquito control, researchers from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Innovative Vector Control Consortium talked through the new technologies being developed to reduce how mosquitoes can spread malaria, and demonstrated mosquito bed nets and other methods and equipment that can be used in homes to repel mosquitoes. Did you know that only female mosquitoes bite other animals to drink blood, spreading disease as they go? Male mosquitoes are harmless to us.
Along the river path from the museum at the Royal Albert Dock, Stranded! Save our ship! was manned by a crew from Liverpool John Moores University.
Attendees could see small tanks of maritime creatures that live in the waters at the docks, including jellyfish. The team explained that creatures and organisms like barnacles and algae attach themselves to the bottom of sea vessels, a process known as biofouling.
All the extra matter on a ship can slow it down, meaning additional fuel needs to be used for the ship to move at the desired speed. A substance inspired by the shell of a species of crab is being developed to protect ships from this issue.
Participants had the chance to explore an industrial fishing vessel through a VR headset, and use a steering wheel to drive a digital boat on a screen, experiences enhanced by the real bobbing of waves felt as these parts of the event took place on a small boat harboured on the docks.
Read blogs covering other days of the Festival here: