Science Discovery Day at Oracle Park
The Bay Area Science Festival is back, better than ever with a spring time schedule (to avoid wildfire smoke and worse disruptions), and Cal ACS was there at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Sunday, April 24th for Science Discovery Day. Dan Calef and I rode in together on BART and picked up coffee on a beautiful morning in the City. Charlie Gluchowski caught up with us as we crossed King Street, where BASF volunteers were ready to check us in.
We were also greeted by bomb-sniffing dogs who, fortunately, were not troubled by the herbs and flowers from my garden that formed a key part of our hands-on activity, Plant Scents that Attract or Repel Insects. We headed up to the Promenade Level and toured the outer rim of the stadium – our chance to enjoy the view of the Bay and McCovey Cove – before locating our spot at the far end of the right field stands, where a stiff breeze greeted us from the Fourth Street entrance to the Park . . . so we taped everything down securely and got ready for visitors.
The gates opened at 10:30 AM, and we didn’t have to wait long:
The challenge for our visitors, after sniffing geraniums and rosemary, was to build molecular models of key scent compounds such as geraniol and myrcene, guided by the illustrations prepared by Margareta Séquin for this activity. Many started with simple molecules such as formic acid, an annoying component of insect bites and stings! Others were ready for terpenes or even more complex molecules such as the stinky defensive pyrazine compound produced ladybugs (photos by Charlie Gluchowski):
In the afternoon we were assisted by one of our favorite high school students, Hansen Yang, who has prepared diligently for the Chemistry Olympiad exam by meeting with Peter Olds and me on Zoom. This was our first face-to-face meeting, and we were introduced to his family as well. With everyone’s help, we distributed an entire case of Celebrating Chemistry, featuring more hands-on chemistry around this years CCEW theme, “The Buzz about Bugs: Insect Chemistry.” The Spanish edition, “El Zumbido,” was popular as well. We also gave away 200 pocket Periodic Tables and just about every other CCEW souvenir that we brought. Thanks again to Charlie and Dan – I couldn’t have done it without you!