EXPLORIT Science Center - Weekly Column

Three Explorit traditions will be combined serendipitously tomorrow to provide an action-packed free day of science excitement. The "Meet the Scientists" interactive program, "Experience Engineering!", will coincide with this month's Free Saturday, and the (free) meeting of the Astronomy Club takes place tomorrow evening!

In celebration of National Engineers Week, the UC Davis chapter of the Society of Women Engineers and Explorit Science Center are joining forces to provide all sorts of hands-on activities for you and your family to try. This free activity will be held at Explorit from 12:00-2:00 PM.

The second part of the "priceless" triple-header is Free Saturday. Explorit has a policy of not charging admission on the fourth Saturday of every month, and this tradition has always been well-received.

The current exhibition, "What a Shock! The Human Nervous System,” is divided into three sections. The first section gives the visitor an overview of the physiology of the human nervous system, with chances to take apart a model human brain, look at microscopic thin sections of a brain, create (and take home) a model of a neuron, and more!

The second and largest section is devoted to exploration of the five senses. Test your own vision and find out if your eyes could pass for you to be an FBI Special Agent (they cannot be worse than 20/200). Find out how your peripheral vision is doing with a home-grown testing device. And are your reflexes quick enough to protect those important eyes of yours? Grab a friend and find out! You sit on a chair shielded by Plexiglas and your partner tosses (gently! gently!) bean bags at your protected face. If you blink, your reflexes should be fast enough to protect your eyes from bean bags and other flying objects (identified and otherwise).

When was the last time that you got to "see" sound? Try singing into the microphone by the oscilloscope (an instrument that graphs sound waves) and experiment to see how volume and pitch affect how the line on the oscilloscope looks.

Trust your sense of touch by moving to two nearby activities. With your eyes closed, try to solve the three tactile mazes, and then try to arrange the samples of sandpaper from smoothest to roughest. Open your eyes and check the answer!

Next, test your sense of smell by trying to match pairs of scents, and then identify them. Does one pair smell like a swimming pool? Or like cough syrup? Or like absolutely nothing at all?

Finally, Explorit's Astronomy Club, which is free and open to all, will meet at 7:30 PM. The topic will be the largest planet in the solar system: Jupiter. The meeting will begin with an opportunity to view Jupiter, which will be above the western horizon. Weather permitting, participants will be able to see the "Great Red Spot," which Martin Radcliffe of Astronomy magazine notes could be renamed the "Great Pale Spot" for its "washed out" appearance during the last ten years. The four major moons orbiting Jupiter may also be visible.

Two other scheduled Club activities are a slide show about Galileo, the space probe which is currently orbiting Jupiter, and a sing-along with lyrics of well-known songs (such as Lennon and McCartney's "When I'm Sixty-Four") rewritten by NASA and JPL scientists to relate to the Galileo mission.

Explorit Science Center is located at 3141 5th Street in East Davis. The current exhibition is What a Shock! : The Human Nervous System. Public hours are Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sunday from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m., and Tuesday through Friday from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. Regular admission is $3; members, teachers (with school ID) and children under 4 are free.

Explorit Science Center Weekly Column