Spectacular science shows, a bed-of-nails, sudoku, Science cafes and much more. Thousands came to Research Friday events in Sweden to meet researchers and try out some experiments for themselves. September 22nd had been declared Researchers´ Night by the European Commission. In Gothenburg, Kalmar, Kristianstad, Lund, Skellefteå, Stockholm, Trollhättan, Umeå and Örebro, as well as in other towns and cities across Europe, events were arranged that placed researchers in the spotlight.
– We wanted to give people the opportunity to experiment themselves and to talk directly to researchers. In this way everyone can see how research concerns us in our daily lives, said Camilla Modéer, Secretary General for Vetenskap & Allmänhet, who coordinated the Swedish arrangements.
Around 800 people took the chance to visit Universeum, a science center in Gothenburg for free during Research Friday. Visitors could try out experiments, have conversations with researchers and visit different exhibitions. In ”Crash, Bang, Boom”, people could test their reaction times using a brake simulator, measure their weight in a simulated crash and test their knowledge of traffic.
In Kalmar, nearly 600 people visited different places around the town as researchers opened their doors to an otherwise unknown world. At times, the science center eXperimentLabbet was overwhelmed with curious children and their parents, who came to programme a lego robot or build a tower out of pasta, amongst other things. Just as popular was the Maritime Academy where there were 16 different research areas to investigate, or you could try navigating a stormy harbour. On Varvsholmen, fascinated visitors met the child-birth doll Noelle, who gave birth time and time again.
– When you think of a researcher, you imagine someone going in a white coat, just like in the films. But at the same time I think the researchers here look just like ordinary people, said 11 year old Hedvig when visiting Research Friday at Kristianstad University College. Here, the theme of the day was apples, with activities including experiments to show how apples conduct electricity, light installations using apples, tasting of apple-based deserts and an analysis of the film Äppelkriget (the Apple War) together with film experts.
3 000 visited Research Friday in the city center and university buildings of Lund. A brief selection of the programme includes: build your own skeleton, a physics show, try out some Romany armour, taste medieval food, a performance with voice impressionists, a detective riddle around a stolen gold statue and ”Ask Lund” with friendly local researchers.
Around 400 people took part in Research Friday activities at Campus Skellefteå. The most popular activities were making personal buttons and building robots out of lego. Many visitors also wanted to hear psychologist John Jansson talk about how mental maps can steer a person´s life, and to talk with researchers on a range of subjects including physical and mental burn-out, sudokus and mobile communication in remote, sparsely populated areas.
Research Friday Stockholm pulled in around 4 500 visitors to the activities both inside and outside Kulturhuset (The Culture House). Many gathered to watch as geologists ignited a volcanic eruption along with a shower of sparks and an impressive amount of smoke out on the square. Next to the volcano, skateboard tricks were being practiced, with physicists as instructors. For those who wished, there was also the opportunity to redesign their shoes under the guidance of trained designers.
- I hope we have been able to defuse some of the sometimes exaggerated respect many people have for science and research, said Jennie Johansson from the Gothenburg Science Festival, which came to Research Friday with its Street Science exhibition.
Events in Trollhättan were held at the science center Innovatum Kunskapens Hus. Here nearly 400 visitors could, for example, experience the Albert Einstein Show about the beautiful and wonderful world of physics, try driving a hybrid car in a simulator, build and programme lego robots, manufacture and fire bottle-rockets and be part of an interactive computer theatre with 30 computers integrated with big screens in a hyper-speed direct democracy.
Around 1 300 people came to the Picture Museum and the observatory Umevatoriet in UmeĂĄ. Amongst other things, visitors could test their memories, investigate the brain, see a show on Hollywood Physics, look at the stars or learn about more everyday physics.
Approximately 500 people visited Research Friday events around Olof
Palme´s Square in Örebro. Many had a go at spinning DNA with the help of researchers. The research group Life Science Centre attracted many of curious visitors, not least when they made ice-cream using liquid nitrogen. At city library there was a science cafe, where people had the opportunity to ask researchers questions on various different subjects.
There was also this opportunity online at www.forskarfredag.se where visitors could direct questions to reseachers around the country, and their questions would then be answered live in a webcast. A live webcast of a sofa-interview with three Kalmar researchers in front of an audience was also broadcast.
– It is fantastic that so many people wanted to take part in Research Friday, both visitors and the contributing researchers. We hope that the event will open the eyes of many people to the importance of research and give an insight into how exciting and how much fun it can be to be a researcher, says Cissi Askwall, coordinator of the Research Friday events across Sweden.
The arranging organisations of Research Friday were Universeum in Gothenburg, Kalmar University College together with Kalmar Kommun, Kalmar County Council and Regionförbundet in Kalmar County, Kristianstad University College, Lund University, SkerĂa Development in SkellefteĂĄ, Vetenskap & Allmänhet and Stockholm Academic Forum, Innovatum AB in Trollhättan, UmeĂĄ University and Ă–rebro University together with Ă–rebro County Council. The webcast was produced by the Swedish Research Council.
The arrangements were supported by the European Commission, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, the Swedish Research Council and VINNOVA as well as local contributing organisations.
Cissi Askwall
