As every first Saturday of October for the last eleven years, on October 6 the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) celebrated its Open Day (#openprbb), opening its doors to the public to show the research done by the scientists working here.
In a day shorter than usual (from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., instead of the whole day as was the case in previous years), some 2,000 people could do experiments in the square, listen to scientific talks, or enter the building and visit the laboratories, where researchers explained their daily work in an entertaining way. This year, as a novelty, there was a Science Slam, a competition with five 5-minute talks.
In addition to the “Small” and “Young” areas, with experiments suitable for children from 3 to 8 and from 9 to 12, other activities of the day were:
- Ada Lovelace bioinformatics workshop, where young people could program their first algorithm with the computer, emulating the mathematician Ada Lovelace. She programmed the first algorithm destined to be processed by a machine, being considered the first programmer of the history.
- DIY Workshop “Make a microscope with your mobile”
- Who does science? A workshop on gender and science, where adults could take the “implicit bias test” from Harvard while the youngest got to know the life of four great scientists and put themselves on their shoes. In addition, small and large could play the “who’s who” of science, an initiative of the PRBB Gender Equality Committee .
- Virtual reality stand, where the newest institute at the PRBB, European Molecular Biology Laboratory – Barcelona (EMBL), offered visitors the opportunity to virtually enter three-dimensional embryos.
- Stand “Saca la Lengua”, where the public was able to learn about the oral microbiome by playing a cooperative card game that emerged as a result of the citizen science project of the CRG, “Saca la Lengua” (Take out your tongue)
- Stands “La Ciència Al Teu Món” of the Institute for Evolutionary Biology (IBE: CSIC-UPF), where they explained their citizen science project on biodiversity of the Drosophila fly, done in collaboration with high schools.
- The Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) Regicor Stand, a classic for years in the PRBB open day, measuring the risk of cardiovascular disease.
🎥 Ací un xicotet vídeo del dia de portes obertes al @the_prbb @imimat #OpenPRBB pic.twitter.com/250SmwIKDq
— Ana de Inés (@anadeines) October 8, 2018
All this was possible only thanks to the 255 people who, voluntarily, participated both in the organization and in the course of day 6. Here you can see many more photos of the day!
We hope to see you there next year!
You can read other stories about the Open Day here (from ISGlobal).
