SciFest so far: Friday's kickoff party
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Talkin' nerdy.
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This past Friday, the Philadelphia Science Festival welcomed 45 fun-loving sponsors and hundreds of inquisitive 21-and-over Philadelphians to kick off the fourth annual Science Festival with a party at the Franklin Institute.
Three entire floors of the Franklin Institute housed tables such as “Can Mushrooms Save the World?” and “Can Sound Make a Fluid Dance?” and the music was provided by the 8-bit composer Chipocrite (Paul Weinstein) jamming on vintage Gameboys and Nintendo controllers.
Each of the tables offered some sort of interactive game or activity, and guests were able to taste food treated with liquid nitrogen and use their cell phone cameras as simple microscopes.
As we waited in line to taste Yards Brewing Company’s signature brew “Cerebral Pourtex” (only available this week at Philly Science Fest events), we ogled Bill Robertson, a.k.a. Dr. Skateboard (schoolteacher by day, skateboard pro by night)_tearing it up on the mezzanine. After doing a sweet 360, he explained to the crowd how he makes math and physics cool for kids.
“A lot of these exhibitors thought of titles presented in the form of a question,” said Gerri Trooskin, the festival director and organizer of the kickoff event. “ We tried to focus on that spirit of inquiry.”
The Science Festival issued an open call for presenters and worked with all of the applicants to make their particular research fun and hands-on, and the turnout was huge. And if we were impressed by the diversity and enthusiasm of the kickoff party, Trooskin assured us that the Festival will bring the fun tenfold at the Science Carnival on the Parkway at the end of the week, which will boast more than 175 exhibitors.
As she looked over the visitors tasting sphere-ified fruit juice, another coordinator walked by and told her that the people in the Fels Planetarium were eating up the “Fractals Rock” show, and she did a little dance. “Fractals are the new laser light show,” she said. On the huge planetarium screen, the “Fractal Man” (Jonathan Wolfe of New Mexico’s Fractal Foundation) curated a landscape of fractals, zooming in and out in psychedelic colors with a soundtrack of classic ‘70s electric guitar. Someone in the audience shouted, “Who brought the bowl?” and that’s pretty much how we all felt.
It was hard to catch everything the kickoff event had to offer all in one night, but we can rest assured knowing the Philadelphia Science Festival will keep the events coming all week long.
Check out more events here.
