CSULB scientists trade lectures for liquid nitrogen at Science LIVE!
For the second year, Cal State Long Beach’s Hall of Science opened its doors to the public on Saturday for Science LIVE! — four hours of hands-on discovery hosted by the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (CNSM).
Dozens of faculty members joined CNSM students to guide visitors through an array of STEM-based activities and demonstrations.
Students from the Stingray and Butterfly Biomechanics (STABB) Lab showed off stingray barbs and fielded questions from future beachgoers. Physics students and faculty chilled a superconductor with liquid nitrogen as kids in safety goggles watched the fog roll out. At the Beat the Virus table, virology students helped show how ordinary hand soap tears viruses apart. The Chemistry in the Kitchen station illustrated how red cabbage juice dripped into cups will turn a white power, such as baking soda, from white to pink, then to blue.
The shark and marine labs were open for tours, and the Mammal Lab’s ever-popular museum collections room displayed hundreds of skeletons, skulls, pelts and taxidermy mounts.
Out on the plaza, Astronomy Professor Joel Zinn and students aimed solar telescopes at the sky — a daytime preview of Nights at the Observatory, held every Tuesday while classes are in session. A girl in a party dress, hoisted up by her father, pressed her eye to the lens and grinned at the sun.
