Location: Adler Planetarium
Date: Thursday, March 19, 2015; 5:00-10:00
pm
The title was ‘Vino
Cosmica’, which means it would be a Wine themed evening. Michael sent out the activities list and
almost all were wine based, like corkscrew testing, bar tricks and something
called “Sommelier Science”. After arriving and checking in, I went
upstairs to the classroom where everyone had assembled for pizza and sat next
to a bunch of telescope guys who were in midst of a spirited discussion on God and
the ‘Big Bang’. We talked about planets and why the axis of
Uranus is tilted by 90 degrees, which was owing to the collisions during the
origins of the solar system. They left soon
and then I chatted with some of the staff members on ‘C2E2’ show in Chicago and how everyone dresses up in costume. This conversation then led to the obvious
discussion around shows like ‘Dr. Who’
and ‘Torchwood’.
 |
| It was all about the wine this evening |
Michael soon called us all to order and assigned
duties. There was something called ‘Glass Harmonica’ where certain notes
could be played depending on the volume of liquid in the glass and the type of
the glass itself. I said that I was “Tone Deaf” at which Michael said that
he would definitely put me on that! We
went for a walk at 6 pm and guests had already started coming in. We went into a classroom and there were
various stations for the “Sommelier
Science”. First was taking a sample
of the visitors wine and putting it inside the vacuum chamber to see if went
flat after that. Next were 2 tall
cylinders of white wine, one of which was more fermented than the other, and by
using a ‘hydrometer’ to measure ‘specific gravity’, we could tell which wine
had the extra fermentation. Then there
was a station with ‘pH-paper’ to
measure acidity of different wines, and another with several test tubes accompanied
by a ‘universal indicator’, a drop of
which in the visitors wine sample would help identify which of the test-tubes
had wine, by comparing the colors. Next
was corkscrew testing where we would use the normal waiters corkscrew and
attach a force measuring device to it.
After that we would try pulling it out with brute force and see how much
it registers. Then we would try the same
by attaching it to the pulley of the corkscrew, which would require less force,
and finally to a patented corkscrew opener which you rotated clockwise and
which only required fraction of the force.
At one stage, my fellow volunteer Bob was trying to put the cork back inside
the bottle and said, “It is too big for
the hole”. Without missing a beat and with a straight face I responded, “That’s what she said”.
The next demonstration was “Bar Tricks” with wine on a very wobbly cart. The first “trick”
was trying to make a beaker of white wine invisible by immersing in another
– similar to the trick with oil. Another
was exchanging water and wine by inverting a shot glass on another and
separating by a flat card. Once the card
was pulled, the two liquids would exchange places owing to the difference in their
density. I was concerned about this one,
especially with the mess that it was likely to cause…especially if I was doing
it. Finally, we went downstairs to the
section with the historical artifacts and the “Glass Harmonica” experiment had been setup in the old classroom. There were 2 sets of wine glasses with
colored liquid filled up to different levels and using pencils, the guests
could tap the glasses to get the notes they desired. The best way was to wet your finger and run
it around the rim.
Will all things seen, it was time for assignments and once
Michael had done so, I was the only one remaining. He asked me to stay at “Glass Harmonica” and help Bob - who had designed it - and grab a “pocket science” experiment while I was
at it. I said I could do my favorite, “Smelly Space”. I went to the staff area and collected the
bottles for Moon, Titan and Sagittarius; along with the spectroscopy tube, and went back to the classroom. As people waited for
their turn with the wine glasses, I did the “Smelly
Space” experiment with a few groups.
As I had done previously, I would relate the experiment to sense of "smell" and "sight" and then say that they could continue exploring the sense of "touch" and "sound" with the “Glass
Harmonica”…followed by "taste" with the beverage in their hand!
At 7 pm I was supposed to be at “Sommelier Science”, though I was running a bit late. I wrapped up my activity and headed there, to
find that the “Planet Explorers”
Class room was full of people. I went
over to the ‘universal indicator’
station and muddled my way through an explanation for a trio of guys. I then went over to the “fermentation station” with the ‘hydrometer’
and the 2 cylinders of wine. This was an
easier experiment for me to figure out.
I would ask the visitors if they knew what fermentation meant and there
were all sorts of interesting responses ranging from, “Something with yeast” or “Converting
yeast to alcohol” or “releasing CO2”. I would usually guide them to the right
answer by asking a series of questions like, “what is fermentation usually associated with” – alcohol. “What
is wine made from” - grape. “How does grape taste” – “sweet. “What
else is sweet” – sugar. “What is
fermentation” - Conversion of sugar to alcohol. People usually like this method of leading
them to the correct answer.
Next, I would ask someone to volunteer and give them the ‘hydrometer’ to drop into one of the
tubes of wine – carefully, because it was made glass and a sudden drop could
break it. Then they would take the
reading, which was 0.99. After that we
would drop it in the 2nd cylinder and the reading in that was
1.02. So I would ask them which liquid
had a higher “specific gravity” – the
2nd one, meaning it had more sugar since 'specific gravity' was linked to 'density'. The follow-up question was asking which one
had a higher fermentation – the 1st cylinder, since more sugar in
that one had been converted to alcohol.
Finally I would ask them which one would they like to drink, and
everyone would point at the one which had more fermentation. I would then tell them that the entire point
of the exercise was that, at which there would be laughter.
Some people asked me questions on the molecular formula of
glucose, which I should really know since I wrote my damn thesis on it, but I
couldn’t replicate it to save my life.
People really enjoyed this activity and I ran the routine for 2 solid
hours – interrupted by a 10 minute attempt during which I tried to do the
corkscrew pocket science while carrying a bucket of corks, bottles and the two
openers. I found a trio of ladies and
try as we may I couldn’t get the cork in.
One lady said it was a composite and that I should find a real cork –
which I did at the bar. Even then I
messed up the experiment and which I was struggling; she did most of the
explaining to her friends with the new cork opener. After this fiasco, I quit and went back in
the classroom to continue with the experiment I was comfortable with.
For the final hour of my shift I moved to ‘SVL’ and went straight to the ‘NUIverse’ table. I was with another volunteer and Cynthia, who
runs this room, was there to train her, meaning that I could see some features
of the table that I had not seen before.
I ran the routine with some visitors and Cynthia said that I was doing
it the right way, by encouraging people to touch the surface. I did the table session with a few others and then it was time to leave. I went to the staff room to drop off my stuff and left after chatting with Tom the telescope
operator about potential end of the earth due to a solar flare. Well, it had been
a long session and what else were we going to talk about!
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