Adler After Dark

Location: Adler Planetarium

Date: Thursday, July 17, 2014; 5:00-10:00 pm

"Moonjump"

The theme for tonight was “Superhero Science” and Michael had sent us a summary of the two main experiments that were headlining the session.  They were called “Bulletproof” and “Slime Science”, the latter seeming a stretch – get it – for a superhero theme.  I arrived at Adler to see a giant inflatable “bouncy house” like thing outside and it was called “Moonjump”.  After signing in, I went to the conference room for our pre-shift pizza and caught up with my fellow volunteers.  One volunteer was asking another if she knew anyone with Chemistry background.  I said that it had been a while but I did know about Chemistry…a bit.  She said that she was looking for some household items that could be combined to combust – in a safe way of course.  Never in my laboratory experience had I ever tried something like this, though I said that the best bet was an acid-base reaction to produce gas.  She said that was common and wanted to use some everyday item like flour, that could blow up.  I said that such witchcraft was beyond me.

Michael handed us our shift schedules and I saw that I would be in ‘SVL’ for 30 minutes, followed by “Pocket Science”, then “Bulletproof” and finally finish up with “Pocket Science” again.  I told Michael that I had done slime many times before and it was polymers after all.  He asked if I wanted to switch and I said I would stick with what I had since I love mingling with the crowd.  At 6 pm we went upstairs for a tour and Michael showed us various stations such as “Mr. Freeze”, which was nothing but last months experiment with dry ice, but just re-titled for the theme tonight.  We then visited the slime station, which was in a small classroom.  Michael explained to the volunteers how it was to be done with the glue and Borax solution.  The fun part of this is watching people experiment with quantities to get the right consistency.

There has to be a better sidekick

In the ‘Planet Explorer’s’ section they were preparing the “Bulletproof” experiment.  There were 3 long tubes with a Ping-Pong ball in each of them.  Both ends of the tube would then be taped off and the tubes connected to a vacuum pump.  Then, after the vacuum was pulled, the tape on one end would be punctured, sending the ball at 300 mph towards 3 types of targets – an Aluminum foil, a plastic plate and cardboard.  We would then check which one of the targets had “survived” the impact.  The “Mission Specialists” would be conducting the experiments while our job was to assist them in preparing the tubes.  They said that we would be “Robin” to their “Batman”.  I am sure that there has to be a cooler sidekick that “Robin” in the Superhero universe!

It was 6:30 pm and I made my way to ‘SVL’, while getting lost as usual.  Cynthia, who is in charge, gave me a quick tour, including the cool touch table where visitors can explore the Solar System.  She also showed me the virtual reality goggles and headphones that provide the user with a unique and immersive experience.  There was a 3-D experience with ‘Mars Rover’ and a giant tube such as the one at the South Pole, where they measure “Neutrinos” – something that is always mentioned as the reason for peril in all the “Star Trek” episodes!  This is the most technical space in the museum and we had trained pros handling some of the demos.  My job was to get people excited for some of the exhibits.  The people coming in loved the touch table and why not!  That’s the kind of toy one wants for Christmas. 

My next task was “Pocket Science” and there were two options – “Meteorites” and “Space Food”.  I found Dave, who was handling Meteorites and took over from him.  While he had been working the people in the line outdoors as they waited for registration, it had dwindled by now and so I relocated indoors.  At the line at the bar, I started chatting with the visitors and my opener was “What’s the oldest thing you have ever touched”, going into the 5 billion years old meteorite and the “shooting star” analogy.  People would come up with different answers for the oldest thing, ranging from, “The Earth” to “Great Wall” to “Stonehenge” to my favorite, “My Grandma”.  One girl said that she did not care for “romantic things” when I mentioned “Have you touched a shooting star”, but fortunately for me her friend did.  I met a colleague from my office and did the act with her as well.  People were asking me where to get tickets for the shows and while shows are included in the price of admission, we were trying something different tonight.  We were asking people to come to the show location 30 minutes prior to it and pick up tickets, so as to avoid lines later.  The problem was that shows were getting full in minutes and you really had to be in the right place at the right time.  One couple had missed their chance and asked if I could get them in and I said that as important as I was, this was beyond my authority.

At 8 pm I went over for the “Bulletproof” station, where “Mission Specialist” Melanie was about to commence the next demo.  There was a big crowd who had gathered and they were asked to stand behind a barrier.  After pulling vacuum in each of the tubes, Melanie cut the tape and off went the balls with a bang.  Of the 3 targets that we had, the Aluminum foil was supposed to burst and it did not, the plastic plate did while the cardboard did not.  People enjoyed this one and as Melanie handed them stickers for their card, – they had to attend a certain number of events this evening and collect stickers for a prize – I started prepping for the next round.  This included replacing the plastic target, putting more tape on Al foil to stretch it; so that it would tear.  I also taped both ends of the long tubes…only to realize that I had not inserted the balls inside.  Yeah, that would have been awkward.

I was chatting with the gathered crowd and encouraging them to see other shows by getting tickets soon.  This led to 2 girls leaving, not exactly a great promotion for my upcoming act!  We started with the next round and after Melanie did her dramatic spiel and cracked open one tube, nothing happened…the ball did not rocket out.  It was the same for the other two tubes as well.  We realized that we had leaks and people were now heckling and booing.  While Melanie tried to pacify the mob, a few of us conducted a post-mortem and realized that there was tape stuck inside the tube.  From my years of trying to design vacuum apparatus in graduate school, I knew that there was no way a vacuum tube would work if it had impurities inside.  We made new samples and tried again, but without luck.  People were now even tired of booing and started leaving.  We did further investigating and realized that there was more tape stuck inside.  We furiously cleaned out the inside of the tubes and put longer strips of tape on the ends.  Basically we were trying anything and everything to make it work.  A volunteer came to take over from me at 9 pm and I was supposed to go for “Pocket Science”.  But I decided to help make new samples and show him how to be careful in doing so.  This time we took our time and even successfully tested one.  People gathered, and when Melanie turned on the pump…nothing.  The plug had come out!  I went and fixed that.  We ran the experiment and one worked and one didn't!  Oh well.  Melanie, who had been a tremendous trooper through all of the ridicule said regarding the one which didn't work, “It sucks”. “Not quite”, I responded.

My final hour was once again doing “Pocket Science’ with Meteorites.  I engaged more people and someone asked me if Adler had a glass dome to see stars.  I said that while there was nothing like that, the next best thing was the Planetarium where they could see the shows.  I also heard some negative feedback for “Bulletproof” and my response was to say that I could show them something better and then pulling out the meteorites.  I walked about and saw two guys dressed as “Batman & Robin” and even helped people take pictures with these costumed characters.  Then I checked out another polymer experiment that a “Mission Specialist” was performing.  At 10 pm I went back to the room where they were doing “slime” experiment and saw that the cleanup operation was on.  Michael and other volunteers were looking at pictures on a tablet to put back the room the way it had been prior to the evening.  Michael said that there was a kid’s camp in the morning and they wanted the coloring books and supplies just the way the kids had left it.  I helped with that and left.  It had been an interesting evening for sure.  Yes, there had been a failed experiment and I had been booed.  But one has to roll with the punches and accept the bad if one wants the occasional applause.  As ‘David Brent’ once famously quoted, “If you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain”.