Igniting new explorers of the microcosmos at the Bay Area Science Festival
Photo by Matt Biddulph.
The Bay Area Science Festival is a force of nature here in the San Francisco Bay Area. The festival runs for over a week, dotting cities across the Bay with amazing events. The festival returned to in-person events in 2022 for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The largest in-person event of the festival is Discovery Day in San Francisco’s Oracle Park that welcomes up to 25,000 attendees and features up to 150 exhibitors. For the San Francisco Microscopical Society (SFMS), the Bay Area Science Festival is our largest event of the year and we were eager to continue our participation after having experienced so many amazing times there from our years past.
Ready to start the show! Left to right: Janai Southworth, Eric Weinstein, Ariel Waldman, Peter Werner, and Jasmine Richardson.
Photo by Matt Biddulph.
For the San Francisco event, SFMS board members past and present pitched in to run the booth, including Eric Weinstein (biotech lab leader), Jasmine Richardson (truffle farmer), Janai Southworth (plankton naturalist), Peter Werner (mycologist), and Ariel Waldman (Antarctic explorer). Between us, we represented what makes SFMS great – the intersection of people from different disciplines who share a passion for peering through microscopes and being wowed by what we see. Our presence at the event was nothing short of a success, best told through the following photos:
Photos by Matt Biddulph.
Our exhibits at Oracle Park included a hornets’ nest, a cat’s lung, grass flowers, crystals formed from cream of tartar, and vorticella from some local pond water. By far, the hornets nest and cat lung garnered the most attention and reactions. Attendees winced at the thought of being stung and squirmed at the idea of seeing the inside of a cat. But one-by-one they peered into the microscopes and saw the unseen beauty that exists within each of these strange specimens. A few of our microscopes on display were generously loaned to us from Nikon Instruments. All told, we interacted with hundreds of attendees at Oracle Park and so loved seeing everyone’s faces light up with excitement at our booth.
The San Francisco Microscopical Society booth even got featured on NBC Bay Area News! A camera person stopped by to film us to help show-off some of the more interactive booths at the event.
Photo by Janai Southworth.
Here’s the clip from NBC Bay Area news:
The San Francisco Microscopical Society makes a cameo on NBC Bay Area News. Our booth was filmed to show off the interactive exhibits at the Bay Area Science Festival towards the end of the clip.
Following a rousing success at Oracle Park on the Sunday, the Bay Area Science Festival continued into the week and the San Francisco Microscopical Society participated in two more events. On the Friday, Janai Southworth hosted a virtual event titled, Marvelous Microscopic Marine Plankton Adventure, in which she and Justin Holl from NOAA took people of all ages on a live tour through plankton freshly netted from the San Francisco Bay. Attendees shared how they were glued to their screens from beginning to end.
Janai Southworth and Justin Holl demonstrating ocean chemistry.
On Saturday, SFMS partners Peter Werner and Mario Gabiati put together our booth for the second Discovery Day at the Bay Area Science Festival, this time in Hayward at the Cal State East Bay campus. Our booth was again a huge hit with the crowd as attendees pored over the many microscopes.
Peter Werner introduces attendees to various specimens.
Photo by Mario Gabiati.
That’s a wrap for Bay Area Science Festival 2022! After a full week of illustrating how exciting the microscopic world can be to crowds all over the Bay, we’re in need of a nap!
We had such a wonderful time. The Bay Area Science Festival reminds us just how joyful science can be, especially when we experience it with each other.
Peter Werner, Mario Gabiati, and Janai Southworth after they loaded up all the gear at the end of the event. Photo by Mario Gabiati.
P.S. If you could use a friendly community of folks that enjoy exploring the microscopic world, sign up to become a member of the San Francisco Microscopical Society. We welcome people from all backgrounds and levels of experience.