03/2015

On Saturday, March 28, 2015, the Blackmond Group, Yu Group, and members of the Borovik Group participated in The San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering Expo. The Expo was held in PETCO Park and was the culminating event of the Festival’s week-long celebration of science in San Diego, California.

The Blackmond, Yu, and Borovik team worked together to bring the concepts of molecular chirality and movement & their importance to the Center’s research to approximately 1,000 people who came by the booth. The chirality demo consisted of several vials with chiral molecules that participants were asked to smell and determine which chiral molecule they smelled. The Blackmond Group created a nice, informative poster to help guide participants. The Yu Group led a thin layer chromatography demo using aspirin, Tylenol, caffeine and a UV light to demonstrate the movement of molecules. The Borovik Group led a polymerization demo using sodium polyacrylate and water.

The team reached well over 500 people at the event.