03/2016

On March 26th 2016 Atlanta Science Festival held its Exploration Expo day, the finale of a week of fantastic science-based events.

Held in Atlanta Olympic Centennial park in the hear of the city 100 different activities and exhibits were setup in the early morning fog, everything from robotics and Newtonian fluids to USPS drones and the origins of life.

Even though the day started out raining before warming up to be a typical Georgia Spring day, over 35,000 people visited the Expo day. The CCHF hosted the Chemistry Café, offering a line-up of presentations, interactive demos and exploratory exhibits that described some of the core scientific concepts that drive the research in the CCHF. Dr. Tracy McGill opened the day by talking about the passion behind science. Dr. Daniel Morton gave an insight to the complexity of chemicals that go into the flavor and effects of coffee, the audience had the chance to find out more about aromas and the different roasting stages of coffee. Prof. Huw Davies talked about the importance of catalysis, and we had nearly 10 children volunteer to run some catalysis experiments. Prof. Seth Marder presented on the fantastic properties that can be imparted to plastics, and their applications in displays and energy harvesting.

We had hundreds of folks come and listen to the talks, interact with our volunteers and learn a bit about the chemistry the CCHF is investigating.