Chemistry was the key to this month’s Lates – the chemistry of bath products, warfare, alcohol and even luuurve…
As well as all the talks and tours (cockroaches included) you could make elemental fridge magnets and bath bombs to take home. The bath bombs looked like pink/green/blue porridge to start with, but looked much more appealing after they’d started to set.
Elsewhere there were people wandering around clutching huge bubbles full of cloudy carbon dioxide or throwing crazy shapes in the Space gallery to the music that only they could hear. You meet all sorts at Lates…
Check out Patu Tinfinger’s beautiful pictures of the evening:
We also had a little experiment with a smartphone app called SCVNGR that gives you points for completing challenges and even lets you set challenges for other people to complete – read my earlier post for details.
After a rough count and excluding a couple of staff members, 30 people used the app and completed around 70 challenges.
We had some really nice responses – great pics of people performing loud moves in the silent disco and some thoughtful / funny responses to the ‘Object of Desire’ challenge. Most picked their favourite Museum object and explained why they love it, but someone took a picture of a bottle of beer and one guy rather sweetly took a picture of lovely lady who I suspect is his girlfriend. Now that’s chemistry in action…
I think there would have been more activity if there wasn’t already so much to do at Lates. It seemed the perfect testing ground but maybe the app is better suited to spicing up a regular daytime visit to the Museum when there isn’t quite so much going on.
The other issue was that we were trying to encourage people to create their own challenges – something that very few people did. But there’s still time…
You can use SCVNGR whenever you come to the Museum, so next time you’re here have a little play, and – if inspiration strikes – leave a challenge to inspire everyone who comes after you.