Over 600 guests came to the IPB on July 4 for the Long Night of Sciences to learn lots of new things and put their knowledge to the test at our science quiz course. This year, our program was aimed equally at children and adults and was enthusiastically received by all age groups. At the stand of Bernhard Westermann, Milica Tomić, Diana Paola Ochoa Vásquez and Florian Richter, for example, the young future scientists could use red cabbage juice as an indicator to test whether lemon juice is more acidic than baking powder. Pascal Pecher's stand, supported by Lilly Eger, Josefine Lange and Hannes Andrae, was full of excitement. There were lots of amazing things to see here about mushroom and plant dyes and a challenging smell quiz, which some untrained city noses found difficult to master. Lucas Teschner, Sebastian Mißbach and Natalie Leutert presented well-known herbs as well as lesser-known plants at the big herb and seed quiz that evening.
For the adults, meanwhile, there were colorful bacteria to marvel at, which produce various chromoproteins from corals and other sea creatures. The presentation of these colorful microorganisms was extremely impressive in pictorial representations that Sylvestre Marillonnet had painted especially for the Long Night with the bacteria. His purple tomatoes and tobacco plants, which produce betanin, the purple dye from beetroot, were just as colorful. Katrin Kowarschik and Oliver Nagel bravely explained the science behind these transgenic plants. Tom Schreiber, Lennart Wirthmüller, Elena Roitsch and Mustafa Bulut did just as well at the CRISPR stand to illustrate to our guests the advantages of the genetic scissors compared to transgenic and conventional breeding methods. To demonstrate the efficiency of this modern gene editing technique, we displayed light-emitting tobacco plants. Katrin Franke and Lea Schmitz beautifully presented whether St. John's wort helps against Alzheimer's and what else the plant can be used for. A crazy plant memory game with unusual pairs was very popular at this stand. The computer modeling stand, on the other hand, was altogether virtual. Here, Dipendu Dhar and Felix Moorhoff used animated 3D models to explain how enzymes work.
Carolin Apel and Sylvia Pieplow made children's eyes light up when the quiz questions were evaluated, as there were prizes and the coveted young researcher's diploma for everyone.
Antje Hellmuth and main organizer Sylvia Pieplow made sure that everything ran smoothly, took beautiful photos and welcomed the guests. All in all, it was an extremely successful event. All the stands were lovingly decorated and enjoyed great attention, the atmosphere was excellent and all the guests, both young and old, were very enthusiastic. Many helping hands and a great deal of commitment helped to make the Long Night at the IPB an unforgettable event once again.
