Over 500 people of all ages came to the sold-out event, where they toured the Diamond research facility and received an engaging masterclass on viruses from our scientists.
STRUBI researchers provided visitors a chance to get to grips with an interactive 3-D virus models and wear 3-D glasses to view the atomic structure of the foot and mouth disease viruse.
Visitors also played with 'shake it to make it' self-assembling virus models, shaking magnetized pentamers in a plastic jar to produce 'self-assembling' viruses, an activity that was popular for all ages. Equally popular was constructing your own foot and mouth disease virus out of toothpicks and marshmallows.
The day got very positive feedback from visitors: 'To be told not only about Diamond, the machine, but (also) about the work that is carried out using it (was great). Also, it was good to notice that nobody was spoken down to, even the younger children who all seemed to have a great time,' one of the visitors reported.
This is the second time that STRUBI staff have attended an open day at the Diamond Light Source this year, and they hope to back again the next.