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Cheltenham Science Festival 2015

ebola-cheltenham.jpgThe Nuffield Department of Medicine once again signed up as a Festival Partner for The Times Cheltenham Science Festival 2015. 

Nearly 70 volunteers from seven different research groups presented their work to the public at the NDM stall in the Discovery Zone. Our stall had about 5,000 visitors over six days, and judging from the frequent queues, it was one of the most popular stalls in its location.  

•Tuesday, June 2nd:  The Respiratory Medicine unit brought along their home-made fake 'sputum', straw table football and instructions on how to make a model lung out of bottles and balloons to explain their work. 

•Wednesday, June 3rd: Volunteers from ISARIC/ERGO (pictured above) gave the public a chance to get up close and personal with the protective gear worn by medics working with Ebola. 

•Thursday, June 4th: The Julian Knight and Jenny Taylor research groups banded together to give visiting school groups a taste for genetics, with PTC tasting, strawberry DNA extraction, and DNA bracelets on the menu. 

•Friday, June 5th: John Frater's group had visitors search through a paddling pool of 'blood cells' to find hidden viruses, and used lego to explain how cells recognize viruses. NDM staff also made drinkable strawberry DNA daiquiris in a special evening session for festival attendees over 18. 

•Saturday, June 6th: Daniel Wilson’s group explained antibiotic resistance with a bacteria coconut shy and a ‘dance dance evolution’ interactive dance mat game.

•Sunday, June 7th: Members of Sumi Biswas' group made mosquitoes out of pipe-cleaners and did live, on-screen mosquito dissections to explain their work developing anti-malarial vaccines. 

Additionally, Peter Horby and Adrian Hill were part of a main festival event about Ebola, which looked at the history and biology of Ebola and discussed how close we are to ending the crisis.

If you missed out on taking part this time but would like to volunteer at our next event, NDM Strategic will be taking part in Oxford Open Doors in September. Email public@ndm.ox.ac.uk to register your interest.

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