Educational Technology Blog

Infectious – Multimedia and Science

June 11th, 2009

The Infectious exhibition at the TCD Science Gallery is an example of popular science communication at its best. It addresses a topical issue in an imaginative and engaging manner, it allows visitors to participate in research … and admission is free!

Visitors are greeted by a person in a ‘decontamination’ suit who hands them an ‘uninfected’ electronic badge. Contagion spreads (virtually) through the exhibition based on models for the spread of real epidemics. As you move about, your badge is read by sensors. Eventually, you become electronically infected and have to visit a ‘disinfection’ station.

Multimedia technologies are used very imaginatively. For example, the movement of Daphnia (water fleas) changes in response to infection. These changes are represented musically.

In the Cybernetic Bacteria exhibit, bacterial communication and digital network patterns are combined to create artificial life forms.

While other exhibits include agar plates (pictured here with visitor badge) showing the growth of bacteria from people’s and dog’s mouths … and maps and models of an epidemic spreading over time across the world.

Visitors can participate in research on immunity to malaria by giving a cheek swab, which analyses mal genes. Depending on the variation of these genes you can have a highly active response which can lead to inflammation (SS), an inactive response which leads to infection (LL) or a combined form which responds to infection and does not cause inflammation (SL). Along with 59% of the population tested, I have a highly active response. (Image below courtesy of TCD Science Gallery).

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