New Scientist Live

Saturday 12th to Monday 14th October 2024

New Scientist Live, held annually at ExCeL in London, has become a regular part of our outreach programme. It attracts a much larger number of visitors than any of our other outreach events, over 26,000 this year.

Robert Ratford organised our stand and was there on all three days, supported by other Quekett members Gordon Brown, Kelvin Law, Stephen Parker, Chris Thomas and Alan Wood.

We had a large number of visitors over the three days of the festival, including crowds of children, families, scientists and retired people. We hope that some of them will come to meetings, excursions or outreach events, or join the Club, the Anglian Microscopy Group or the Milton Microscopy Group.

We aimed to engage children, and so most of our microscopes were small Elikliv digital microscopes with a built-in screen; these are available from sources such as Amazon, eBay and AliExpress.

Elikliv digital microscopeElikliv digital microscope

We also had a few full-size microscopes, although they had to be guarded against careless users or tucked away behind monitors.

Stephen Parker brought a polarising microscope so that he could demonstrate the different colours that polarised light can produce in very thin (30µm) section of rocks such as granite and diorite.

Stephen Parker with young visitorsStephen Parker with young visitors

Polarizing microscopePolarizing microscope

Thin section of diorite under crossed polarisers and retarder

Gordon Brown brought a Vision Engineering stereomicroscope that he has repaired and restored, to show images of pseudoscorpions and foraminiferous sand on a monitor

Gordon BrownGordon Brown

He brought some dry grass from his compost heap, which he knows contains pseudoscorpions, and a laboratory sieve with a 2 mm mesh. He invited visitors to shake the sieve hard to separate the pseudoscorpions and small particles. He then used a small, dampened brush to pick up the pseudoscorpions and transfer them to a small coin capsule so that we could watch them on a monitor.

Compost and sieveCompost and sieve

Pseudoscorpions on monitorPseudoscorpions on monitor

The pseudoscorpions are very small, as you can see in this photo of one on an adult hand:

PseudoscorpionPseudoscorpion

Gordon used the stereomicroscope to show forams in sand from
Swanage and Portland Harbour, and microfossils from the Coralline Crag bed
at Ramsholt in Suffolk.

Vision Engineering stereomicroscopeVision Engineering stereomicroscope

Camera on Vision Engineering stereomicroscopeCamera on Vision Engineering stereomicroscope

Gordon brought copies of the FSC Illustrated key to the British false scorpions (pseudoscorpions) so that we could see the variety of species that are found in this country.

Gordon also brought a binocular Wild M11 compound microscope with an eyepiece camera sending images of pollen and histology slides to a monitor.

Wild M11 microscopeWild M11 microscope (hidden behind a monitor)

PollenPollen on monitor

Camera on Wild M11 microscopeCamera on Wild M11 microscope

Gordon brought two books with illustrations of pollen, one with coloured SEM images (Pollen: The Hidden Sexuality of Flowers by Madeline Harley & Rob Kesseler), and the other with drawings by Norman Chapman in his book Pollen Microscopy.

Chris Thomas used a black and chrome monocular microscope fitted with an eyepiece camera to show images of a variety of slides on his laptop computer.

Chris ThomasChris Thomas

Monocular microscope with eyepiece cameraMonocular microscope with eyepiece camera

Robert Ratford brought a Chinese copy of a trinocular Olympus SZ stereomicroscope, with a Chinese inspection camera sending images to a monitor

Chinese stereomicroscopeChinese stereomicroscope

Robert RatfordRobert Ratford

Kelvin LawKelvin Law (right)

Kelvin Law with a young visitorKelvin Law with a young visitor

CrowdVisitors to the Quekett stand (with Alan Wood on the right)

CrowdVisitors to the Quekett stand (with Gordon Brown on the right)

VisitorsVisitors to the Quekett stand

Robert Ratford provided a huge variety of specimens, including some living ones, that could be viewed under the small digital microscopes.

Specimens and digital microscopeSpecimens and digital microscope

Bloodworms (Chironomid larvae)Bloodworms (Chironomid larvae)

Brine shrimps (Artemia)Brine shrimps (Artemia)

Maggots (bluebottle larvae)Maggots (bluebottle larvae)

Mealworms (larvae of Tenebrio molitor)Mealworms (larvae of Tenebrio molitor)

Tray of specimensTray of specimens (the beetles in the middle left cell are adults of Tenebrio molitor)

Plants and lichensPlants and lichens

Freshwater samplesFreshwater samples

Circuit boardCircuit board

To attract visitors from a distance, Robert used an old Epson video projector to display images of brine shrimps and bloodworms from a Chinese inspection camera on the backdrop of our stand.

Camera for displaying brine shrimpsCamera for displaying brine shrimps and bloodworms

Projected bloodwormsProjected bloodworms

Beekeeping displayBeekeeping display

After the crowds of families had left, we had some unusual visitors.

DinosaurDinosaur

AstronautAstronaut

A few other stands were using optical microscopes.

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons had a trinocular compound microscope with a Chinese inspection camera sending images to a monitor.

RCVS trinocular microscopeRCVS trinocular microscope

Bristol Applied Sciences used a Ceti stereomicroscope to show specimens.

Ceti stereomicroscopeCeti stereomicroscope

The Royal Entomological Society used two GXMXTL3 stereomicroscopes to show insects on slides and embedded in resin to lots of children.

RES stereomicroscopesRES stereomicroscopes

DuraLab were showing the monocular DR-510 compound microscope that they sell.

DuraLab microscopesDuraLab microscopes

We have already booked a stand at New Scientist Live next year, Saturday 18th to Monday 20th October 2025.

Report by Alan Wood, photos by Alan Wood and Robert Ratford

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