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Lab entertains during Science Discovery Day

Bay Area Science Festival (Download Image) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Harold Rogers' presentation on how to make elephant toothpaste was a crowd pleaser. Photos by Don Johnston/LLNL

More than 30,000 people packed into AT&T Park Saturday for the San Francisco Bay Area Science Festival, a day of hands-on experiments, exhibits, games and shows.

The event was the culmination of the Bay Area Science Festival's week-long science festivities, which featured more than 100 fun, interactive science and technology events. 

Bay Area Science Festival

During the successful event, LLNL joined more than 150 exhibitors to bring science to the masses.

Situated on the first tier along the third base line, the Lab booth was in prime position to welcome visitors and drew in a constant crowd. Science enthusiasts, young and old, flocked to the LLNL booths to participate in "Fun with Science" experiments, test their knowledge with a Science Challenge Game and try to solve the energy crisis with the interactive electronic climate simulation.

Throughout the day, Lab volunteers Nick Williams and Harold Rogers drew crowds with the Lab's popular "Fun With Science" presentation, translating topics like air pressure, chemical reactions and electricity into interactive experiments like "Elephant Toothpaste," "Marshmallow Man" and "Leaky Bottle."

Earlier in the week, a team of bioengineers from LLNL's Center for Bioengineering fielded questions online about neural implants as part of a series of Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) events organized by the Bay Area Science Festival. The two-hour, live question-and-answer session drew more than 680 questions and answers, landing the thread on the homepage of Reddit.