Microbes and Me

This family event centered on the "Microbes and Me" informative display, which is a tour around the microorganisms that live on and within our bodies. This was run by student and staff volunteers from UCL Eastman Dental Institute, UCL Infection and Immunity, and UCLH Eastman Dental Hospital and provided an opportunity for the public to discuss microbial matters with scientists.

Hundreds of visitors of all ages engaged with the various activities. During the day 181 visitors voted to decide if microbes are mainly good for us, bad for us or make no difference, with 66 per cent of the visitors deciding that our microbial companions are good for us. (27 per cent voted that microbes are mainly bad for you, and 7 per cent voted that microbes make no difference to you.)

There were also several activities to attract young budding scientists: they made more than 180 "make a microbe" pencil ends (which they were able to take away with them), drew 74 "draw a scientist" pictures, and 140 visitors swabbed the handles in the Wellcome Trust building to determine the microbial load of these surfaces. Visitors also carried out the "infect a friend" experiment to see how easy it was to transfer bacteria in a handshake.