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Half-Term Gastronomical Meal Deal!
What do you do with marshmallows? Some enjoy grilling them before gulping
them down, while others may just wolf them down in their pure tasty
vanilla form.
In At-Bristol science centre, we like to do things differently. We make
sculptures out of them and then test them in a vacuum!
There’s a host of exciting activities going on this half-term in
At-Bristol and the Star Trackers is one of the programmes set to become a
gastronomical affair!
With the marshmallow man experiment, visitors will get to explore the
effect of the forces that act on a human body if they are left stranded in
space without a space suit! The marshmallow men will be placed in a vacuum
and will change their form as air is sucked out of the fluffy sweets.
Although humans wouldn’t react exactly the same way (we aren’t after all
made of marshmallow!), it is exemplary of how our bodies would potentially
react while in space.
The only surviving person to have known what it feels like to be exposed
to a vacuum was in 1965. Although he didn’t quite react like our
marshmallow man, he did interestingly feel his saliva starting to boil on
his tongue just before he lost consciousness.
If marshmallow does not take your fancy, some ice-cream might work!
Visitors will be in for a rare treat as they will be offered space
ice-cream, a light-weight, freeze-dried version of Earth ice-cream. Space
food research has led to the development of many food that we now take for
granted. For example the freeze-dried berries found in your breakfast
cereal were originally developed for astronauts.
Water is removed from food before it is taken into space for several
reasons. Firstly it lasts longer, as bacteria can’t thrive without water,
and to make it lighter in weight so that it is less expensive to send them
into space.
Star Trackers programme is held on 22 and 23 February at intervals from
10am to 6pm in Explore-At-Bristol.
For press enquiries please contact Mavis Choong, At-Bristol Press
Office
0117 915 7152 / 0796 733 4152 /
mavis.choong@at-bristol.org.uk
Notes to Editors:
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At-Bristol is a leading science centre in the UK and a
major player in the worldwide science centre movement. It aims to be a
world-class science and natural history centre that makes distinctive,
valued and recognised contributions to informal science learning and
public engagement with science across Europe. A registered charity,
At-Bristol has hosted more than three million visits and continually
strives towards making science accessible to all.
www.at-bristol.org.uk
(Registered charity no. 1049954)
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