Researchers' Night at CXI: scientific treasures you can touch and taste

Ice cream prepared in seconds, gold that isn't gold at all, chatbots from a fairy-tale realm, 3D printing, and even a power plant from a toilet!

This was this year's Researchers' Night at the Institute for Nanomaterials, Advanced Technologies and Innovation (CXI TUL) in Liberec.
The theme of this year's event was wealth, and the programme itself was also rich, attracting a record number of visitors.

See slideshow from the night.

Ice cream in the blink of an eye

Long queues formed right from the start at the Environmental Chemistry Department's stand. Why? Because of ice cream, which was made in a matter of seconds using liquid nitrogen.
Liquid nitrogen has a temperature of almost -200 °C, so it can instantly freeze cream with chocolate. In the laboratory, it is used, for example, to store samples, but here it mainly delighted children, and let's admit that adults also enjoyed this scientific treat.

Artificial intelligence and Little Red Riding Hood

The Process Modelling and AI Department prepared an interactive game that attracted a lot of interest. The children had to guess which fairy-tale character the chatbot was playing, and they could only ask closed questions. It was fun and a great way to learn how chatbots work and how to use them safely.

All that glitters is not gold

The science show "Gold, are you gold?" revealed that a sparkling shine does not always mean real gold; sometimes it is just an ordinary compound that is not valuable. In addition, the Nanochemistry Department showed that gold does not have to be yellow, but can also be red. When gold is divided into nanoparticles a thousand times smaller than a human hair, its behaviour and colour change. Such particles can be red or pink because light refracts and absorbs differently on them.
Bacteria: threat and hope

The Department of Applied Biology focused on a topic that concerns us all: antibiotics. The demonstration "Gold in Danger: How Bacteria Are Conquering Medicine" revealed why antibiotics, once the gold standard of medicine, are now facing a crisis caused by bacterial resistance.
Children and adults alike were also able to test which diseases are viral and which are bacterial, see the results of resistance testing, and look through a microscope at yeast and special bacteria that absorb metals.

Salt over gold

At the "Salt over gold" stand, prepared by another team from the Department of Applied Biology, children learned about the role of vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates in the human body.
The biggest hit? The glowing test tube. The children mixed two "magical" substances, which began to glow when combined. And what is the explanation? Simple: mixing the two substances triggers a chemical reaction in which energy is released in the form of light, not heat. The technical term for this phenomenon is chemiluminescence. The same principle is used by fireflies in nature, for example.

3D printing: technology worth its weight in gold

At the 3D printing workshop, visitors could see examples of printed objects that they would never have imagined could be created using this technology. There were small and complex components for industry and medicine, as well as design objects and works of art.

The biggest surprise? A fully functional electric guitar that was printed entirely on a 3D printer. When one of the 3D printing experts played it, it sounded indistinguishable from a guitar from a music shop.
Visitors were also fascinated to see how a digital model was turned into a real product, proving that the future of manufacturing has already begun and that even a thin layer of material can be worth its weight in gold.

A toilet as a power plant

The attraction that most visitors shook their heads at was a power plant made from urine, or, scientifically speaking, microbial fuel cell technology – Pee Power.

Pee Power technology was brought to us by a scientist from the University of Southampton and can be considered the first pre-commercial prototype of microbial fuel cells developed for field use, focusing specifically on the direct production of electricity from microbial fuel cells powered by human urine.

And how does microbial fuel cell technology work? Bacteria in the device break down substances contained in urine, releasing electrons – energy that generates an electric current.
Pee Power has enormous potential, as it can be used at music festivals, for example, and the technology has already been successfully tested in the United Kingdom.

Science as an adventure

This year's Researchers' Night at CXI was rich in experiences and saw record attendance.
It showed that science is not just in laboratories, but that it affects us every day and can be as exciting as opening a chest full of treasures.

CXI TUL would like to thank all visitors and looks forward to seeing you again next year!