June 2019

A night of fun-filled exploration: Project QUEST at the long night of science

On Saturday 15th June, the QUEST team (Norbert Marwan, Sebastian Breitenbach, Ola Kwiecien, Bedartha Goswami, Cinthya Nava Fernandez and Adam Hartland) contributed to the “Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften” or “Long Night of Science” at the Postdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Members of the public, young and old, enjoyed a series of interactive activities; learning about speleothems, cave science, exploration and climate, as well as the broader objectives of our interdisciplinary effort to quantify past environmental change from speleothems. Children had the opportunity to dress up as a caver, see a stalagmite forming before their eyes, handle real speleothems and an array of other activities; earning a stamp in their workbooks and a bat-shaped cookie for their efforts! The team put in a huge effort and by the close of the night (midnight), were thoroughly tired but pleased with the interest and response from visitors. Aside from the QUEST exhibit, which seemed particularly popular, the long night afforded an incredibly diverse and interesting range of experiences for visitors to the Wissenschaftspark Albert Einstein. As the evening closed a large number of visitors still milled through the exhibits, perhaps pausing to enjoy a drink and a snack, and listening to live musical performances by moonlight.