Learning with the Atchoo-O-Matic

The first "Lange Nacht des Wissens" (night of science) in Göttingen was a huge success, attracting about 15.000 visitors. From 5 o'clock p.m. until midnight the DPZ' booth was literally sieged by visitors of all ages who tried out the many hands-on activities offered. "It feels like the last five hours passed by in 30 minutes," said neuroscientist Katharina Menz, "but it's especially a lot of fun to explain our experiments to kids."

Katharina Menz presented a test that demonstrated how neuroprosthetics work. Achievers of the test earned gummy bears. In-depth questions could be discussed with the heads of the section's units, Stefan Treue, Alexander Gail and Hansjörg Scherberger.

While the neurobiologists ran slowly out of gummy bears, visitors lined up a few meters away to find out more about infectious diseases. A virology puzzle and a laboratory showed which viruses attack humans and animals. In the "Atchoo-O-Matic" visitors saw under black light how many bacteria and germs a simple sneezer produces.

The behavioral biologists explained the communication of different primate species using images and records of their voices - a surprising and funny activity, especially for children.