By Alexandra Mendoza
A new, bilingual exhibit at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center explores the complex world inside the human body that is the microbiome.
Zoo in You: The Human Microbiome will open its doors to visitors this coming weekend. It is part of a traveling exhibition that will also shed light into innovative scientific research being done on this subject at different academic institutions in San Diego.
Zoo in You was created in partnership between La Jolla’s J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and will provide visitors a fascinating look into the millions of microbes that inhabit the human body without which we could not survive.
San Diego County continues to be on the cutting-edge of human microbiome science, with research taking place at institutions such as JCVI, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical
Discovery Institute, and the Scripps Research Institute.
“We want to introduce our visitors to the science of their own microbiome, and to discoveries made right here in the community,” stated Steve Snyder, Director of the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in a Press Release.
Visitors to this 2,000-square-foot bilingual exhibit will be able to interact with 15 different exhibit components, organized into three topic areas: Meet the Microbes, Our Complex Ecosystems and Exploring the Microbiome.
In Meet the Microbes, visitors will learn that microbes are our constant companions, living on and inside us from the moment we’re born. The activities include watching how a baby is colonized by microbes and play a game to observe how their microbiome reacts to everyday occurrences in the body.
Through Our Complex Ecosystems, visitors can interact with green screen technology to give a “weather report” on the climate conditions of their nose, mouth, gut or skin, or virtually wash their hands and observe how long it takes to be free of germs.
Finally, in the third topic area, attendees will get the chance to peer into a microscope and examine real microbe specimens.
Dr. Karen Nelson, President of JCVI, shared that the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center is the perfect stage to showcase these scientific advances in a way that is engaging for people of all ages.
“One of our key missions is spreading our vast knowledge of the genome to the scientists of the future,” she said.
The bilingual exhibition Zoo in You will be open from January 30th to May 8th at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park.