A group of postdocs and PhD students from the MRC-PPU, Frances Rose-Schumacher, Michael Munson, Sam Strickson, Catherine Rodger, Yosua Kristariyanto, George Allen, Nicola Phillips, Anna Kelner, Flora Keppie and Owen Conway, aided by MRC Communications Manager, Hazel Lambert, hosted a stand at the Dundee Science Festival that took place on Sunday 3rd November at Dundee Science Centre.

They hosted two activities for children and parents. In the first, children and their parents built a cell from play-dough. In the second they took part in an experiment that allowed visitors to see the dramatic influence of alcohol on the heartbeat of a small water-flea. The fleas were under a microscope hooked up to a TV screen.

The MRC-PPU stand was mobbed all day. More than 400 children visited the stand as judged by the number of petri-dishes used by children to take home the cell they made in them. The feedback received was extremely positive.

Frances Rose-Schumacher who helped coordinate the event said 'It was a lot of fun and everyone who participated got a lot out of it too. It is quite nice to talk about what we do, and it totally made me realise that what 'being a scientist' means is such a mystery to many people, so I think maybe we helped communicate that we look at cells and signals and that science is pretty cool! It was also great for children and their parents to interact with 'real life scientists', take home their play-dough cells and look at the waterfleas close up''.