Year in Discovery – October 2016 Special Events Galore

@ Discovery: Special Events Galore

The month of October featured three Saturday special events at Discovery Museum, starting October 1st when Pitney Bowes and the Pitney Bowes Foundation supported and volunteered to help staff a free admission day at the Museum. Over 2,700 guests participated in activities including making slime, dropping parachutes, building planters from recycled materials, and exploring exhibit spaces and shows. Volunteers from Pitney Bowes ran activities throughout the day, and Reading Is Fundamental generously gave away free books to each child in attendance.

On Aeronautics Day, the Museum offered a number of flight-related activities, including kite flying, drone demonstrations, and paper airplance competitions. Volunteers from Sikorsky’s HeliVentures team brought a wind tunnel and they built and tested air foils with guests.

Discovery’s Halloween Spooktacular was a super fun day of spooky science. Curious Creatures brought live animals for guests to look at and learn about. Our live science demonstrations featured escaping monsters, pumpkin catapults, crafts and exploding jack-o’-lanterns kept over 500 kids and adults busy all day. Sorority and fraternity members from nearby Sacred Heart University and Fairfield University assisted with various activities, and we appreciate the help of our incredible volunteer corps.

Global Science News: October 2016

1. Brain Fossils: British paleontologists have identified fossilized dinosaur brain tissue for the first time.
2. Big, Big Universe: Astrophysicists have estimated that approximately two trillion galaxies exist in the universe.
3. A Looooong Life: Research suggests that the upper limit for the average lifespan of humans is about 115 years.
4. Wildlife Decline: The World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London report that vertebrate wildlife populations have declined 58% since 1970.

Thanks to Wikipedia’s 2016 in Science for the our Global Science headlines.