NPI cought attention at the Science Fair with "storm car" and radiocarbon dating

From June 8 to 10, 2023, another Veletrh vědy (Science Fair), the largest science popularization event in the Czech Republic, took place at the PVA Expo exhibition center in Letňany Prague's quarter. Traditionally, there was also the NPI stand.

The staff of our stand this time consisted of workers from the CRL and AMS laboratories. The CRL radiocarbon laboratory, operated by the NPI in cooperation with the Institute of Archaeology of the CAS, Prague, let visitors guess which samples could be dated and which could not, and children in particular looked into the mysterious tent with fake ivory. The background of the stand was covered by NPI´s roll-ups and posters on the walls, as well as a video loop of movies about NPI on the monitor, NPI´s brochures and other materials were available.

NPI stand inside of Veletrh vědy (Sceince Fair), 2023

In the area in front of the stand, similarly to last year, a car with equipment for measuring storms was displayed, used by the employees of the Department of Radiation Dosimetry, especially in the CRREAT project, whose team prepared and took charge of this part of our exhibition. That attracted well-deserved attention this year as well. It was confirmed by several visits by the president of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prof. Eva Zažímalová: she was successively accompanied by the President of the Senate of the Parliament, Mr. Miloš Vystrčil, the Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Ms. Věra Kovářová, and the Minister of Science, Research and Innovation of the Czech Republic, Ms. Helena Langšádlová.

Interview with a visitor, there is a car for measuring storms in the background 

Crosswords with a thematic solution were available for children, and as a reward, a printed comic in Czech „"Na výlet do vesmíru aneb Pozor, kosmické záření!" (On the trip to space, or: Attention, cosmic radiation!), created by DRD in collaboration with comic artist Radana Přenosilová.

Children guess what can be radiocarbon dated

On Thursday and partly on Friday, the Science Fair was dominated by school classes, gradually replaced by families and visitors of all age and knowledge categories. Hundreds of them also visited our stand. The successful participation of the NPI this year was mainly organized by the Department of Radiation Dosimetry.

We are already looking forward to next year!