Have you ever used a scanning electron microscope? Taken
pictures of your own cells at such high magnification that you can see their
compartments? Met someone who used those tools as a professional
scientists? Most of us can’t say ‘yes’ to any of these questions. Thanks to the
work of the BioBus thousands of kids or New York City and across the country
can say they’ve done it all.
The BioBus is a public outreach project focused on giving
children first hand experience using high-tech microscopy to see how real cell
biology work is done. It has been enthusiastically embraced by the schools it
visits, enjoyed collaboration with leaders in academic research and gained the
support of the biotech industry. The center piece of the BioBus project is
in-fact a bus. It has been adapted to contain a top of the line microscopes but
is still mobile and brings high tech labs to low-income schools. This gives
many students a chance they might not otherwise have to interact with real
scientists and understand how biological research is done. This innovative
educational tool started as the dream of a single young man who wanted to bring
the joy and excitement of scientific discovery he found as a PhD student to all
people.
Dr. Ben Dubin-Thaler is still the Chief Scientist of the BioBus and was
kind enough to take the time to speak with me about his work.
His enthusiasm was immediately evident as the first several
minutes of our conversation were about my own work. We had plenty to talk about
as I am currently working on a PhD in cell biology and use microscopy almost
everyday. Far from having taken at step back from the scientific community he was
curious about the technical detail of my imaging tools and the ideas I explore.
This intrinsic ease of conversation and infections passion have no doubt aided
him in and garnering the wide rang of support and success the BioBus enjoys.
WP: You have a strong background in research, bud did you
have any previous work to prepare you for the non-scientific aspects of running
the BioBus?
Ben: I had a very fruitful Ph.D., co-authoring
9 peer-reviewed journal articles. I’ve always loved teaching and won awards for
undergraduate instruction and volunteered at neighborhood after-school programs
(while a graduate student), where I experienced the joys and challenges of
working with low-income communities in Harlem.”
WP: When did you first start thinking about running a public
education program?
Ben: “Having been born into a family of physicists and
biologists, I’ve grown up being confronted by the mystery and beauty of the
natural world and was always encouraged to play and experiment. While in
graduate school , I noticed that when other people had the chance to play and
experiment, they became excited and happy about science. This contrasts what
often happens while sitting through lectures or reading textbooks. The BioBus
is my way of bringing the fun and excitement of scientific experimentation and
play to all people.”
The progress on this goal has been tremendous. From the
bus’s christening in March 2008 in Brooklyn the bus has visited over 300 schools
and had more than 50,000 people view or perform experiments. During the school
year they visit a school almost every day. Most of these schools are in low-income
areas of New York but the bus has gone on cross-country tours and visited other
cities in the north-east. They have programs for all grades kindergarten
through 12th .
Teachers at these schools report that the BioBus visits
always cause quite a stir, with kids talking about the visits for weeks
afterwards. Ben has seen this himself when they return to schools and students
can tell him what they learned and did over a year ago. There has been a focus
on the low-income areas because kids there generally have less exposure to
professional scientists. More often than not, the people running the BioBus are
the first actual biologists, or researchers of any sort, students have met.
Getting this exposure can trigger the realization that science isn’t the domain
inconceivable geniuses, but that “science can be done by everyone” and it’s
actually “not to difficult”. This
idea and interest in science really does take hold. Surveying students before
and after they participate shows twice as many students think science is
something they would want to do as a career. For students in high school they
know this can directly translate to education choices. Ben recalls being
contacted by one student who enrolled as cell biology major at university and
cited the BioBus as her inspiration to do so!
It isn’t just kids whose lives are touched by their work. In
addition to their school visits, the bus appears at multiple public events each
month where they are open to the public. Adults often enter the bus expecting
some cute ‘kids only’ type simple displays; they then realize what fantastic
devices are being made publically available. Parents then begin playing with the microscopes and asking
questions as they realize that biology is really something they should be
paying to too.
Microscopy experiments have many unique attributes that make
them particularly fascinating to new scientists. They are often very easy to
use and the time-scale of experiments are conducive to quick projects. Where
much of biochemistry requires hours of letting chemicals mix, light microscopes
can give results as quickly as you can load slides. The scale of view can take
people from their usual perspective on objects down to 100 times magnification
allowing for a continuous shift to seeing finer and finer details never before
appreciated. So why aren’t there microscopes in every school? They can be
extremely expensive. The microscope I use in my research cost nearly half a
million dollars and less sophisticated scopes still costing tens of thousands
of dollars. For this reason I was very curious how a small non-profit
organization could afford to load such things on a bus and haul it around New
York.
WP: How did you go about getting your initial funding?
Ben: “In the beginning funding was very small! I built the BioBus
for under $50,000. This money came primarily from donations from friends,
family, and colleagues who believed in me and what I was doing. I kept costs
very low by repurposing and reusing much of he material for building the bus,
as well as the bus itself. Which is a 1974 city bus! We also had early support
from Olympus {a microscope engineering and manufacturing group}, who donated
$20,000 worth of microscopes in the first year.”
From these simple beginning Ben has obtained a great deal of
collaboration and support from academics, the biotech industry and the general
public. Much of this support comes from biologists he met while attending high
profile research conferences such as the annual American Society for Cell
Biology (ASCB). Within New York, collaborators at New York University (NYU) in
the materials research center provided the project with office space. Other universities
which donate materials, lesson plans and volunteers include the Rockefeller
University and Columbia University. Among his supporters is Nobel Prize winning
biologist ** who pioneered the use of the green-fluorescent protein (GFP) and
thus revolutionized modern live-cell microscopy. She works with the small
transparent work C. elegans to
observe the location and function of specific proteins in living animals.
Makers of microscopes and developers of have also caught
onto just how important this work is. Hundreds of thousands of dollars with of
microscopes have now been donated to the BioBus, the best of which are more
powerful than those Ben used for his own graduate degree! These include a
stereo-zoom microscope which
allows for continuous increase from 10 to 80 times actual size from Zeiss and a
scanning electron microscope from TopCom* which allows for imaging of the
surfaces common objects to near unrecognizable detail. These individuals,
schools and companies recognize how vital it is for the next generations to
have an appreciation for science and see that amazing discoveries are well
within their capabilities.
So what is next for the BioBus? would like to get further
integrated into the experience of low-income schools education plan to keep
giving students the inspirational opportunity to. New projects include a remote
controlled robotic microscope from Nikkon. This allows for kids from to do
experiments over the internet from where ever they are. As a Nonprofit largely
volunteer run organization, they are constantly working just to obtain ample
funding to keep their current projects funded. Many of the students attend
schools that can’t afford the supplies needed for a visit. If you are
interested in their work, try
volunteering on the BioBus or donating to theorganization. If you happen to be a researcher yourself, ask if you can
volunteer time or donate materials. You can also look to see if any other
members of the Mobile Lab Coalition are in your area to support similar work in
your community.
I’ll end this entry the way I ended the interview, with a
feel good question about his favorite moments and reflections inspired by his
work.
Ben: “We spent five weeks at Lefferts Garden Charter School
in Brooklyn this spring. At the end of the class, 25 elementary school students
spontaneously gave Latasha and me and giant group hug! Those kids learned how
to use a $75,000 electron microscope and we’ve heard from their teachers and
their principal how amazing the experience has been. It’s great to be able to
have this kind of impact on students who otherwise might never use a microscope
or never meet a professional scientists. These are the kids who are going to
make the discoveries and create the cities of the future that are greener,
healthier, more just; and they are going to do it by harnessing the power of
science and scientific thinking.”
