Science Fair in Prague

On June 8-10, 2023, we had the honor and pleasure to once again participate in the Science Fair in Prague, which was held at the exhibition center in Letňany. It was an incredibly inspiring experience, as many talented researchers, scientific teams, and innovative companies gathered at the fair to present their research and scientific projects to the public.

Anita Eckstein, Helena Švajdlenková, Anna Vykydalová, and Alena Opálková Šišková from the Polymer Institute SAS presented the processing of polymers into fibers using centrifugal force at the SAV stand. Using the example of spinning sugar syrup into cotton candy, they demonstrated the production of non-woven fabrics suitable for applications such as filtration or drug delivery systems. The visitors were surprised by the structure of the produced sugar fibers, which they could observe using a light microscope.

The atmosphere was “sweet,” full of curiosity and enthusiasm, as the fair was visited by many children and students who initially approached our sweet factory in disbelief. After making cotton candy – non-woven fabric and studying the microstructure of the fibers, they left excited and saying, “It’s magic!”. Seeing the interest and admiration in the eyes of the visitors who stopped by our stand and the joy of answering their curious questions was beautiful. We feel motivated and encouraged by the overwhelming interest, as 50,000 visitors came to see the fair. This event is important for supporting science, research, innovations, and their popularization and maintaining and expanding cooperation with the Czech Academy of Sciences.

The purchase of the demonstrator and the necessary accessories for the production of fibers by centrifugal force was financially supported by P SAV through a small grant call for popularizers of science.