On Saturday the University of Liverpool held one of its “Meet the Scientists” event at the World Museum. At these events, various groups from the uni run stands about their area of research and try to educate and inspire the next group of scientists. Ar
ound 1000 parents and children attend and this weekend had stands about; the art of paint, how clean are your hands, pathogen vs immune system, cell cookies and disease detectives. In addition the Hamill lab team ran our “sunscreen challenge”
Our stand involved taking pictures using a specialised camera that is only sensitive to ultraviolet light and then challenging the kids and adults to apply sunscreen as effectively as possible. Where the sunscreen had been applied the UV light was absorbed and the images appear black, but anywhere where they had missed gave back lighter tones.
Here are some good examples, where the people have done well.
and a few examples of people who “missed a bit”
We could also tell when people has used make up or moisturiser that contained SPF, here is Karen and one of the helpers on another stand. Note the neck line on Karen to see the difference in UV absorption due to the SPF.
We were constantly busy throughout the day, taking a total of 300 photos (50 per hour), including a bunch where we took before and after shots (after lunch the queue was too long so we could only do afters)
By lucky coincidence last week was also “sun awareness week” and we were able to piggy back on the end of that and distribute information sheets courtesy of the British Skin 
Foundation (who also support the molecular biology research into skin cancer that goes on in our lab).
To learn more about skin cancer check out the BSF information pages here or the British Association of Dermatologists pages here they are both excellent resources.
The whole event was great fun. Not just for the kids but for the adults and our team too. There were quite a few fun applications, not quite what we had in mind but hilarious!
Here are another set of photos of the stand in action
We’ll be doing this again soon, so look out for the next event at the world museum in early July if you fancy a go!
Of course, at the end of it all, the “sunscreen team” had to have a go with the UV camera too….
LaNts and Laminins 
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