Kid Stuff

Tiny Kids, Tinier Technology

Tom Giffey |

 Just call them “Atomic Duplos.”
Just call them “Atomic Duplos.”

You think your kiddos are small, with their itsy-bitsy fingers and teeny-tiny toes? You don’t know the half of it – or, to be more appropriate, the one-billionth of it. A new display at the Children’s Museum of Eau Claire will teach you and your young ones what it means to be really small – we’re talking nanoscale small. The touring “Nano” exhibit explores the science and technology of manipulating materials at the nano scale. How small is that? A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter – or about the size of a sugar molecule. For comparison, a human hair is a comparatively gargantuan 100,000 nanometers wide. According to a museum press release, the 400-square-foot exhibit, which will be housed on the museum’s second floor, includes “interactive exhibits that invite visitors to put on a lab coat and explore nano phenomena and real-world applications and implications.” Kids (and grownups) can play with magnets to learn how materials behave differently at different sizes; create a giant foam model of a tiny carbon nanotube; and discover the nano-sized things all around them. The exhibit’s June 30 grand opening will feature free Nano Ice Cream – which we can only hope isn’t served in nano-scale cones.

“Nano” exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Eau Claire • grand opening Tuesday, June 30, noon • 220 S. Barstow St., Eau Claire • $5 museum admission • (715) 832-5437 • www.cmec.cc