Science Fair: Holographic Visit, and: Science Fair: Pee Light, and: Science Fair: Roasting Pan Desalinator

Abstract

Science Fair: Holographic Visit, and: Science Fair: Pee Light, and: Science Fair: Roasting Pan Desalinator Marilyn Nelson (bio) Science Fair: Holographic Visit My project began with the electric laser toyI beam for my cat to chase around the floor.All of the light waves in a laser beamare the same size: they vibrate equallyat the same time, and bend in the same way.Holograms are made of one laser beamsplit into two beams by a special lens.One half-beam shines onto a photo film,the other half, shined on the subject ofthe hologram, reflects onto the film.The beam unites in overlapping waveswhich the film catches and holds, like a dreamthat wakes you with newborn joy and heartbreak,where you're sitting next to your grandma again. [End Page 88] Science Fair: Pee Light Research into microbial fuel cellsshows us ways we can help the world's poorest.Breaking down organic material,microbes release protons and electrons.Catching them gives you electricity.First, I made a proton exchange membraneout of salt and unflavored gelatin.Anode a square of window screen, cathodea piece of wire. A shovelfulof wetlands muck, water, and when we addan organic material we get free,the microbes' work powers an LED.When you pee, you can make a few minutes of light.That might keep you safe. Or let you read at night. [End Page 89] Science Fair: Roasting Pan Desalinator Whether or not you believe in climate change,the weather's changing. Earth's temperatures climbhotter and fall frigider. Icebergs melt.Droughts last for years. Animals die of thirst.It isn't rocket science: kids like mearen't hear-not, see-not monkeys. My projectand bigger versions of it can providefresh water for farming, and for drinking.I drilled holes in a sheet of plexiglass,attached a tube leading from holes to a jar,placed ocean-water in a roasting panunder the plexiglass. Put it outside.Heated water evaporates: well, duh.What rises, captured, could make deserts green. [End Page 90] Marilyn Nelson Anuradha Bhowmik is a Bangladeshi-American poet and writer living in Philadelphia. She is a 2018 AWP Intro Journals Project Winner in Poetry, and she earned her MFA from Virginia Tech. Anuradha has received awards from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, the New York State Summer Writers Institute, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Frost Place, the Indiana University Writers' Conference, the Eckerd College Writers' Conference, and the Juniper Summer Writing Institute. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Sun, diode poetry journal, Quarterly West, DIAGRAM, Shenandoah, Salt Hill, Hayden's Ferry Review, Nashville Review, Indiana Review, Bayou Magazine, Crab Orchard Review, Slice Magazine, Zone 3, The Normal School, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. Anuradha can be found at www.anuradhabhowmik.com. Copyright © 2020 Pleiades and Pleiades Press