Niccolò Cosottini (DC10) from the University of York participates to the York Festival of Ideas 2026.
Featuring world-class speakers, exhibitions, theatre, music, films, guided walks, family-friendly activities, and much more, York Festival of Ideas offers a huge range of stimulating and diverse events for all ages and interests – most of them for free. Events take place at venues throughout the city as well as online.
York Festival of Ideas 2026 explores ‘Place and Space’ with over 200 mostly free in-person and online events designed to educate, entertain and inspire.
Niccolò and his group performed two different experiments so that kids could familiarize with gels and have fun in the meantime:
1) Dropping an alginate solution in water containing CaCl2 to make gel beads
2) Adding water to sodium polyacrylate to make fake snow.
A great demonstration of public outreach so that everyone can share the benefits of science and progress. Hopefully, this event will give birth to callings in children and lead to the next generation of great scientists!