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As an off-site instructor, part of my job is to present our traveling Unisphere to various groups in the area. The Unisphere is a large inflatable sphere, where inside we use a rotating light projector to look at the stars.Before we enter, I always ask the the students what we might see in the Unisphere. Here are some of their responses; “I wanna see all the STARS!”, “We’ll find constellations.”, “We won’t see much casue it’s too dark in there, Miss Cate. “ (Yep, I have smart kids.)

I was recently teaching a Unisphere program, when I was presented with a very simple question. “Will we see a black hole?” I love learning and talking about black holes, but it bugged me that I could show the kids a black hole. I mean, it is something which by definition you can’t see BUT you can detect.

Read more: Can you picture what you can't see?

Boy Scout Days are here! Or at least are almost here. Boy Scout Days here at the Science Center will be taking place February 25th and 26th. Come join us for a day filled with science, scouting and lots of badge work! We offer badge work for all rank of scouts and discounts to anyone who wears their uniform! Whether you’re doing badge work or not come on out and join us for a lot of fun scouting activities!

I personally love working with scouting groups. I was a cub scout and boy scout when I was younger and I have a lot of really fond memories of camp outs, lock-ins, and being thrown out in the middle of the woods for a night to earn my wilderness survival badge. Of course that didn’t work out as well as they hoped since it started storming really bad and we had to take shelter while the lightning storm raged on around us. (Maybe that’s why I’m obsessed with weather.) Either way I have learned so much and had such a good time that I strongly encourage everyone to stick with it and have fun and come visit us for your science merit badges!

Around the office here at SLSC we always joke that I (Jet Stream Josh) stopped maturing at around 10 or 11 (I KNOW!!! Absurd right?). Well if one stops the think about it, I love Star Wars, collect transformer toys, and generally act like a brat most of the time. Well ok maybe I’m shamelessly holding on to my youth, but who can really blame me? Have you seen these modern day playgrounds? Take a look through these new and exciting different ideas for a playground and just try to tell me that you don’t want to play on them too! Try it! I dare you! I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU!!!!!!

I am VERY excited that this weekend the Saint Louis Science Center will welcome Robert Picardo, "the Doctor" from Star Trek: Voyager! He will be our celebrated guest Friday, February 3rd and Saturday, February 4th.

For many Trekkie fans, the holographic doctor is a very familiar and humorously dry character. Mr. Picardo will be talking about his life as a Star Trek actor, signing autographs, and ten lucky guests will eat lunch with Mr. Picardo on Saturday. They will also be showing two Star Trek: Voyager episodes in the OMNIMAX dome Friday night. Tickets will be available at the box office starting at 6 p.m. Tickets can be ordered in advance with the purchase of tickets to Star Trek: The Exhibition. Call 314.289.4424 for tickets.

Visit our website to view the list of scheduled events. Enjoy these opportunities to meet Picardo along with all of the other fun First Friday activities; like telescope viewing, Planetarium space shows, music and special evening rates for Star Trek: The Exhibition.

If you’re looking for something fun and unique to sweeten your Valentine's plans join me, Miss Cate, for Sweet Science, Saturday Feb. 11th, 10 a.m. - 11 a.m.. This is the tastiest workshop in our Family Science Series!

Cooking/baking is one of the most common place instances of chemistry. At what temperature will different substances melt or freeze? Why does a cake rise? What’s the science behind one of my personal weaknesses, sugar? The whole family will enjoy the experiments and sweet samples in this workshop. You might even learn some sweet science that you can share with your sweetheart. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.) This is a Valentine’s Day treat you'll wanna sample.

Join us as we explore the science of cakes, candy and cookies! This class is open to all ages. The cost is $20 ($15 for Members) per person and $15 ($12 for Members) per person for a group of 4 or more. Please book your reservation in advance by calling (314) 289-4424.

For all of you tech savvy people out there, I think this story will interest you! I was browsing Popular Science and found their list of 2012’s hottest gadgets. I couldn’t help but to get totally distracted from whatever it was I was suppose to be doing. Therefore, I’m offering you the same privilege to be completely distracted by these cool gadgets. My favorite was the 3D scanner. I would LOVE to have one of those just see how it works! Check out these cool gadgets and have fun!

Of course I have to wonder how Popular Science came up with the best gadgets of 2012 even though we are just now finishing the first month of the year.... Oh well, these things are still cool! Keep an eye out for these products and as the year goes on I’m sure that we see technology reach a whole new level of awesome!