Centre of the Cell is the world’s first science education centre located within working biomedical research laboratories, within a giant pod suspended above the labs themselves. It offers children and teenagers a fascinating insight into what scientists actually do and how their work influences real life.
The launch of the centre, in Whitechapel, on 3rd September was an entertaining and informative evening, with Pilotlight staff members Joe Swann and Helen Lang attending. From May 2007 to September 2008, Pilotlight London and a skilled group of Pilotlighters worked with Centre of the Cell, helping to deliver a business plan and also a strategy to establish a trading arm for the charity.
The Centre is free to visit and can host 40,000 visitors each year. Once inside, visitors gather around a central ‘nucleus’ for a powerful audiovisual display, projected around the walls of the pod, which introduces them to cells – the building blocks of life. The nucleus then opens to reveal interactive games and visitors can also try their hand at virtual experiments. This combination of digital technology and real-world science creates an education experience not available anywhere else in the world.
Centre of the Cell's aim is “to inspire young people to take an interest in science, to improve their knowledge of science and perhaps to lead them to becoming scientists themselves one day.” The organisation has said it would not have raised the necessary funds without the enormous contribution of Pilotlighters and the Pilotlight process, and we are delighted to have made a contribution.
To visit Centre of the Cell's website, click here.