BENGALURU: The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) held its Open Day on Saturday to commemorate Jamsetji Tata’s birth anniversary, which also happens to be the institute’s ‘Founder Day’. Various experiments were put on exhibition by students and researchers of the institute. Each of the 40 departments put up their own exhibits. This apart, there was a separate kids zone to simplify scientific phenomena, like laser scattering and DNA structures, through experiments.

“I spent an hour looking at each experiment on display because I love science. There was one that explained how to find the purity of water and the presence of bacteria in it. Another showed how touch screen sensors work. We don’t get to see such experiments in school,” said Divyansh, a Class 10 student who was present at the kids zone.

The exhibition by the departments were advanced and even attracted researchers and students from outside.  At the Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Abhishek B, a project assistant displayed the use of drones to spray pesticides.“We took six months to develop this model and tested it in Arecanut farms in Karnataka. It helps reduce the effort of farmers and labourers who have to climb each tree that are around 60-ft high to spray the pesticides. It can spray 500 gm of pesticide in one go,” Abhishek said.

At the Centre for Infectious Diseases Research, bodies of preserved dead rats and guinea pigs, which were used for testing were on display. Explaining to The New Indian Express about their research, Dr. S Rajamani, said,” We are trying to exhibit the impact of Tuberculosis and raise awareness on the disease. The bacteria is becoming increasingly drug-resistant. We infected the guinea pigs with the TB bacteria in a controlled environment and this can be seen by the spread of white dots on their lungs and liver. The non-infected animal does not exhibit these spots, which indicates that it has not contracted TB.”