That's what the Institute of Molecular Medicine (iMM) just did. It decided to take Science to the youngest and brought together a group of 6 women scientists who went to the Paediatrics Centre of the Northern Lisbon Hospital Centre (CHULN). All dressed in black jumpers with blue dots representing the colours of the Institute, the scientists were awaited by an entourage of little onlookers whose illness accounting for their admission to Santa Maria Hospital did not prevent them from being there.
Daniel, Laura, Sajo, Inês, Christian and Mariana came in gradually, accompanied by either the hospital educators or their parents. The six little scientists barely knew that a speed dating awaited them, a very odd term like the strange smells they were given so that they realized that taste and smell go hand in hand in order to refine our senses.
In a room filled with both children and adults, it was the elders who first broke the ice of communication and smelled powdered chocolate or cinnamon. After smelling, they starting testing. The adults covered their noses and dipped a cotton swab containing the flavour to be discovered. “What is this brown liquid? Can I taste it?” they asked, as intrigued as the little ones who were turning their heads as if watching a disputed tennis match. "Now uncover your nose while you taste it". There was euphoria in the room, like an avalanche in which the senses finally correspond to what we expect of them. They looked at each other and exchanged words as if magic had suddenly appeared, “It's coffee, how did my taste buds not tell me that? It was necessary to uncover the nose”. After all, science was also involving the adults.
The little ones looked surprised and laughed as they took control of the multipurpose room on the sixth floor, the research lab. Without the excitement of the adults, they had understood that there is a memory for smells and tastes, the olfactory and tasting memory, and that throughout our lives we perfect it, learning to distinguish lemon from coffee, or cinnamon from garlic. We also know that the tongue, the muscle that moves the most in our bodies and in all directions, is like a city full of neighbourhoods, as each neighbourhood has its own distinctive character: salty, sweet, or bitter.
Daniel is the youngest, with his legs wagging in his chair, his feet not reaching the floor, but his spiky hair seeming to want to touch the ceiling, full of colour. In a discreet manner, he called one of the scientists, Rita Fragoso, a postdoctoral fellow at Professor João Barata's laboratory and told her secrets, covering his nose to imitate the adults, but he tasted nothing. The children are hospitalized and we do not know what food intolerances they may have, so we take no risks. In fact, we know their names and nothing else, not to allow reality jeopardize the joy of the moment.
“And who knows how to read?” asked Sandra Vaz, a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Ana Sebastião’s laboratory. Everyone knows, except Daniel". On the sheet of paper she gave to those present, each word referred to a colour, still that same word had a different colour from the one it was allocated to. Confused? Yes, that was the purpose. The idea was to demonstrate that when seeing a colour and a word, what the brain first apprehends is the word and not the actual colour. The predominance was what was written and not the reality, which is why little Daniel was the only one not to make mistakes, saying all the right colours, precisely because he still cannot read.
At last there was that strange thing with a foreign name one could not understand anything about it, speed what? The chairs were dragged and the little scientists were grouped at a table where a scientist was the protagonist of the story. The room was filled with laughter and a sound of contagious curiosity.
Each scientist explains something different, using artificial neurons, like Isaura Martins, a postdoctoral fellow at Professor Leonor Saúde’s laboratory, did, or like Judite Costa, a postdoctoral fellow and lab manager at Professor Edgar Gomes’s laboratory, showing a plastic muscle cell. The neurons explained the pathway through the spinal cord that often, due to damage, affect our movements and cause internal communication problems. The muscle cells were explained as if they were small bricks that together constitute the house that make up the human body. “Do you see these blue balls inside the muscles? Look into this muscle” said scientist Judite, while showing paper markers that looked more like Klimt’s paintings. We all looked fascinated. "These small balls are inside the cells and are called DNA, that is, the information that is in the nucleus of each cell and is inherited from the father and the mother". Christian, whose birthday was on that day, was amazed at how scientist Vanessa Luis, a postdoctoral fellow at Professor Maria Mota’s laboratory, had guessed that he must have a blond, blue-eyed mother or father, just like him. After all, scientists could also guess things.
Five minutes later and the speed dating scientists changed places.
The best was still to come! The incredible 6 would now be introduced to the banana’s DNA. Amazing, any living thing has DNA! Mariana's eyes sparkled as if someone had opened a new door to the world for her. Scientist Inês Bento, winner of the L'Oreal Prize as one of the Women in Science, cut the banana into pieces, crushing it inside a plastic bag. Anxious to do everything, they were given small pieces of banana so that they could crush it themselves. Perfect time for many to get soiled from crushing what was already crushed. “See this? In this test tube we put the crushed banana, the washing up liquid and a spoonful of salt, it is like baking a cake, we need to put the right amounts. The goal is to break the cell’s walls and membranes to remove the DNA”. After everything was mixed up, some in the front row turned away in fear of any imaginary explosion and the last magic touch came. Scientist Inês filtered the mixture through a coffee filter, obtaining a cleaner liquid, and added cold alcohol to it. “The alcohol is added and magic occurs, the DNA is like a white ball and all the genetic information of the banana appears. But this is not like a CSI, in the lab we need to do a lot of experiments to find out who the criminal banana is”.
Where as during the first hour wheelchair-bound little Inês was expressionless, at this point she looked astounded. She held a small test tube in the air and looked at the DNA as if a gift from Santa Claus had just dropped into the chimney. These little ones had all just officially become scientists. Sajo, a young Guinean always smiling broadly, helps one of the educators identify one of the test tubes. The educator gave a wrong answer and Sajo corrected her, it is normal, after all the educators are not experienced scientists like them.
In his mother's lap, Daniel continues to swing his legs, while looking through the small tube that holds the DNA. He will take it with him, no one will separate him from his new best friend, the banana. “Daniel, we should always put the date on the tube to know when the DNA sample was taken”, says scientist Rita. “Mom, what day is it today?”, Daniel asks.
Perhaps none of them knew what day it was because they were all hospitalized, some for some time. They lose track of time that is somehow stolen from them by reality. But it is this time that is equally returned to them through a living group of scientists who, as if by magic, turn life into a single exclamation mark.
Wow!!
The iMM Science Club is an original idea by Inês Domingues of the iMM Communication Office and Cláudia Faria, CHLN neurosurgeon and iMM scientist, whose goal is to arouse the curiosity of young people about science, and in particular about life sciences, fostering critical thinking and scientific and health literacy. It also intends to bring iMM scientists and health professionals (doctors and nurses) and paediatric educators and lecturers closer together.
Joana Sousa
Editorial Team
