Squishy brains, fake burps: This is science?

Dr. Jo Fleming is a serious scientist, but on Saturday she was all about smashing strawberries — and stereotypes.

"You mush them up in the Ziploc bags," she instructed the crowd of children gathered around her booth at Pacific Science Center's Life Sciences Research Weekend. "Now we're ready for the secret ingredient that makes the DNA jump out," she said, arching her eyebrows.

With her hair dyed fuchsia and her outgoing style, Fleming may not fit the popular image of a researcher — but that's because the image is false, she said.

"The real myth is that science is only for people who have superbrains. Science is for everybody."

That's a message the science center will reinforce over the next three years with a $2 million federal grant aimed at bringing local scientists and the public together in events such as the life-sciences program, which continues through today.

"It's really important for people to have an understanding and awareness of the research going on in their community," said Lauren Russell, who manages the science center's new Portal to the Public program. "There are so many issues the public is dealing with these days, from stem cells to evolution and global warming, all of which underscore the value of scientific literacy."

The National Science Foundation grant will also be used to teach scientists how to translate their work into something lay people can relate to.

Russell started the process with a training session for local researchers who volunteered to participate in the life-sciences program, co-sponsored by the Northwest Association for Biomedical Research and the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association.

"We really encouraged them to think about making their work relevant for the public, finding the hook that makes it meaningful," Russell said.

And, she urged, don't forget props.

Tess Stewart, a doctoral student in the University of Washington's neurobiology program, showed up with a realistic brain model that was a big hit.

"It's really squishy and kind of wet," said 8-year-old Kira Patterson of Kent, who attended with her father and two brothers.

Stewart also dazzled kids — and their parents — with demonstrations of optical illusions that show how the brain can trick the eyes into seeing things that aren't really there.

"We love this stuff, and we want to inspire that in other people," she said. "A huge portion of this work is funded by the public."

Brian Halpern, a nursing instructor at Renton Technical College, brought a life-size prop called Sim-Man. The animated dummy can be programmed to simulate the symptoms of several diseases and is used to train students before they work on real patients.

But to capture the attention of Saturday's mostly pint-sized audience, Halpern decided to focus on Sim-Man's ability to reproduce the sounds of the human body — including burps and farts.

"I asked myself: 'What are kids really interested in?' " Halpern said.

Fleming, a self-described geek who studies the disease scleroderma at the UW, guided her budding scientists through the final steps of extracting DNA from strawberries: mixing the juice with alcohol, which causes the genetic material to precipitate out, then using sticks to twirl up the slimy strands, which she likened to snot.

"This kind of thing is fun," she said, as a new group of kids crowded in. "The most important thing is to just get a spark of interest."

Sandi Doughton: 206-464-2491 or sdoughton@seattletimes.com