On September 27th, IMDEA Water will celebrate the Water Night in Alcalá de Henares as part of the fifteenth edition of the European Researchers’ Night in Madrid, an event that is being held simultaneously in more than 350 European cities. At our booths you will learn how we can treat urban wastewater in a sustainable way using electroactive microorganisms. You will also discover how a microorganism is isolated from the environment and how we can determine if that microorganism is resistant to different antibiotics. In addition, you will understand ecological interactions and human impacts on aquatic ecosystems, and you will be able to sample and identify species using microscopes.

On the other hand, our researchers will tell you about the environmental problems that some pollutants found in water are creating, and you will also learn what membranes are and how they are recycled at the end of their useful life. Participants will also learn about the problem of the presence of plastics in the environment, how they are transformed, what their impact is and what we can do to minimize it.

You will be able to extract microplastics from water samples and sea sand, see them under the microscope, experiment with rain simulators to see how it drags and transports plastic particles, test your knowledge by playing “water roulette” and learn scientific curiosities in a fun gymkhana and receive the “I am a scientist” diploma. You will also be able to attend two workshops. In the first one, our researchers and technicians will show you how pollutants are transported through water/soil and how they are detected.

In addition, participants will be able to perform an extraction of microplastics from water and soil samples.

In the second workshop you will try to solve the mystery of aquatic DNA.

To do so, you will learn about a very important molecular technique as a first step to know the microbial diversity that lives in water: “DNA extraction”.

You will be able to extract DNA in a very simple way and, if you solve the mystery, you will receive a sweet gift.

All activities are aimed at the general public and will take place on September 27, 2024 at IMDEA Agua, located at Avenida Punto Com nº2 in Alcalá de Henares, between 6 pm and 9 pm. Details of each activity are provided below:

STANDS – No reservations are required. 18:00-21:00

• Nature knows best: electroactive bacteria for cleaning up water
• Antibiotic resistance in the environment: how to make the invisible visible
• Water defenders: Investigating the Role of Membrane Technology in Eliminating Emerging Contaminants from Water
• The invisible life in aquatic ecosystems
• Are we surrounded by plastics?
• The sea under the microscope, ¿will we find microplastics?

WORKSHOPS – Reservations: eventos.agua@imdea.org (reservations for each workshop will be made in order of receipt of the mails from September 16 at 9:00 a.m.)

• Pollutants tour: transport, analysis and detection in the IMDEA Water laboratories. 19:00-20:00
• The mistery of the aquatic DNA. Two shifts: 19:00-19:40; 20:00-20:40
  

The European Researchers’ Night in Madrid is a project to support the careers of researchers with the aim of raising awareness of the role of researchers and the importance of their work for the welfare of society. In Madrid it is coordinated by the Fundación para el Conocimiento madri+d. NIGHTMADRID is a science outreach project, coordinated by Fundación madri+d and funded by the European Union within the Horizon Europe Program, under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions with grant agreement no. 101.162.110.

More information:https://www.madrimasd.org/lanochedelosinvestigadores/