Scientist brings mobile laboratory for children to Champaign

CHAMPAIGN – Seven-year-old Krishna Subbiah spent a little time Saturday afternoon studying the death of a biological invader with wide-eyed interest from the back of a converted transit bus.

Its predator – a white blood cell – had overtaken a speck of bacteria with ease.

"I liked the movie," Subbiah said afterward. "I learned that white blood cells can eat all kinds of bacteria until they're full and it makes them die."

Though not the usual TV, the magnified microscopic mayhem on the small screen gave Subbiah and dozens of other kids in the Champaign-Urbana area this week a glimpse into the world of cell biology.

And that's just what Urbana native Ben Durbin-Thaler wants to do.

Durbin-Thaler is the education director of the BioBus, a mobile biology laboratory operated by Cell Motion Laboratories, a New York State non-for-profit educational corporation.

"We're practicing being scientists on a bus," he told a group of young spectators.

He spent this past week driving the BioBus to schools in the area, including the University of Illinois, before making a last stop Saturday at the Orpheum Children's Science Museum.

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