FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Museum store is selling swine flu microbes!

Explorit Science Center in Davis has a H1N1 microbe you can hold in your hand, but you need't fear getting ill. It's a stuffed animal.

Davis, Ca 11-13-2009

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The hands-on museum sells the animal - and a collection of other disease causing microbe toys - in its store. They're replicas of what you'd see under the microscope - with perhaps a little artistic license taken by the maker,

Giantmicrobes Inc. of Delaware. (Is the H1N1 microbe actually the same pink as a certain barnyard animal?)

 

“When we saw these in a wholesale catalog, we couldn’t resist,” says Peter Willson, marketing director. “Sure, they’re a great visual aid for teaching, but we like the gift potential – comfort for a sick child, humor for a sick co-worker, etc. Plus, they’re fun conversation starters.”

 

Giantmicrobes’ fanciful products are becoming popular across the nation as teaching tools and as, well, toys. The Explorit Store sells H1N1, West Nile, chickenpox, common cold and staph infection dolls for $7.50 apiece.

 

The toys join an inventory that’s being beefed up for year-end holiday shopping, Willson says. “Our store is brimming with gifts, and as a nonprofit organization, we appreciate every purchase. Proceeds support our informal science education programs throughout the Sacramento region.”

 

The store is in Explorit’s facility at 2801 Second St. in Davis, fronting Interstate 80. It’s open during the center’s newly expanded public hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays and 2-5 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays.

 

Admission is $4; and free to members and children 3 and under, and teachers with valid ID. Admission is free to all on the fourth Friday of each month. Bank of America cardholders are admitted for free the first weekend of every month. Shoppers wanting just a quick visit to the store are also admitted without charge.

 

Since 1982, Explorit has engaged visitors in imaginative, challenging and entertaining science experiences. Two floors of museum space feature a long-term exhibition about the science of motion and smaller exhibitions that change three times a year.

 

Don’t miss Explorit’s Challenge Center, where you can become a builder-inventor. Use our bins of recycled and “found” materials in answer to the Challenge of the Week, such as: How tall a tower can you build? Also be sure to visit the Discovery Room, Animal Alcove, Closer Look Microscope Nook and Wet Lab, all full of activities true to the center’s motto of “Think it. Try it. Explorit.”

 

To learn more, phone (530) 756-0191 or visit www.explorit.org.

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