Actor Alan Alda (left), Intel Chairman Craig Barrett (at left in top right) and the Association of Science-Technology Centers received National Science Board Public Service Awards.

Credit: Norman Seeff, Intel Corp. and © Ontario Science Centre, http://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca

Actor Alan Alda received the National Science Board's 2006 Public Service Award.

Credit: Norman Seeff

Intel chairman Craig R. Barrett, 2005 National Science Board Public Service Award recipient, presents top awards in the 2006 Intel Science Talent Search to high school seniors (left to right): Shannon Lisa Babb of Highland, Utah (1st place), American Fork High School; Yi Sun of San Jose, Calif. (2nd place), The Harker School, and; Yuan "Chelsea" Zhang of Denwood, Md. (3rd place), Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, Md.

Credit: Intel Corp.

The allure of experiential science cuts across age groups. These visitors at the Ontario Science Centre (an ASTC center) are learning to make magnetic liquids respond to magnets by manpulating a pool of ferrofluid to make it "dance." Ferrofluid is a magnetic material made by suspending trillions of tiny iron particles in an oily liquid. The iron particles respond to magnetic fields, allowing ferrofluids to be used to fix leaks in oil pipelines, for example.

Credit: © Ontario Science Centre, http://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca