We have another great week lined up for you in our ninth Festival. See below for the full line-up or you can pick up a printed program from the Courthouse now.

Tickets are available now – have you got yours yet?

Click here for details of the Schools Events

Otley Science Festival is Supported by:

Monday 7 November 11.00 – 12.00 noon

Silly Science Toddler Time – Families 

Our sell out science special for under 5’s is back! Join us and let your child investigate with their senses and explore the scientific world around them. Laid on especially for the Courthouse by the Otley Children’s Centre, this is a very popular ticketed event with limited spaces, so please book early to avoid disappointment.

£3 per child, accompanying adults free.
For children aged 5 and under.

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Monday 7 November 1.00pm – 2.00pm

Silly Science Toddler Time – Groups

A science fair specifically aimed at groups of under 5s from nurseries, play groups and childminders only. This is a ticketed event with limited spaces, so please book early to avoid disappointment.

£3 per child, accompanying adults free.
For children aged 5 and under.

Buy Tickets

Monday 7 November 7.30pm

The Science of Everyday Life with Marty Jopson

In this brilliant scientific tour of household science, BBC1 One Show scientist Dr Marty Jopson addresses conundrums such as: What really makes cakes rise? Why do soap bubbles burst? And how you get the quartz out of a clock using a hammer? The accompanying book serves as a guide to life with a dribblesome teapot cure, the solution to shocks from your car and why any of this matters at all. Answers will be provided, electrical devices dismantled and mess created in the name of science.

“That was amazing! I couldn’t believe my eyes!” Cheltenham Science Festival

£10/£8               For families and children aged 7 and upwards.

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Tuesday 8 November 7.30pm

Festival Science Café

The perennial favourite of the Otley Science Festival returns once more to bring you a veritable cornucopia of science. Discover what happened when Otley school kids chatted with Astronaut Tim Peake, how to use nylon beads to wash greener and what the 100,000 Genomes Project will mean to Yorkshire. With each speaker given a quarter of an hour to talk there will be plenty of time afterwards for you to further grill them with questions and mingle over a drink.

£5, 18s and under free                Adults and young people. Bar.

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Wednesday 9 November 7.30pm

Prank Science with Steve Mould

Steve Mould is well known for pulling pranks on unsuspecting members of the public in BBC 1’s Britain’s Brightest. All in the name of science of course. In this show he’ll be sharing his secrets and showing you loads of ways you can prank your friends and annoy your family. Expect mind bending illusions, weird chemistry, explosions and a fart projector. Do try this at home!

£10/£8                                                      Age 7 and upwards. Bar.

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Friday 11 November 12.30 to 2pm

Science Lunch: A Life Spent Dyeing

Enjoy a delicious buffet lunch then sit back and listen to Prof David Lewis, from the Department of Colour Science at the University of Leeds, as he explains some of the chemistry of hair care and in particular the way we dye it. Enjoy a cup of tea, or coffee, and a piece of cake as you discover why, despite being chemically identical, the dyeing of wool and hair follow a very different course. Tickets are limited and pre-booking is essential.

£7     including buffet lunch.

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Friday 11 November 7.30pm

What We Cannot Know with Prof. Marcus du Sautoy

Are there limits to what we can discover about our physical universe? Are some regions of the future beyond the predictive powers of science and mathematics? Is the universe infinite? Are there ideas so complex that they are beyond the conception of our finite human brains? Can brains even investigate themselves or does the analysis enter an infinite loop from which it is impossible to rescue itself? Marcus du Sautoy takes us to the edge of knowledge to find out what we cannot know.

£12/£10        Age 7 and upwards. Bar

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Saturday 12 November 10am-4pm

Otley Science Fair

Join local groups, regional museums and national organisations showing off the best of hands-on science in Yorkshire. From physics to biology and engineering to wildlife, come along to the Otley Courthouse for this year’s even bigger science fair. There really is something for everyone, with stalls, demonstrations, workshops and experiments to have a go at.

Free event.      Something for everyone.

Saturday 12 November 7.30pm

Stuff Matters with Mark Miodownik

Concrete that can heal itself, implants that become living bone and magnetic liquids: materials engineer and TV presenter Mark Miodownik explains why the world is about to become a lot stranger.

£12/£10                Age 7 and upwards. Bar.

Buy Tickets

Further information and tickets:

Tickets from www.otleycourthouse.org.uk

Box office 01943 467216 10am-4pm Mon-Sat inclusive

Where Concessionary Ticket prices are shown these apply to:

• under 16s
• those in receipt of benefits
• those in full time education
• Senior Citizens who are 60+ and retired

Buy in person from Otley Courthouse 10am-4pm Mon-Sat or on the door.

All events at Otley Courthouse

(unless otherwise specified):

Otley Courthouse Arts Centre,
Courthouse Street,
Otley,
West Yorks
LS21 3AN

Tel: 01943 467466

This year, festival week kicks off on Monday 12th November and goes through to Saturday 17th November. Tickets are going fast – have you got yours yet?

We have a fabulous week lined up for you. See below for the full line-up:

Silly Science Toddler Time [SOLD OUT]

Mon 12 Nov 9.30 – 11.30 am

Come along with your child and join in the fun science activities aimed specifically at the under 5s. From the earliest age children are natural scientists, using their senses to investigate and explore the world around them. There’ll be lots to do from making “Ice Mountains” to exploring “Gloop”, and who can guess what’s inside the “Feely Boxes”?

£2 per child. Children 5 and under.

Buy tickets >

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: A story told with Gravity – Marty Jopson [SOLD OUT]

Mon 12 Nov 7.30pm

Join Dr Marty Jopson, the BBC One Show’s resident scientist as he delves into the story of how Newton came up with his ideas on gravity. From the Ancient Greeks, through Newton’s genius, Marty brings the story bang up to date with the hunt for the Higgs boson. There will be flames and silly machines, and there will almost certainly be a mess.

★★★★ “Full of ideas you can take home and set fire to” Fringe Guru, Edinburgh 2011

£8/£6 Families and children aged 7 upwards. Bar.

Buy tickets >

Festival Science Cafe

Tue 13 Nov 7.30pm

Your chance to hear three top scientists as they are given 10 minutes each to explain their theories, then you get to pick their brains in our ever popular Science Cafe. From the elements in your phone to artificial intelligence, and Bean physics.

• Dr. John Baruch asks “Is there Life out There?”
• Prof. Robert Cywinski tackles “Could Thorium save the planet?”
• Dr. Hywell Jones illuminates “What things are made of.”

£4/£3 Adults and young people. Bar.

Buy tickets >

Astronomy on the Beaches of Hawaii – Science Festival Lunch [SOLD OUT]

Wed 14 Nov 12.30-2pm

Enjoy a delicious buffet lunch then sit back and listen to Prof. Ian Robson as he explains why Hawaii is renowned not only for its volcanoes but also as home to the world’s largest array of telescopes on the 14,000ft high summit of Mauna Kea. Professor Robson has been observing there for 40 years and was Director of the UK’s James Clerk Maxwell Telescope for a decade.

£5 including buffet lunch.

Buy tickets >

Science Book Club – Celebrating Alan Turing’s birthday

Wed 14 Nov 8pm

The Science Book Club returns to the Fleece pub in Otley. Meet like-minded individuals to discuss any book that fits in our topic. This time, as a celebration of Alan Turing’s birthday, the club will be discussing computing and artificial-intelligence. No need to bring a book, just come along and join in the discussion.

Location: The Fleece Pub, Westgate, Otley.

Free. Adults only.

Piled Higher and Deeper: Life (or the lack thereof) in Academia

Thu 15 Nov 7.30pm

The film of the popular online comic strip by Jorge Cham. Filmed on location at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), it follows four graduate students (Cecilia, Mike, Tajel and the ‘Nameless Grad Student’) as they struggle to find balance between research, teaching and their personal lives with humour and heart. Essential viewing for all academics and self-pitying phd students out there!

£3 Adults and young people. Bar.

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Engineering, Mathematics and the Nude – Dr Allan McRobie

Fri 16 Nov 7.30pm

A gentle look at how the mathematics that is used to study the stability of ships, oil rigs and building columns can not only be used to weigh distant galaxies but, rather unexpectedly, can also give new insights into art, and particularly the portrayal of the nude.

Warning: this talk contains mathematics and nudity

£7/£5 Adults only. Bar.

Buy tickets >

Otley Science Fair

Sat 17 Nov 10am-4pm

Get down to this year’s Science Fair for stalls, demonstrations and great experiments to try out. Have a go at programming a robot and pass the time of day with Joseph Priestly, discoverer of oxygen. Cakes, teas, coffees and lunch available in the café all day.

Small fee for some activities. Something for everyone.

Paradox: The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Science – Prof. Jim Al-Khalili [SOLD OUT]

Sat 17 Nov 7.30pm

Why does it get dark at night? Where are all the aliens? And is Schrödinger’s cat dead or alive? The BBC’s Jim Al-Khalili helps us get our heads around some of the world’s most mind-boggling paradoxes. Throughout history, science has been littered with famous paradoxes. All can be resolved with a little thought and lots of mind-bending fun, and each tell us a profound truth about how our universe works.

£8/£6 Adults and young people. Bar.

Buy tickets >

Further information and tickets:

Tickets from www.otleycourthouse.org.uk
Box office 01943 467216 10am-4pm Mon-Sat inclusive
Buy in person from Otley Courthouse 10am-4pm Mon-Sat or on the door.

All events at Otley Courthouse (unless otherwise specified):

Otley Courthouse Arts Centre,
Courthouse Street,
Otley,
West Yorks
LS21 3AN

Tel: 01943 467466

What do you get if you put iron, sulphur, titanium, vanadium and aluminium together? Members of Otley Science Festival’s organising committee have been busy icing the symbols for chemical elements spelling out ‘FeSTiVAl’ on to cupcakes ahead of Otley’s Science Festival which runs from Monday 14th – Saturday 19th November at Otley Courthouse .

The full programme of Festival events, which has now been released, includes a dazzling multimedia science theatre production ‘Everything and Nothing’ set in a time-warped universe, with lost aviator Amelia Earhart, at 7.30pm on Thursday 17 November. Celebrated Royal Institution Christmas Lecturer, Prof. Sue Hartley, will be coming to Otley to share her unusual insights into the 300 million year war between plants and animals on Friday 18^th November at 7.30pm while locally based scientist, Dr Tim Needham, will be talking about the ‘Appliance of Science and how scientists have made our everyday lives better at a special Science buffet lunch on Wednesday 16^th November at 12.30pm.

A full set of over 100 iced cupcakes representing the whole Periodic Table of will be on display at the free Science Fair on Saturday 19 November 10am-4pm, where you can tuck into your favourite element and find out more about it, as well as programming a robot, eating liquid nitrogen ice cream, chatting to Joseph Priestly and lots more!

Marty Jopson, well known science presenter on BBC TV’s the One Show, and one of the key organisers of  Otley’s Science Festival said: ‘We’ve got a fantastic line up this year and events are already selling really well.’

Tickets for all events – plus the Science Festival programme- are now available from Otley Courthouse Arts Centre, or online from www.otleycourthouse.org.uk

And there’s more information about the Science Festival at www.otleysciencefestival.co.uk

A full set of over 100 iced cupcakes representing the whole Periodic Table of will be on display at the free Science Fair on Saturday 19 November 10am-4pm, where you can tuck into your favourite element and find out more about it, as well as programming a robot, eating liquid nitrogen ice cream, chatting to Joseph Priestly and lots more!

The Otley Science Festival kicks off next Monday 14th November – have you got your tickets yet? Here’s a quick reminder of what we have lined up for you:

Inventions Going BANG! – Marty Jopson

Mon 14 Nov 7.30pm

Fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe, join Dr. Marty Jopson, Otley resident and scientist for the BBC One Show on an historical tour of explosive inventions. Marvel at the power of vacuum, cower before lethal steam and quite frankly, hide from the carrot cannon. There will be mess, lots of bangs and, oh yes, there will be explosions.

£7/£5 Families and children aged 7 upwards. Bar.

Festival Science Cafe

Tue 15 Nov, 7.30pm

Your chance to hear three top scientists as they are given 10 minutes each to explain their theories, then you get to pick their brains in our ever popular Science Cafe.

• Prof Eddie Wilson (Southampton Uni): Phantom Traffic Jams
• Prof Paul Knox (Leeds Uni): Life behind walls: how plants grow
• Dr Iona McCleery (Leeds Uni): The royal stomach: ‘healthy’ eating for medieval king

£4/£3 Adults and young people. Bar.

The Appliance of Science – Science Festival Lunch

Wed 16 Nov, 12.30-2pm

Enjoy a delicious buffet lunch then sit back and listen to Dr. Tim Needham illuminate the many scientific advances made by applied geologists, going way back to William Smith in the early 19th century. Discover how supposedly pure academic geologists have changed our world with the application of their science.

£5 including buffet lunch.

Everything and Nothing

Thu 17 Nov, 7.30pm

What shapes could the universe be? Does it have an edge? Is it infinite? Intent on creating a map of the universe using complex mathematics, the Everyman Explorer encounters aviator Amelia Earhart who was lost in her 1937 attempt to circumnavigate the globe. The pair find themselves in the company of an order-obsessed librarian who isn’t quite what he seems, in a time-warped universe controlled by an old radio.

A playful encounter between sound, image, text and mathematics, presented by multi-disciplinary company the19thstep, devised by composer Dorothy Ker and sculptor Kate Allen with performers Lucy Stevens, Chris Brannick and sound artist Kelcey Swain.

“Pretty fabulous … a fantastic way of linking ideas about maths and drama … really captured the imagination”

“It was really rather excellent … a really good story and thought provoking … atmospheric … evocative”

“At most events [at the science festival] I didn’t learn much new … but at this I did. ” (Comment from a Physicist with PhD)

The Everything and Nothing Workshop 

…with topologist Dr Katie Steckles will follow on immediately after the performance. It is suitable for all ages and will unravel the mathematics of the Poincaré conjecture. The workshop will last approximately 45 minutes.

Free entry with performance ticket.

For further information visit: http://www.everythingandnothingproject.com/

£9/£7 Adults and young people. Bar.

The 300-Million-Year War – Prof. Sue Hartley

Fri 18 Nov, 7.30pm

Plants seem passive, defenceless and almost helpless, but they are most definitely not! Having waged war with animals that try to eat them for 300 million years, plants have terrifying and devious ways to bite back! Join us as Royal Institution Christmas Lecturer, Prof. Sue Hartley explores the secret language of plants and ask what it means to be green. See plants as you’ve never seen them before: complicated, cunning and a lot cleverer than you imagine.

£7/£5 Families and children aged 7 upwards. Bar.

Otley Science Fair

Sat 19 Nov, 10am-4pm

Stalls, demonstrations and great experiments to try out. Experience the inflatable Extraordinary Pod, make a smoothie on a bike then investigate your own mouth. Try making ice cream with liquid nitrogen, tackle the robot maze if you can or take the civil engineers’ challenge. Finally, enjoy an elemental cup cake as you pass the time of day with Joseph Priestly, discoverer of oxygen. Cakes, teas, coffees and lunch available in the café all day.

Small fee for some activities. Something for everyone.

If Stones Could Speak

Sat 19 Nov, 11am and 2pm

An Otley town centre walk starting at the Courthouse, led by Dr Sue Bowler. Find out about our natural world in an exploration of the geology around the local streets. Vast rivers, volcanoes, spectacular crystals, clear tropical oceans – it’s all in Otley

£2 Adults and young people.

How the Earth Made Us – Prof. Iain Stewart (SOLD OUT)

Sat 19 Nov, 7.30pm

Iain Stewart believes our planet’s restless actions have shaped everything from the evolution of the incredible diversity of life to the birth and development of human civilisation. He’ll show how, amid huge planetary upheaval – erupting volcanoes, clashing continents and rising mountains – some of the most crucial moments in Earth’s history have arisen out of apparently insignificant geological changes. The result is a remarkable celebration of the intricate and interconnected nature of planet Earth.

£7/£5 Adults and young people. Bar.

Further info and tickets:

Further information:
Tickets from www.otleycourthouse.org.uk
Box office 01943 467216 10am-4pm Mon-Sat inclusive
Buy in person from Otley Courthouse 10am-4pm Mon-Sat or on the door.

All events at:

Otley Courthouse Arts Centre,
Courthouse Street,
Otley,
West Yorks
LS21 3AN

The programme for this year’s Otley Science Festival is beginning to shape up. I previously announced a couple of our main speakers and now I can tell you who will be filling the big Saturday evening slot – Iain Stewart the geology bloke from the BBC.

Iain has been all over the place on the telly of late and produced some cracking shows. He started with a few series on how the geology of the world has shaped civilisations. These shows took him all over the world to some incredible places, like Erta Ale and the Mexican Naica Cave that is full of gigantic gypsum crystals the size of buildings.

Just recently he wrote and presented Men of Rock, a gorgeous series about the abiding legacy of the the Scottish geologists. Iain, as a soft spoken Scot has a particular passion for the geology of his home-land and BBC Glasgow spared no expense getting some simple stunning shots of the landscape of Scottish landscape.

To bring you up to date, my own, in house BBC Glasgow gossip mining has revealed that he is currently working on a big new series about plant science, which seems like a bit of a diversion, until you realise the large overlap between botany and geology. It will probably be out around the time of the Otley Science Festival.

As always, I have not nailed him down to a particular topic yet, but I’ve seen him talk before and he is a great story teller. So, whatever he talks about you can be guaranteed it will be good.

Other Science Festival news includes work on a programmable robotics idea, animal adaption for the school shows and more structural goodness from the Institute of Civil Engineers. As always, more news as I become aware of it…

I’m delighted to be able to announce that we now have several of our keynote speakers for the Otley Science Festival 2011 booked and confirmed. The festival this year will run from Monday 14th to Saturday 20th November and we are very lucky to have been able to secure 4 evening slots on the Courthouse calendar. As before, the Friday and Saturday night will feature talks, but this year we also have the Thursday and Monday night available to us. So, without further ado, our Thursday and Friday speakers will be:

Prof Sue Hartley

The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are an enormously popular event, that for many years were aired on the BBC. The speaker from two years ago was the quite frankly brilliant, Prof. Sue Hartley. If you missed her Christmas Lectures, and they were buried in the schedule on More 4, they are still available to watch on line here. My own kids have watched them repeatedly, I hesitate to say ad-nauseam. Sue is a great speaker and has agreed to come to Otley on Friday 19th November. She has not yet decided what she will be talking about, but it will feature her speciality of plant / animal interactions. What I do know is that is will be a great family event.

Everything and Nothing

Not meaning to drop names, but I bumped into Prof. Marcus du Sautoy getting onto a tube train down in London. Marcus is the Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, a mathematician of some note and a keen footballer. The last fact does not bear on this news, but the first two do. Marcus has teamed up with a bunch of artists to create a play inspired by Jorge Luis Borge’s story The Library of Babel. The performance, about the shape of the universe includes music, sculpture, drama and maths. On Thursday the 18th March, Marcus and the rest of the cast will be performing in the Courthouse. It promises to be quite an event and I’m thrilled that they have chosen to come and perform in Otley. I will post more information as we get it.

That’s it for now. More news soon on our big Saturday evening speaker…