With the September Science Cafe behind us we now look forward to the Festival week from 6th – 11th of November and in the the run up to it a new feature for this year:

Otley Molecule Trail

– Win a Molecular Modelling Kit

Between Monday 23 October and Thursday 9th November find the 15 molecules hidden around Otley in various shops in our FREE to enter molecule trail.

From Monday 23rd you can pick up the entry leaflet from Otley Courthouse or download it from this website then hunt the molecules for a chance to win a molecular modelling kit. Return your entry to Otley Courthouse before 6pm on Thursday 9th November.

The first three correct entries picked at 11am at the Science Fair at Otley Courthouse on Saturday 11th November will receive a molecule modelling kit.

Many thanks to Spiring Enterprises Ltd and Keele University School of Chemical and Physical Sciences.

10th Otley Science Festival

The Festival runs from Monday 6th to Saturday 11th November. You can pick up a programme from Otley Courthouse and many other locations around the area or check the schedule of events here.

There is also a programme of events for schools during the day from Tuesday 7th to Thursday 9th. Some have already sold out. You can check the schools programme here.

Tickets for all events are available from Otley Courthouse.

You can find more details on our Science Café page

Unfortunately it has been necessary to make a change to our originally published schedule for the Science Festival week which came too late to be included in the Courthouse autumn printed programme. Due to circumstances beyond our control the Tuesday and Wednesday evening events have been swapped so Professor Robert Winston is now speaking on Tuesday 7th and the Science Cafe will be on Wednesday 8th.

You can find the full schedule for the week here.

This summer there are a couple of great science fun sessions for children (age 7+) at Otley Courthouse. On August 7th and 8th JuniorSTEM are running Lego robotics workshops. Build creations and bring them to life!

The sessions run from 10.00 to 13.00 and tickets cost £5. You can find more details and book on the Courthouse ticket site here. Or you can pop into the Courthouse and buy them in person.

We are celebrating our 10th anniversary this year and it seems appropriate to recognise another 10th anniversary today: www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/29/iphone-at-10-how-it-changed-everything

Both 10 years old and going strong! We might not have had quite the same impact as the iPhone but we do have some extra activities planned to celebrate our first decade so keep in touch to see what’s coming.

Thanks to our speakers, Dr Antonios Stavropoulos-Kalinoglou, Prof Ben Varcoe, and Dr Paul Ko Ferrigno for 3 engaging and interesting talks at last night’s Science Cafe.

Here is a quick look back to the evening:

 

There’s more information on the Science Café page

 

The line up for this Science Café now in place. On the evening we will be covering:

• Immunity in a test tube; engineering Biology for better health
• Why Schrödinger’s Cat Is Hard to Understand: The Physics of Quantum Information
• Exercise and arthritis: a painful story or healthy relationship?

There is more information on our Science Cafés page

In the meantime, here’s a quick look back at the last one:

 

Otley Science Festival is lucky enough to be one of the featured “Community Matters” organisations at Waitrose in Otley this month…

We hope to use the money to support the Science Fair, to be held this year on the 17th November. The fair is FREE to attend and includes stalls, demonstrations and great experiments to try out. It’s a fun day out, making science accessible for all ages.

What is Waitrose Community Matters? Information from Waitrose’s website:

Waitrose Community Matters

Every month this branch will donate £1000 between three local good causes that you choose.

How does it work?
At the checkout you’ll receive a token, which you then place in the box of the good cause you’d most like to support. The more tokens a cause gets, the bigger the donation they receive. You can also nominate good causes to be considered for the scheme in the future. Just pick up a leaflet in store for more information.

…then check out “Everything and Nothing”, part of the Otley Science Festival, tomorrow evening at the Courthouse in Otley.

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.

Tickets available from the Courthouse