Otley Science Festival: next week!

DebLeave a comment

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

Next Science Café – Thursday 15th September

Deb1 Comment

Our next Science Café forms part of the National Science Festival so why not join us in Otley for a relaxed evening of science with our speakers on hand to entertain and answer questions:

  • Dr Peter Thompson (York Uni): Visual illusions in the real world
  • Prof Gregory Radick (Leeds Uni): How we came to understand Speech Evolution
  • Angela Saini (Science Journalist based in London): Can India become a science superpower?
£4/£3 Adults and young people. Bar.
Buy your tickets now!

Will you be going to the British Science Festival?

DebLeave a comment

We are lucky enough to have the British Science Festival hosted in Bradford this year, will you be going? It runs from Saturday 10th – Thursday 15th September with events including:

  • Experiment with the kids– Family fun
  • DIY Science– Workshops for all
  • Food for thought– Lunchtime talks
  • Discover and discuss– Talks & debates
  • Sundown science– Evening events for adults
  • Trip out!- Trips and tours
  • No inhibitions…just Exhibitions- Exhibitions throughout the week.

Don’t forget we will be having our own Science Festival in Otley running from Monday 14th November 2001 to Saturday 19th November. See our what’s on page for details.

July Science Café Roundup

DebLeave a comment

July’s café went down a storm thanks to our 3 fantastic speakers. Local science hero Marty Jopson hosted the evening, which featured scientists speaking on topics ranging from microscopy to animal testing:

  • Alison Baker: Seeing is believing! Looking inside living cells in colour
  • Martin Richards: Archaeogenetics and human ancestry
  • Laura Waters: Do we still need animal testing in the Pharmaceutical industry?
Did you make it along?

If you missed July’s café, why not join us on 15th September for our next café which forms part of the British Science Festival (which we are lucky enough to have hosted in Bradford this year)?

Science in fiction tomorrow

silverfishLeave a comment

The Science Book Group is meeting again tomorrow Tuesday 26 July, at the Fleece on Westgate in Otley at 8pm. Our theme this time is ‘science in fiction’, so sort-of science fiction, but not necessarily just science fiction (and not really the sort of science fiction where the science is, in effect, magic). I’m not entirely clear what to expect, but I’m hoping for some surprises. Do come along and join us, for some scientific conversation over a pint.

Next Science Cafe – Thursday 14th July

DebLeave a comment

Another challenging evening as 3 top scientists explain their theories and you come up with the tricky questions!

  • Martin Richards – Archaeogenetics and human ancestry
  • Alison Baker – Seeing is believing! Looking inside living cells in colour.
  • Laura Waters – Do we still need animal testing in the Pharmaceutical industry?

The event is held at the Otley Courthouse, starts at 7:30pm and costs £4/£3.

For adults & young people, with bar

Buy your tickets now!

Plenty to think about

silverfish4 Comments

At the Book Group last week we had a range of books with the focus “Controversy” and, as promised, I’m listing them. First up was “Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr and the struggle for the soul of science” by David Lindley, a lively look at the development of modern physics from Brownian motion onwards. The slant of this book was the role of personalities and cliques in the development of ideas. In passing we mentioned “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions”, written in 1884 by Victorian schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott. It’s an entertaining way to visualise more dimensions than usual, by means of thinking about fewer than usual, but the author had Views and didn’t mind who knew them. We then changed tack to hear about genetics, bioengineering and medical ethics in “The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot, which investigated the origin of the seemingly immortal HeLa cell line, widely used in cancer and other medical research. The first focus of the book was on the circumstances of the life and death of this poor black woman in the American south, whose cancer cells did not die, and the changes in medical ethics since, not to mention the staggering fact that several tonnes of the cells now exist, worldwide. We noted ethics as a potential future topic for discussion.
Then it was maths, with a lively account of “Catastrophe Theory” by Alexander Woodcock and Monte Davis, a popular account of new mathematics developed in the 1970s and 1980 to try to make sense of complex systems, along with Rene Thom’s Structural Stability and morphogenesis” which had especially good pictures. The ideas were successful, but it seems that they were applied a bit too widely, and people stopped taking it seriously. Now it is an area of maths being reevaluated.
And finally we had some geology with “The Highlands Controversy” by David Oldroyd, an account of the beginnings of modern geology in the wilds of Scotland, when the establishment held to cherished ideas in the face of dogged observations from outsiders and amateurs. The book has a lot of detail, including the fact that the Survey mappers were paid by the mile of boundary inked in, and you can see straight away that some areas of complex faulting would have been especially lucrative!
All in all an entertaining evening!

Oooh, shiny!

silverfishLeave a comment

I have been pondering controversial books, and books about controversy, for the Book group meeting next week (8pm on Tuesday 24 May, at the Fleece on Westgate, where they serve lovely pies) and I keep getting distracted by pictures. I do love a book with spectacular images, especially ones that make me think twice about a subject.

heaven and earth coverHeaven and Earth: Unseen by the Naked Eye by David Malin and Katherine Roucoux is one – a  big fat book of glorious images of the natural world, all taken with scientific instruments of one sort or another. It starts with images of at the atomic scale, and works up to the large scale structure of the universe. And they are all wonderful, awe-inspiring images – many of them beautiful. Great stuff.

Another favorite is Full Moon in which Andrew Chaikin and Michael Light present images taken from the NASA originals from the Apollo missions. You will think you have seen these pictures, but you should think again – here they are breathtakingly clear and sharp and made me aware of the lunar surface as a landscape, with hills and valley and, of course, a few perfectly-preserved footprints.
But they are not really controversial, so I shall continue my search among books of words and look forward to seeing you on tuesday to hear abou some real knock-down, drag-out scientific rows!