Otley Science Festival

10am to 4pm: Otley Science Fair

Get down to this year’s Science Fair for stalls, demonstrations and great experiments to try out. The Courthouse will be alive with local and regional groups showing off the best science Yorkshire has to offer. Build yourself a molecule, have a go with the robots and play with some physics. Cakes, teas, coffees and lunch available in the café all day. Supported by Otley Carnival.

Free event with something for everyone.

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7.30pm: Prof. Monica Grady – An Evening with a Space Scientist

Join Professor Monica Grady CBE, a world expert on meteorites, for a journey through her scientific career and interests. From Martian meteorites, to the Rosetta space probe and appearing on Desert Island Discs, this is your opportunity to listen to and ask questions of one of the leading British Space Scientists.

For adults and young people. Bar; Tickets £8

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Find out about all the events for the week on our Festival 2017 page

And don’t forget the Molecule Trail, free to enter with great prizes, running until November 9th

Science Lunch –  A Glimpse into the Future of Technology

Enjoy a delicious buffet lunch then sit back and listen to Rashik Parmar MBE, the IBM Technical Executive for Europe, as he discusses how Technology seem to be in all parts of our daily lives, from ensuring we have clean water through to providing entertainment. IBM’s Research Division has identified five technologies that will change our lives in the next 5 years. This talk will discuss the 2017 predictions and explore the likely impact.

12.30 – 2pm. Tickets are limited and pre-booking is essential. £7 including buffet lunch

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Marty Jopson – Dangerous Equations

Join Marty Jopson, Otley resident and the BBC One Show’s science bloke as he places himself in grave personal danger for your entertainment and amusement. Will his steely nerve and a set of equations save him from a broken hand and third degree burns? Can physics alone protect you from Mr. Spiky and the Pendulum of Doom? Only one way to find out. Note, some fully risk assessed audience participation will be sought.

7.30pm. Age 11 and upwards. Bar; Tickets £10/£8

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Find out about all the events for the week on our Festival 2017 page

And don’t forget the Molecule Trail, free to enter with great prizes, running until November 9th

Especially for Otley Science Festival, the Otley Film Society brings you Hidden Figures. The true life story of a team of African American women mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the US space programme. Stars: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe. Followed by discussion of the film and the book on which it is based in a local hostelry. Duration 127 minutes.

7.45pm. Certificate PG. Bar; Tickets £5 / Film Society members £4

Find out about all the events for the week on our Festival 2017 page

And don’t forget the Molecule Trail, free to enter with great prizes, running until November 9th

This 40th Otley Science Café promises to bring the usual eclectic mixture of scientific topics delivered in bite-sized chunks for your entertainment. We will have our traditional trio of speakers, each given a quarter of an hour with plenty of time for you to quiz them afterwards. Join us for a relaxed and fun evening of science suitable for all ages and all interests.

Topics for this café are:

• Coral reefs as sentinels for climate change
• Science Beyond “Science”: A new way of looking at the everyday
• Working with the ISS and CERN technology at school – How did we spot NASA’s mistake?

More details on our Science Café page

7.30pm. For adults and young people. Bar; Tickets £5, 18s and under free (but ticket required)

Find out about all the events for the week on our Festival 2017 page

And don’t forget the Molecule Trail, free to enter with great prizes, running until November 9th

This event is now sold out

Professor Winston has been responsible for making science understandable to generations and is one of our leading specialists on fertility and IVF. In this talk he addresses the subject of genetics, and the progress made with screening for genetic defects and disorders before a pregnancy has even begun. However the same methods could be used to modify genes. Is this a wonderful new world or a very risky and frightening Frankenstein monster? Supported by Otley Carnival.

7.30pm. For adults and young people. Bar; Tickets £20

Find out about all the events for the week on our Festival 2017 page

And don’t forget the Molecule Trail, free to enter with great prizes, running until November 9th

Embark on a hilarious, high tech and utterly disgusting journey through the body with BBC Gastronaut Stefan Gates. Expect robots, remote-controlled humans, mindblowing video footage of our guts, digestive chemistry and a very noisy fart machine. You’ll never look at your own body in the same way again! This hilarious show based on rock-solid science will amaze both kids and adults.

7.30pm. Age 7 and upwards; Tickets £10/£8

Find out about all the events for the week on our Festival 2017 page

And don’t forget the Molecule Trail, free to enter with great prizes, running until November 9th

Do you expect to find caffeine when you stop for a coffee, linalool lurking by the soap or theobromine when you pop in for a chocolate bar? These are the chemical compounds responsible for a lot of the tastes, smells and colours of everyday life; for the next few weeks you will be able to find models of the molecules responsible in 15 shops and businesses all over Otley.

These chemical clues form the Otley Molecule Trail, a scientific treasure hunt with prizes organised as part of the Tenth Otley Science Festival. We are asking you to search the shops of Otley for models of these and other organic molecules – and you could win a Molymod molecular modeling kit of your very own!

These are now appearing in shop windows around Otley, looking something like this:

Otley Molecule Trail runs from 23 October to 9 November and you can pick up a trail leaflet from Otley Courthouse, Otley Library and the CORE, or download it from here. All you need to do is write down where you find each of the 15 molecules shown in the leaflet, hand in your answers at the Courthouse by 6pm on Thursday 9 November, then see if we draw your name at 11am at the Science Fair at Otley Courthouse on Saturday 11 November.

You can find all the details on our Otley Molecule Trail page

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.