You can find more details on our Science Café page
A change to the Science Festival week schedule
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.
Lego Robotics workshops at the Courthouse
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.
10 years on
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.
Science Cafe, 22nd June
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:
Science Café, 22nd June
There’s more information on the Science Café page
The next Science Café will be Thursday 22nd June
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:
Next Science Cafe: Thurs 2nd March
Otley Science Festival 2016: Monday 7 Nov – Sat 12 Nov
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
Otley Science Festival 2015: Monday 9 Nov – Sat 14 Nov
We have a fabulous week lined up for you. See below for the full line-up, printed programmes will be available from the Courthouse in September:
Tickets are available now – have you got yours yet?
Click here for details of Schools Events
Otley Science Festival is Supported by:
Otley Town Partnership – Otley Town Council – Needham Geoscience – Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society – Institute of Physics – Rotary Club of Otley MICE Money given by Cllrs Colin Campbell, Ryk Downes and Sandy Lay.
Silly Science Toddler Time – Families
Mon 9 Nov 9.30 – 10.30 am
It’s never too early to start having fun with science! Join us for a special under 5s science fair and let your child investigate with their senses and explore the scientific world around them.
Laid on specially for the Courthouse by the Otley Children’s Centre, this is a ticketed event with limited spaces, so please book early to avoid disappointment.
£3 per child, accompanying adults free. Children 5 and under
Silly Science Toddler Time – Groups
Mon 9 Nov 10.45 – 11.45 am
A science fair specifically aimed at groups of under 5s from nurseries, play groups and child minders only.
Laid on specially for the Courthouse by the Otley Children’s Centre, this is a ticketed event with limited spaces, so please book early to avoid disappointment.
£3 per child, accompanying adults free. Children 5 and under
Bubblology with Marty Jopson
Mon 9 Nov 7.30pm
Join Marty Jopson, the science expert on the BBC1 One Show as he peers into the slippery, soapy world of bubbles on a quest for the perfectly polyhedral bubble. What’s really going on in a bubble, where do the colours come from, how long can a bubble last and why do they burst?
There will be flaming bubbles, smokey bubbles, exploding bubbles, square bubbles and gargantuan monster bubbles – all in the name of science.
“You just made a scientist!” Lancashire Science Festival, U.C.Lan
£10/£8 Families and children aged 7 upwards.
Festival Science Café
Tues 10 Nov 7:30pm
The Otley Science Festival’s most popular event returns once more to bring you three speakers each with their own bite sized scientific speciality. Join us for a relaxed and fun evening suitable for all ages and all interests – here are the topics:
- Science of the Past: A life & death in the Bronze Age
– Cathy Batt, Senior Lecturer in Archaeological Sciences, Univ. of Bradford - Fishing for clouds: Searching the oceans for ice nucleating particles
– Theo Wilson, Research Fellow, School of Earth & Environment, Univ. of Leeds - Up, up & away (and hopefully back again)
– Phil Robertson, Head of Science, Otley All Saints School
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.
£4/£3 Adults and young people. Bar.
Graphene and the Unexpected Science in a Pencil Line – Science Festival Lunch
Weds 11 Nov 12.30pm – 2.00pm
Enjoy a delicious buffet lunch then sit back and listen to Dr. Aravind Vijayaraghavan, Lecturer in Nanomaterials at the University of Manchester, as he introduces you to graphene, the world’s first 2-dimensional material. Discover the superlative properties of graphene, its strength, conductivity, flexibility and transparency. Find out how it can be made, even by you, using a piece of pencil lead and a roll of sticky tape and crucially, hear about the exciting future prospects for this wonder material.
Tickets are limited and pre-booking is essential.
£6 including buffet lunch.
Darwin’s Brilliant Blunder: A Guided Reading with Prof Gregory Radick
Wed 11, Thur 12, Fri 13 Nov, 6.30pm each evening 
In 1868, Charles Darwin published his hypothesis of “pangenesis”. Intended by Darwin to explain inheritance and related topics, it has gone down in history as one of Darwin’s biggest failures. So what was pangenesis and why did Darwin back it? This group, meeting three evenings in a row, will be a chance to read and discuss one of Darwin’s least understood but most fascinating ideas. One ticket covers attendance to all three, one hour long sessions.
Tickets are extremely limited, so please book early.
£10 . Adults and young people.
The Element in the Room: A Radioactive Musical Comedy about the Death and Life of Marie Curie
Wed 11 Nov 7.30pm
A new musical comedy about Marie Curie and her scientific research. Tangram Theatre’s John Hinton and Daniel Goldman bring their trademark irreverence, comedy songs and interactive on-stage experiments to explain radioactivity, X-Ray technology and the on-going search for a cancer cure. With an emphasis on making big ideas exciting, fun and accessible to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. The show explains the science behind Curie’s ground-breaking work, bringing her research right up to date, and exploring some of the most important scientific challenges of the modern day.
£12/£10 Age 7 and upwards. Bar.
The Theory of Everything
Thur 12 Nov 7.45pm
A special Science Festival screening of The Theory of Everything by Otley Film Society. The Theory of Everything is the story of the most brilliant and celebrated physicist of our time, Stephen Hawking, and Jane Wilde the arts student he fell in love with whilst studying at Cambridge in the 1960s. Over the course of their marriage as Stephen’s body collapsed and his academic renown soared, fault lines were exposed that tested the lineaments of their relationship and dramatically altered the course of both of their lives.
£4 / Film Society members free. Certificate 12A. Bar
Limited Tickets available in advance from The Courthouse
Bat Based Biology and the Bat Man of Leeds
Fri 13 Nov 7.30pm
Join Prof. John Altringham from Leeds University on a journey from Wharfedale to the Western Ghats, and many places in between, to look at the fascinating biology of bats, the most successful and diverse of all mammals. How does echolocation work? Why do tequila drinkers love bats? What does the island of Krakatau have to do with bats? Why are some bats so ugly? Why is one species of bat worth 20 billion dollars a year to the US economy? Just some of the questions that will be answered.
£6/£4 Age 7 and upwards. Bar.
Otley Science Fair
Sat 14 Nov 10am – 4pm
From physics to biology and engineering to wildlife, come along to the Otley Courthouse for this year’s even bigger science fair. With stalls, demonstrations, workshops and experiments to have a go at, there really is something for everyone. Join local groups, regional museums and national organisations showing off the best of hands-on science in Yorkshire.
Free Event. Something for everyone.
The Science of Game of Thrones
Sat 14 Nov 7.30pm
Join us for an evening of Ice and Fire (though if we’re honest about it, mostly Fire). Award-winning comedian Helen Keen and explosive science communicator Ian Simmons from Newcastle’s Centre for Life present experiments and demonstrations exploring some of the burning issues raised by George R R Martin’s epic adventure. Are fire breathing dragons likely? What really happens when royal families inter-breed? Could real world pyromancers create green wildfire and destroy a fleet of ships? And can you actually, really, crush someone’s skull with your bare hands? Think you know the answers? Or, do you know nothing (Jon Snow)?
Come along either way, in costume if you want, we would love that!
£10/£8 Age 14 and upwards. Bar.
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
Otley Science Festival 