Trust-funded events in National Science and Engineering Week
9 March 2011
Opening on Friday 11 March in the @Bristol Centre, 'All About Us' is a new £1.5 million interactive exhibition featuring 50 hands-on exhibits based around seven themes about the human body, including reproduction, locomotion and the senses.
At the Newcastle Science Festival, ‘Brainwave’ (13 March) gathers musicians, scientists and curious adults for a day of short talks, hands-on activities and performances exploring music and the brain. ‘Zombie Science’ (14 March) features a screening of George Romero's 1968 masterpiece 'Night of the Living Dead' followed by a spoof lecture written by and starring multi-BAFTA Award-winning comedian Austin Low, who will explain the real science behind the undead.
In Newcastle, ‘Primitive Streak’ (14 March-11 April) sees a collection of 11 couture dresses telling the story of the first 1000 hours of human life. An art-science collaboration between sisters Helen Storey (a designer) and Kate Storey (a biologist), the collection examines the key embryonic processes that underlie our development.
The Cambridge Science Festival event ‘Unravelling genome secrets’ (16 March) will be held at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. This is an opportunity to hear researchers Dr Nigel Carter and Dr Julian Parkhill describe how the latest DNA sequencing technology is allowing us to understand more about the genetic basis of diseases.
Also in Cambridge, ‘Invisible Dust’ (18-20 March) sees a group of artists exploring environmental problems such as air pollution through a series of installations, performances and projections both by day and after dark. ‘ChaOS: Crash, Bang, Squelch!’ (19 March) sees members of Cambridge Hands on Science, run entirely by University of Cambridge student volunteers, taking over the University Zoology labs giving talks and demonstrations on a multitude of scientific subjects.
As part of this year's ‘Oxfordshire Science Festival’, Professor Peter Donnelly, Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, will speak on ‘The Future of Genetics’ (15 March), explaining the latest news from one of the world's foremost research centres in human genetics.
Finally, the award-winning Y Touring Theatre Company will be taking up a week-long theatre residency at London's Royal Albert Hall to stage ‘Mind the Gap’ (14-18 March). The play examines the ethical questions posed by advances in neuroscience by exploring the lives of three disparate people who find themselves stranded on the deserted platform of an underground station. Each performance will be followed by a debate about the subject matter, featuring a guest expert in the field of neuroscience. Both the play and the debates will be screened live in Picturehouse Cinemas across the UK.
