Big Bang Fair arrives in Birmingham
14 March 2012
Several Wellcome Trust-funded projects will be showcased at this year's event, including the launch of a London 2012-inspired interactive science experience from the In the Zone initiative. With five high-tech interactive exhibits including an opportunity to view your veins and test your reaction times, the pop-up experience is designed to give people a chance to learn more about how their bodies work.
There will also be performances of 'Science Junkie: In the Zone', a new live show supported by a People Award that reveals the physiology and sports engineering behind the Olympic and Paralympic games. Hosted by BBC Three science presenter Greg Foot and astronomer and adventurer Huw James, the action-packed show features supersized experiments to show what happens inside your body when you exercise, live on stage.
Another People Award project, 'Trauma Surgery: The Science of the Bleeding Obvious!', will be showing visitors how leading research from The Royal London Hospital's trauma centre is working to understand haemorrhage in trauma and improving patient outcomes.
Traumatic injury is the number one cause of death worldwide for those aged 5-44 and kills more than 18 000 people each year in the UK. The show features unique and interactive models and games that allow the audience to step into the world of trauma surgery and see for themselves the techniques and practices used to save a life.
There will be a live simulation of heart surgery from the People Award-funded 'Your heart in their hands or your hands in their heart'. Coronary angiography is an advanced procedure, in which a flexible wire is used to image the heart's arteries and treat any blockage. A realistic simulation presents this closed world through a performance that brings together the latest in simulation technology and the artistic eye of a theatre director.
The simulated operating theatre will help you discover things about your heart that you didn't know you didn't know. Visitors can watch a heart operation performed through a tiny incision in the groin, see their own heart's electricity, and find out about the exciting new technology that's helping people get better after a heart attack.
There will be a film screening of Y Touring's new production 'Dayglo', which tackles the issues raised by the science of personalising medical treatments according to our genes. This will be followed by a facilitated debate to encourage the audience to explore what they think and feel about the issues posed by the play.
Also at the Big Bang Fair will be the Bionic Ear Show, an award-winning interactive educational show about the ears. The show was created with the support of a People Award in 2007 and has been touring ever since. It demonstrates how sound travels through the ear to the brain, what happens in different parts of the hearing system, and how each part of the system can fail or break down.
Action Dog's People Award-funded touring exhibition 'Flavour Sense-Nation' will be exploring the science behind your senses - taste, smell, touch, sight and sound - to find out how they react with each other when different flavours and textures are thrown into the mix.
The finals of the National Science and Engineering Competition will be taking place throughout the Fair, with the winners to be announced on 16 March. The competition is open to all students aged 11-18 living in the UK and in full-time education and rewards those who have achieved excellence in a science, technology, engineering or maths project.
Many of the students taking part in the competition are funded by Nuffield Foundation Science Bursaries, which are part-funded by the Wellcome Trust to enable students to work alongside practising scientists and engineers, contributing to research or development projects in universities, industry, field centres and research institutions.
The Big Bang Fair will be at Birmingham's NEC from 15 to 17 March 2012.
