FEATURE SCIENCE FESTIVAL
THE WOMEN OF CALTON HILL will be visited in a walk organised by Edinburgh Women’s Science Forum. Not the current inhabitants. of course: the aim is to highlight some of the women who do not feature in histories of the area. Calton Hill may be best known now as a haunt for Beltane refugees and snap-shot tourists. but it was not always that way. The slopes below the City Observatory were used as a public drying green and the hill provided an excellent vantage point for the public executions carried out on the roof of Calton Jail. situated where Old St Andrew‘s House now stands. Such details are unlikely to escape mention on the walk. nor is the story ol'Jessica Piazzi Smythe (above). who was married to the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, but was an eminent astronomer in her own right. There‘s also the suffragette. Ethyl Moorhead. a painter who originated from Dundee. burnt buildings for her cause and was the only woman to be force-fed in Calton Jail. (Thom [)ibdin)
The Women Oj‘Calton Hill, bottom oj'Calton Hill steps, Fri 29 Mar, 2.30pm; Women In The Medical World Walk, Royal Museum ofSeot/and, Fri 29 Mar: llam.
TWELVE MONKEYS is the new time-travelling conspiracy thriller trom director Terry Gilliam, starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. Catch it at a special preview screening as part of the Festival’s ‘Back To The Future’ sci-ti weekend at the Filmhouse. Additional otherworldly visions come in the shape at spectacular 70mm prints at the Alien trilogy, William Cameron Menzies’ bizarre 3-D gothic tale The Maze, and the eternal classics Close Encounters 01 The Third Kind, Metropolis and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Single and combined tickets are already selling last. Two/re Monkeys, Sat 11 Apr, midnight; Alien Trilogy, Fri 11 Apr, 6pm; other screenings Sat 11 Apr.
DINOSAURS have become the 90s‘ most unusual heroes, up there on kids’ bedroom walls alongside film and pop stars. A I, . series of talks at the Royal :’ Museum of Scotland gets behind the terror of Jurassic Park and examines the history of their popularity. fossilisation, evolution and extinction. Even Steven Spielberg might learn something.
Dinosaurs and Dirtomania, Fri 29 Mar; Bringing Dinosaurs To Life, Sat 30 Mar; What Happened To Dead Dinosaurs, un 31 Mar; Origin And Extinction, Mon 1 Apr; Dinosaur Mechanics. Thurs 4 Apr: Under Dinosaurs" F eet, Fri 5 Apr.
18 The List 22 Mar-4 Apr 1996