EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FESTIVAL
BACK WITH A BANG
Jungle expeditions, gastronomic experiments and extreme balloon modelling are all on offer at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. Struggling to get your head around it all? Kelly Apter guides you through the highlights
N ot to be outdone by its ever-expanding August cousin, the Fringe, the Edinburgh International Science Festival is growing bigger each year. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the City Art Centre, where 100 drop-in workshops will be taking place each day between 23 Mar and 6 Apr. From hands-on experiments for ages 3+ to Crime Scene Investigation for ages 8+, a day pass will buy you access to all the activities on offer from 9.30am–4.30pm, including the chance to make your own slime and dissect a (fake) eyeball.
Don’t let the kids have all the fun, though. On Thu 21 Mar, for one night only, adults can experience the CAC’s four floors of hands-on fun. It’s just one part of a new initiative to get more adults involved in the Festival. Also on offer through the Science Festival Lates and LateLab strands is a screening of sci-fi movie Logan’s Run (Inspace, Sat 23 Mar), an opportunity to push the boundaries of your culinary diet at Inedible or Incredible? (insect mousse, anyone? Inspace, Sun 31 Mar) and anyone? Inspace, Sun 31 Mar) and A Night with Dr A Night with Dr
Dance (Teviot Row Debating Hall, Fri 29 Mar) where you can pick up some sharp moves, and learn the science behind them. Taking the whole family to Asia is beyond the reach of most of us, but joining in Expedition Botanics for £10 (two adults, two children) will at least bring you closer to the wonders of Malaysia. Drop into the Royal Botanic Garden from Fri 29 Mar–Sun 7 Apr for a two-hour exploration where you can learn about blood-sucking leeches, find mystery plants, plant seeds and enjoy the hospitality of a traditional Malaysian village. The Botanics also plays host to Forestry DNA Detectives on Fri 29 & Sat 30 Mar, where scientists will teach you how to spot the difference between fox faeces and pine marten poo.
Fancy yourself as something of a sleuth? Then grab family or friends and prove your detective mettle. The Secret of the Shooting Star is an interactive street theatre journey for ages 14+, which starts at the National Museum of Scotland at 10am on Sat 6 Apr, and ends seven hours lat Apr, and ends seven hours later who knows where? Teams of up to five people ca Teams of up to five people can take part in what is being billed as part game, pa being billed as part game, part treasure hunt, with a touch of mu a touch of murder mystery thrown in. Having received your instructions in advance, you’ll wander the streets of E Edinburgh gathering c clues, solving riddles, m meeting characters an and generally helping to to bring about a major sci scientific discovery. If If observation, rather tha than participation, is mor more your thing, then they they don’t come much bigg bigger Pisces. The The largest visual event ever ever to grace the Science Festiv Festival programme, Jason Hacke Hackenwerth’s installation will tak will take seven days to create: and yo and you can watch him in action. action. Using hundreds of balloons balloons, Hackenwerth and his team wil team will weave them together to create to create a Greek myth-inspired spiral st spiral structure. Taking place in the N in the National Museum of Scotland’s Scotland’s Grand Gallery, you can observ can observe the creative process from Sat from Sat 23–Fri 29 Mar, then view Pisces view Pisces in full effect from Fri 29 Mar–Sun 29 Mar–Sun 14 Apr. than
Edinburgh International Edinburgh Science Fes Science Festival takes place from Sat 23 from Sat 23 Mar–Sun 7 Apr.
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO EURGH Getting kids interested in educational activities is not the easiest task in the world, but we’ve found it helps if you make things sound as gross as possible. The boffins at the Science Festival know this too, and have created five events designed to make your stomach churn – and your darling little ones’ faces light up with glee.
DR BUNHEAD’S POO AND GOO SHOW Television’s infamous ‘stand-up scientist’ returns with a gross-out show featuring fart-powered rockets and the world’s biggest bogey. George Square Theatre, Sat 23 & Sun 24 Mar.
PONGY POTIONS Chemistry event in which kids get to create the worst smells possible before turning their hands to sweet- smelling perfumes. In that order, hopefully. City Art Centre, Sat 23 Mar–Sat 6 Apr (not Mon).
DUNG DAYS AT THE ZOO Identify animals by their droppings and find out what the Zoo does with all the mountains of poo it produces. Our money’s on sledging. Edinburgh Zoo, Mon 25–Thu 28 Mar.
THE BLOOD BAR Daily drop-in event where you can create your own scabs and blood clots and even touch a real heart. They had us at ‘create your own scabs’. City Art Centre, Sat 23 Mar–Sat 6 Apr.
SPLAT-TASTIC Another chemistry outing, this one allowing you to create your very own slime and then test its viscosity and stickiness using the festival’s patented ‘Splat-o- Meter’. City Art Centre, Sat 23 Mar–Sat 6 Apr (not Mon). (Niki Boyle)
21 Mar–18 Apr 2013 THE LIST 31