Darwinism vs. Creationism?

Thomas Dixon will argue on Monday at the Manchester Museum, that we've become accustomed to seeing Darwinism as being fundamentally in conflict with faith. In this trailblazer for the Manchester Science Festival he will explore how conflict can arise, by unpicking the cultural, legal and political factors which have fuelled the confrontation between evolution and Christian creationism in America over the last fifty years.

This is just one of many trailblazing activities that are going on in the build up to the 2009 Manchester Science Festival; and one of a number of talks and presentations revolving around Darwin and his life and work, so check out website for more information.

MSF moon and nature trailablazers coming up

We're continuing our series of summer trailblazers and we have two coming up in the next month...

Moon @ Conrnerhouse

We're taking part in the celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the Moon Landings. Francis French, author of In the shadow of the moon, will be giving a talk at the Museum of Science and Industry on Sunday. Later that evening, as a Manchester Science Festival trailblazer, Francis will be introducing a screening of the new film Moon, starting Sam Rockwell, at the Cornerhouse.

Venue: Cornerhouse
Sunday 26 July, 6.25pm

Tickets are available from the Cornerhouse for £7.00. Concessionary rates are available. The film is certificate 15.

Next up we're celebrating everything nature and Darwin related...

Big Saturday - Nature discovery day

A day of exploration and adventure! Visit the new Nature Discovery exploration area for younger children and their families; explore and create a giant cave and discover the many animals and plants that live there; recreate Charles Darwin's voyage to the Galapagos islands and encounter some of the animals, sealife and birds Darwin saw; learn about the local ecology outside the Museum; meet experts from the Museum and The University of Manchester; listen to storytelling or watch a family friendly film screening. Part of The Evolutionist Darwin extravaganza at The Manchester Museum.

You will also be able to go on a Darwin related walk brought to you by the Manchester Science Festival and Manchester Tourguides.

Venue: Manchester Museum
Saturday 8 August, 11am-4pm

Most activities are free and drop-in. Some activities may need to be booked on the day and may cost up to £1.50. All ages

This event is sponsored by the British Ecological Society and is part of Manchester Science Festival series of trailblazers.

Moon landing anniversary celebrations

This week, unless you've had your head buried under the sand, you will probably know that today is the 40th anniversary of the first moon landings. To celebrate this loads of events and projects have been popping up all over the place... Jodrell Bank have been running a really interesting Moon Bounce competition - what would you have said if you had been the first person ever to land on the moon? They sent messages through their Lovell space telescope to the moon, so they would bounce of the surface and return again to Earth. Just brilliant. I would have probably said... "oh, it's not made of cheese then".

The Museum of Science and Industry have and are running a week of activities with talks Moon 40: History or Hoax running tomorrow, looking at the evidence behind the moon landings and some of the conspiracy theories behind this huge achievement. Author Francis French will be giving a talk and book signing about his book In the Shadow of the Moon on Sunday, detailing his first hand account of interviewing the first men on the moon.

Moon celebrations - Festival trailblazer

After this talk at MOSI, Francis French will be heading to the Cornerhouse to introduce a screening of the new film Moon, staring Sam Rockwell. This sci-fi film follows Sam, who is alone, working, on the moon. Strange things start to happen after an accident and the story unfolds. Film critic Mark Kermode is excited about this new film. In this clip he takes a look at the film and other moon based movies. Why not get yourself down to the screening at the Cornerhouse on Sunday 26 July at 6.25pm and benefit from a warm Manchester Science Festival introduction by Francis French. Tickets are £7.00 and can be booked online through the Cornerhouse.

Rock star physicist launches book as Manchester Science Festival trailblazer

Television physicist and ex- rock star Brian Cox will launch his first book with Manchester University’s award-winning scientist Jeff Forshaw at the Museum Of Science And Industry on July 7th at 7.15pm as part of the Manchester Science Festival's series of summer trailblazers.

Why Does E=mc2? (and why should we care?) is a groundbreaking journey into the real meaning of Einstein’s iconic equation, E=mc2. Raising lots of questions along the way – what is energy? what is mass? – the enthusiastic scientists take us to the site of the infamous ‘big bang machine’, the 27km Large Hadron Collider.

Brian Cox was in the band D:Ream: his last appearance with them was at the 1997 Labour party conference. He now splits his time between experimental physics in Manchester and the CERN labs in Geneva, Switzerland. He was also science adviser on Danny Boyle’s stunning film Sunshine. Jeff Forshaw, like Brian, is one of the youngest professors in the UK. He teaches Einstein’s theory of relativity to first year students.

The launch is on Tuesday July 7th 7.15 – 9.15pm in the Cardwell Auditorium at the Museum of Science and Industry (Liverpool Road, Castlefield, Manchester M3 4FP).

Tickets are £1, redeemable against one copy of the book on the night, and are available from Blackwell University Bookshop, Precinct Centre, Oxford Road, Manchester (telephone 0161 274 3331).

Why Does E=mc2? (and why should we care?) is a £12.99 hardback on Da Capo Press – available on the night for £10.99 less ticket price. More information on the book here: http://bit.ly/CoxForshaw

Trailblazers launch with a whizz, a pop and a bang!

To kick off our series of summer Festival trailblazers, we're heading to the cutting room square in Ancoats tommorrow to get involved in the cutting room experiment, which is celebrating the opening of the new space.

Activities such as musical statues, clothes swapping and a

silent disco will be taking place throughout the day, but at 3.30pm we'll be there with the museum of science and industry for Alka Seltzer Rockets! We'll be making them and learing about the science... there'll also be a launch pad to launch the rockets simultaneously.

Get yourselves down there early to bag a space at the rocket making table and we'll see you there!

Oh and if you'e got your own film canisters and alka seltzer (or indeed anything you want to use to decorate your rocket), bring them on down.

MSF at the Cutting room experiment

We've been a little quiet of late, but you'll be pleased to hear we're back and ready to go! You probably can't wait for the Festival in October, so help us help you by getting a little bit of MSF now...

Be part of the biggest user generated event in the world.

1 day. 12 events. You create.

Cutting Room Experiment is the world’s first completely user-generated event. The Cutting Room Experiment is an attempt to use a new public space to bring together the creativity of Manchester. Each individual event throughout the day will be decided by you - the audience - and Manchester Science Festival is getting involved!

The Manchester Science Festival and MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry) have posted an event idea on the Cutting Room Experiment website and we need your votes to make it happen. We want as many people to gather together to create their own alka seltzer rockets and 1,2,3... blast off simultaneously.

For our idea to be picked, we need votes. Visit cutting room experiment to register and be counted in. Then you'll get a little pice of the Festival a little bit earlier!

Keep your eyes peeled for other trailbalzer events over the summer in the run up to the 2009 Manchester Science Festival which will take place across Greater Manchester from 24 October - 1 November.

Last weekend's Yellow Trailblazer

While the Festival is warming up to start on this weekend, Building Initiative (an international group of architects and urbanists) was one of this year's trailblazers. Last Saturday (the 18th) we invited for a critical walking trail in Manchester. The weather was brilliant and we had a great time with a lot of inspiring discussions.

We started at CUBE gallery (where we present our project "How Yellow is Manchester?"), walked to Piccadilly Garden and went on to the Northern Quarter. There we "left" the inner city centre for exploring Strangeways. We were wondering what is green about the Greenquarter. We saw the beautiful buildings and lonely streets near the prison. And did you know that there is a Sikh temple hidden in-between all the wholesale and business?

We collected these and more thoughts about and places in Manchester in our publication Yellow Press. Please have a look at our website www.buildinginitiative.org or drop in at CUBE gallery to pick up a copy of our free newspaper that tries a fresh and critical look at Manchester's current city planning!

The story so far...

The story so far is a good one!

Not only did the RCUK debate on ageing go really well on Tuesday, but last night, we launched two major elements of the programme - the Yellow show at CUBE and our collaboration with the Literature Festival.

Both events were really well attended and had a great buzz - let's just hope we can carry that through next week and into the festival itself!

Big Science Read highlights

Big Science Read is really gathering pace now, looking forward to the weekend of events on the 25-26 October.

A few things to draw your attention to in particular:

There’s a great chance to hear one of the UK’s leading sci fi writers, Stephen Baxter, as part of the BSR weekend. Find out more details and book here.

Also one of the many things that’s happening that weekend is “It looks like you’re writing a letter”, and “Zeroes and ones” – an intriguing exploration between imagination, language and maths. Find out more details and book here.

NOTE - change to schedule: the “Vvroop Vvroop” comic event has been moved to the 18th at the Lass O’Gowrie (not the 25th as publicised).

It comes to us all...

So the debate last night was fascinating - great input from the three presenters and some really insightful feedback and points from the floor too.

Afterwards, I was pondering that a lot of people seemed to have quite strong opinions on the subject. I guess we do all have experience of ageing in some way, and therefore people have a certain personal "expertise" to bring to the debate. And that seems to be quite markedly different from a (technical) topic like stem cells, which we've debated in the past...

Related to all this, the BBC news site had a great article the other month about ageing, death and dying. You might be interested to take a look.

Thanks to Manchester Museum for hosting, to the volunteers for helping out, to RCUK for their support and of course, to Trevor, Eileen, Marcus and Marco for their input. And thanks to everyone who came depsite the rain and distinctly autumnal weather!

See you at the Blade Runner screening next week, or something else in the festival?

The science of getting older...

It comes to us all so I reckon it's probably worth knowing a bit about its possible impacts. Ageing populations are not just an issue for society, but for all of us who are growing older and living longer. Come along tomorrow and find out more from our expert panel and debate the issues.

"When I'm 164...": a debate about the impacts of ageing
14 October, 6.30pm, Manchester Museum

Join us for a debate about the impacts of ageing populations, how our bodies age, and the need for lifetime homes and communities. There will be three expert angles in on the topic followed by an audience debate.

Hosted by Prof Trevor Cox, speakers include Prof Marcus Ormerod (University of Salford), Prof Marco Narici (MMU), and Prof Eileen Fairhurst MBE (MMU).

Supported by RCUK, the Manchester Beacon for Public Engagement, and Full of Life Festival.

Join us for Yellow Trail Manchester, Saturday 18th, 10 am!

Building Initiative is a collaborative group of architects, urbanists and artists with a core interest in the relationship between buildings and social space, and the possibilities this can create for urban life. The group were invited by CUBE gallery to exhibit their ongoing project Yellow Space, which was originally developed for the contested urban situation in Belfast.

Thus, as we're now in Manchester, we decided to participate in the science festival, too!

We have developed Yellow Trail Manchester, a critical walking trail that explores Manchester’s contemporary zones of transition, creating an opportunity to reflect on social space and public life in the city.

Yellow Trail Manchester tries to encourage people to explore the role of the built environment in enabling and constructing different forms of social life. Through critical perception at specific locations, the trail aims to encourage the viewer to think about alternative strategies of planning culture.

Join us for Yellow Trail on Saturday, 18th October, 10 a.m. starting at CUBE gallery, 113-115 Portland Street!

You're also very welcome to attend the opening of our show at CUBE gallery on Thursday, 16th October, 6 p.m.!

http://www.buildinginitiative.org/
http://www.cube.org.uk/

The science of getting older...

It comes to us all and if for no other reason, that's a great incentive to come along to our first trailblazer to find out the impacts of ageing on our bodies, our minds and wider society...

“When I’m 164…”: a debate about the impacts of ageing

Tuesday 14 October, 6.30pm-8.30pm - The Manchester Museum
Booking details: FREE. To book in advance or for more information, call 0161 275 2648

Join us for a debate about the impacts of ageing populations, how our bodies age, and the need for lifetime homes and communities. There will be three expert angles in on the topic followed by an audience debate. Hosted by Prof Trevor Cox, speakers include Prof Marcus Ormerod (University of Salford), Prof Marco Narici (MMU), and Prof Eileen Fairhurst MBE (MMU). Supported by RCUK, the Manchester Beacon for Public Engagement, and Full of Life Festival.

Science station

Us busking at Lime St station in Liverpool this afternoon as part of the build up to the BA Festival this week and the Manchester festival in October...

This coming weekend...

There's something secret and incredible coming to the streets of Liverpool this weekend - quite a mystery!

But it's good timing for us and The BA Festival since we'll be science busking in Lime St Station on Fri 5 (12-6), Sat 6 and Sun 7 (both 11-4).

Hope to see you there!

Less than a week to go!

It's less than a week to go until we launch! There's a lot that's been done and a lot more still to do...

Firstly, thanks to the Lit Fest and all the Doctor Who contributors who turned out for yesterday's sold out trailblazer on science fiction/ fact. It was a fabulous event - despite the air con/ heating breaking!

Also we've just been tipped off about a great new website to support the film "Earth". Go and have a look!

The Bluetooth broadcasting has started - in Piccadilly station and at MoSI. In both locations, we're sending out trivia messages and festival info, a different message every hour each day! Make sure you enable your Bluetooth function to receive them.

And tomorrow is our last trailblazer - Cafe RSA on the topic "Science hearts Art". See you there?


technorati tag: manchester science festival

Trailblazer #2 - Rainforest Day

Tomorrow's the second of our trailblazer events - it's Rainforest Day at The Manchester Museum.

Drop over there for a family-friendly day of exploration where you can find out about plants and animals from the rainforest and beyond! Meet some live amphibians, learn some amazing facts about them, and take part in art and craft activities, object handling and tours.


technorati tag: manchester science festival, the manchester museum

Trailblazer #1

Last night's first trailblazer event went off with a big bang!

Prof Brian Boyle gave us a sparkling tour from the view of "the year 2032" back over the 100 years of radio astronomy, and a tour it was! Taking in quasars, pulsars and more, he whisked us through the discovery and development of the technology and looked forward (ahem I mean back) to creation and findings of the Square Kilometre Array, a new global initiative in radio astronomy. And it all nicely tied in with the 50th anniversary of the Lovell Telescope...

I think the whole thing's going to be a Jod-cast, so that's a great chance to catch up on what he said if you weren't there...


technorati tag: manchester science festival, brian boyle, square kilometre array, lovell 50th anniversary

Trailblazers - first one next week!

As part of the run up to the festival (four weeks and counting), but as from next week, we're running a series of trailblazer events, working with other festivals and partners to bring a little bit of science to food, drink, writing, and the stars…

We're delighted to be working with Jodrell Bank, Manchester Literature Festival, Manchester Food and Drink Festival, and The RSA to bring you these special science collaboration events.

A week on Tuesday (2 October, 7pm) we're co-hosting our first event with University of Manchester and Jodrell Bank - '100 Years of Radio Astronomy: A Future Retrospective', by Professor Brian Boyle, Director of CSIRO’s Australia Telescope National Facility. He's an inspiring, exciting speaker, and this lecture ‘looks back’ from the year 2030 to review a century of radio astronomy - pulsars, quasars, the radiation from the Big Bang - and the new view it gives us of our Universe.

Tickets: Free! Contact Jodrell Bank by phone on 01477 571321.

2007 is the 50th Anniversary of the Lovell Telescope, the iconic radio telescope at Jodrell Bank created by Manchester scientist, Sir Bernard Lovell. This lecture is part of a series of events to celebrate this wonderful anniversary.

More on the other trailblazers soon... both here and on the main site!


technorati tag: manchester science festival, brian boyle, jodrell bank