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

From rockets to astronauts...

It's been all go on the Festival front... the cutting room experiment was great fun at the weekend... was a bit drizzly upon arrival, but as soon as we started making our alka seltzer rockets, the sun came out! Loads of people joined in - mainly kids at first, but the adults were desperate for a go once they saw rockets being let off. Got some great footage on video which we will hopefully share soon.

After all that fun, we'll hopefully be doing it again in the summer and special mention goes to Charlie who brought his home made rockets down on the day and wanted to change the experiment to see what results he could get... a scientist of the future I think!

If you enjoyed that, there's an event at the Museum of Science and Industry coming up featuring Astronauts from a recent space mission... get yourself along to find out all about their mission, what it's really like to go into space and if they miss space food... http://www.mosi.org.uk/whats-on/an-audience-with-the-discovery-space-shuttle-crew

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.

British Science Association new Manchester branch launch

Are you interested in organising events that engage & inspire the public with science and engineering? The British Science Assocaition is launching a new Manchester Branch and the branch will organise some events as part of the Manchester Science Festival! If you're interested, see below...

The launch meeting for the Manchester-based group of the British Science Association is taking place this Thursday (June 11th), at 5:30pm in Kro Bar, Oxford Road. Please join us to find out more about the Association and help with the planning of future public science events in the area. If you are unable to attend but would like to be kept informed about the group please e-mail natalie.lane@britishscienceassociation.org.

Where: Kro bar (upstairs), 325 Oxford Road When: June 11th, 5:30 – 7:00pm Who: Anyone with an interest in science that they would like to share!

For more information about this meeting, or the British Science Association, please visit our website (www.britishscienceassociation.org) or contact Natalie Lane (natalie.lane@britishscienceassociation.org, 0161 306 1599)

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.

SciBAr

A nice article on the newish Didsbury SciBAr here.

Twitter tweeting

Jon Copley is a marine biologist and is currently on a research ship in the Southern Ocean, just off Antaractica, exploring the deep seabed to find hydrothermal vents and cold seeps--deep, chemical oases that are home to a variety of bizarre creatures.

Jon is posting regular “tweets” on Twitter every few minutes (when possible) about the expedition’s progress - the idea being to give people an insight into the process of how science is done, give them the opportunity to interact with scientists in more of a ’real-time’ setting, and hopefully share the thrill of discovery when they find something new.

You can do follow his posts at: http://twitter.com/expeditionlog

UK Schools Computer Animation Competition 2009 - now open!

Now open! The UK Schools Computer Animation Competition 2009

The competition is open to all UK schoolchildren aged between 7 and 19. The deadline for entering is Friday 1 May 2009. For full details, and to register your school's interest, please visit the Animation09 website. Register now, with no obligation, and keep in the picture!

About the competition

The School of Computer Science at The University of Manchester is running the second annual UK Schools Computer Animation Competition, in association with Electronic Arts and the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.

For the 2009 competition, entrants can create their animations (maximum duration: 1 minute) using any of the following programs: Alice, Scratch, or Flash. There are some great prizes, and the Animation Festival and Awards Ceremony will be held at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.

The inaugural 2008 competition attracted over 230 entries from 55 schools, with over 400 children attending the Film Show and Awards Ceremony day at The University of Manchester. Visit the 2008 Winners Gallery.

Key dates
19 January 2009: Competition launch, and the website opens for registration.
1 May 2009: Deadline for submitting entries.
22 May 2009: Shortlisted winners notified.
26 June 2009: Film Show and Awards Ceremony day at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.

Key contacts
Animation09 website
Enquiries: Animation09@cs.man.ac.uk

Happy 2009!

Happy new year!

So we can confirm the rumours are true - the festival will be back in 2009 and the dates are likely to be 24 October until 1 November.

And whilst you're waiting for that date to roll around, of course we'll be back blogging on here, as well as updating the main site with developments.

For now, you can entertain yourself with the video of the 2008 highlights that has just gone up on the site. Spot yourself or be inspired in time for this year...

Upcoming...

Big Science Read is coming towards its finale – and we’ve got some great author and writing events across Greater Manchester in the coming weeks. For instance, Chris Turney’s talking about his book “Ice, Mud and Blood: Lessons from Climates Past” and Michael Boulter’s exploring and explaining “Darwin’s Garden” as well, just in time for Darwin200.

You can find all the events on the BSR website - http://www.bigscienceread.org/events/ - along with the lists of books for you to vote for, and other information.

Hope to see you at an event and receive your vote soon!

Let's hope this isn't true for festivals...

"You only go to a science centre three times in your life... Once when you're eight years old; once when your kids are eight years old; and once when your grandchildren are eight years old."

National Science and Engineering Week (only 17 weeks to go)

For those of you who can't wait the 51 weeks for your next dose of science festival fun, it is only 17 weeks until National Science and Engineering Week. (Sorry, shameless bit of plugging!)
The BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science) and the Manchester Museum ran an information session for NSEW on Wednesday 29th October. The event was really well attended with quite a diverse audience; local school science teachers, science societies, students, researchers, along with representatives from a range of industries and businesses.
The evening was designed as an informal gathering which we hoped would spark a frenzy of idea generation and develop a support network for those people interested in becoming organisers for NSEW.

There were several presentations to get things going. The first was given by Joanna Rooke from the BA and provided a large amount of information regarding NSEW. Much of this information and the resources she promoted can be found at,
http://www.the-ba.net/the-ba/Events/NSEW/

Following the presentations there was a nibbles-fuelled ideas/networking session. The cafe had a great buzz to it during this time and I am optimistic that collaborations were formed, ideas formulated and that NSEW 2009 is going to be the best yet.

Unfortunately there are no more information sessions planned in preparation for the 2009 event. However, it is not too late to get involved! Whoever you are, NSEW is an opportunity for everyone to get involved in science, engineering, technology and maths events. Any audience, any format, any topic (although the broad theme for 2009 is 'Change').
If you want any more information don't hesitate to get in touch with the BA through their website.

Four snapshots...

Poppy Adams reading from The Behaviour of Moths, Manchester Museum

Busking at Piccadilly station

The 3D EARTH mosiac at the Trafford Centre

The sold out Blade Runner screening

51 weeks to go...

So it's basically all over for 2008 - what a buzz!

There are still a couple of events upcoming, including one tonight at Manchester Museum about the bronze age shovel and, of course, stick insect weekend this Saturday/ Sunday!

And there's loads you can do by downloading and interacting with the festival over the coming weeks, not least the City South podcast and trail, amongst other things (like www.hearmanchester.com and the Science Places walk). Check out the Interactive section of the festival website for more details.

In the meantime, we'll be going back to post photos and other bits and pieces from the festival here, as well as putting up some end-of-the-festival posts...

Catch you back here soon?

International Science Directors

While all the exciting public events have been going on, a group of science festival directors from around the world have arrived in Manchester. Thanks to the British Council and MOSI, 2o delegates have been sharing experiences and lessons on setting up and running science festivals. Alongside that, we have seen some of the top festival events.

So, what have we all been learning? Well, on Monday we learned about why different festivals in the UK were set up, and how their missions have changed. These can be local events, like this festival, or national programmes like the BA Festival. In the afternoon we listened to Trevor Bayliss talk about his belief that invention should be taught to all young people.

On Tuesday we compared the way our festivals, and the major UK events, are operated. It seems that no two festivals are completely alike, although we all have similar issues to contend with (funding, marketing and working with partners). In the afternoon were taken on a walk around the scientific history of Manchester, before participating in the Nowgen debate on the politics of immunisation. Judging by the live voting at the event, the audience was surprisingly representative of the UK population (with very similar views), even though 20 were from overseas.

Today was a rapid journey through the programme to commemorate Darwin Year in 2009, with presentations from two major Darwin festivals as well as UK and international coordinating projects.

So, what have we learned so far? Science festivals are thriving all around the world. UK festivals, like Manchester and Newcastle, compare well but there are some amazingly dynamic and innovative activities elsewhere. Many events are celebratory, cultural events but dialogue is becoming a common theme everywhere. We've learnt about the importance of stories in communicating complex ideas and seen how in some cases a compelling story can dominate over fact. Still to come, we'll find out about wo works in festivals and the perfect location, as well as discovering the identity of the UK's best young science communicator. And maybe, by the time we finish on friday, everyone will have adjusted to UK time.

The story so far, and more to come!

Already, we've (deep breath)...
...science busked in the station, been on telly, done some city walks, launched the Planet-Box art at the library, met Our Kid, told some stories, made a massive 3D mosaic, played with noisy toys, hung out at the Trafford Centre, done a Mensa test, learnt and used some BSL, talked about dystopian novels, heard about the behaviour of moths, seen evolutionary colour in action, hunted for aliens, and solved a crime in CSI Manchester!

But there's more, so much more...

Even in the next 48 hours you could (another deep breath)...
...debate state interventions in health decisions, take a sound tour, see some cartoon science, be a dinosaur detective, watch the Cosmic Africa film, find out where your mind is, bend it like Sparky, get a plant's view of the world, and do chemistry with cabbage!

To find out more simply search on the website for any of the above! And see you at something before the next big weekend, we hope?

Clip from Friday's BBC NW Tonight

Liquid nitrogen on the move!

Phew! After many months of preparation I have this afternoon finally left MOSI with an auditorium choc-full of exciting Chemistry demos ready for go tomorrow at the BSL Signs for Science Chemistry Demonstration at 11am.

It's been quite a feat to pull together this event (and its partner event BSL Signs for Science Finding New Science Terms at 2.30pm) and looking back to the start I can see that I underestimated how much work needs to go into planning a fully translated event. After what must rack up to about 3000 emails between about 10 people coordinating these two BSL events has been a bit like directing a fleet of slow-moving tankers. Not that I suggest my valued colleagues are slow-moving! Rather that there was so much to do and so many people to talk to, liaise and negotiate with in order for us to pull together all the pre-requisites for the events.

Of course there are the presenters to organize getting over to Manchester, but I've also needed to recruit a BSL translator and and electronic notetaker who can work on demand so that audience members can hear, see or read whatever language they work best with. We've needed to liaise heavily with MOSI to ensure the room is fully accessible and everyone is visible to everyone else (thanks Julie for all your help!) and we've also had to track down the equipment and chemicals needed for the event - a huge thank you to the University of Manchester Chemistry Department who have furnished us with everything we need at no expense to us.

It was a little hairy transporting the chemicals across town to MOSI but I had a helper (thanks Jenny!) and additional people at both ends to pack the car and we managed to make it safely to MOSI without any angry taxis driving into the back of us and freezing us all with a burst container of liquid nitrogen!

It has been hugely gratifying to get to the end of today and see everything set up ready to go tomorrow. I hope very much we get the mixed audience we are looking for tomorrow and that they all enjoy the events. These events are a part of something bigger - we need to be actively making public science events accessible to as many people as possible. Yes it's hard work, yes it can be expensive, but it is all worth it to enable everyone to share the wonder of science. Funders take note, we need more money to make as many events accessible to as many people as possible! And organizers, we need to be considering all kinds of people when planning our events to enable as many people as possible to attend. Even simple actions - a touch table here, a hearing loop there, or a bus to get people to the venue, can open up your event to a whole new world of people. It's time to share our expertise and maybe next year Manchester Science Festival, and our other events during the rest of the year, will be a sell-out to a diverse audience and we can confidently express satisfaction at having engaged new people with science.

Spring forward, fall back...

That's right - it's that weekend again, when the clocks go back for the end of British Summer Time.

Good way to remember if it's forward or back? "Spring forward, fall back" (ok it's a bit American... but it works!)

The change happens on Saturday night/ Sunday morning so don't forget - or you'll be an hour early for everything on Sunday!

Our Kid

Monday saw the launch of Nowgen's project, Our Kid, celebrating 60 years of the NHS.

As part of it, they've made an interactive exhibition stand, and also a graphic novel detailing the experiences of teenagers with restricted growth.

Next week, they're launching a series of free debates and talks around health - IVF, leukaemia, TB and MMR - and of course a chance to see Our Kid for yourself at Manchester's Central Library.