The British Science Festival in Birmingham

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We hope you find lots of events to intrigue, amuse and enlighten you and your family.

For more information about events such as audience level and people taking part click on the name of the event. Where events are bookable through the British Science Association, you can book by clicking on the shopping trolley next to the event entry. Where no shopping cart is shown, click on the event title for more information about how to book.

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THE ART OF IRIDESCENCE: BEAUTY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 14/09/2010   10:00-19:00 cost: free Venue: School of Art, Birmingham City University, Margaret Street Summary: This eye-catching SciArt exhibition captures, for the first time on canvas, the rainbow colours of Nature’s iridescence. Mimicking iridescent structures of butterflies, the artist Franziska Schenk adapts revolutionary colour-shifting nanoparticles to inject a dynamic dimension into painting. With butterfly eyespots as example, relationships between colour and perception are explored.
THE ART OF IRIDESCENCE: BEAUTY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 14/09/2010   10:00-19:00 cost: free Venue: Rotunda, Aston Webb Building, University of Bimingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT Summary: This eye-catching SciArt exhibition captures, for the first time on canvas, the rainbow colours of Nature’s iridescence. Mimicking iridescent structures of butterflies, the artist Franziska Schenk adapts revolutionary colour-shifting nanoparticles to inject a dynamic dimension into painting. With butterfly eyespots as example, relationships between colour and perception are explored.
INSPIRING WOMEN IN SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY 14/09/2010   11:00-14:00 cost: £ 5.00 Venue: MB554, Aston University Summary: Successful women in science, engineering and technology are an inspiration to young girls, as well as women returning to their careers. Sunetra Gupta, a leading bioscientist and novelist, Liz Watson, an Engineering Director at Rolls Royce and others invite you to join them for lunch as they talk about their work and their lives in science in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.
'MEANING OF LIFE': ETHNOGRAPHIC FILM SCREENING WITH DIRECTOR'S INTRODUCTION 14/09/2010   18:00-20:00 cost: £ 5.00 Venue: MB574, Aston University Summary: Join acclaimed director Hugh Brody as he introduces his film 'Meaning of Life', a fascinating insight into the Canadian penal system. Following inmates at Kwikwexwelhp prison, it captures their thoughts as they experience unique rehabilitation based on First Nation spirituality. They voice hopes for the future and talk about their lives. The sreening will be followed by discussion with Hugh.
CHEMISTRY WITH CABBAGE 14/09/2010   18:00-19:00 cost: £ 3.00 Venue: MB644, Aston University Summary: A demonstration of experiments you can do at home using common household products. See molecules moving, gases expanding and solids disappearing. Highlights include a great lava lamp, toothpaste for your elephant, plastics that you can make, novel uses for constipation remedies and why your mum tells you to eat your greens.
SO YOU WANT TO BE A SCIENTIST? THE FINAL 14/09/2010   18:30-20:00 cost: free Venue: Cadbury Lecture Theatre, Aston Business School Summary: All summer Radio 4’s amateur scientists have been conducting their own experiments. Now homing snails, gig crowds, Facebook photos and noctilucent clouds are all up before the judges, Lord Robert May, former Government Chief Science Adviser, Professor Tanya Byron, Clinical Psychologist, Mark Henderson, Science Editor of The Times and Professor Trevor Cox, Acoustic Engineer.
THE ART OF IRIDESCENCE: BEAUTY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 15/09/2010   10:00-17:00 cost: free Venue: School of Art, Birmingham City University, Margaret Street Summary: This eye-catching SciArt exhibition captures, for the first time on canvas, the rainbow colours of Nature’s iridescence. Mimicking iridescent structures of butterflies, the artist Franziska Schenk adapts revolutionary colour-shifting nanoparticles to inject a dynamic dimension into painting. With butterfly eyespots as example, relationships between colour and perception are explored.
THE ART OF IRIDESCENCE: BEAUTY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 15/09/2010   10:00-17:00 cost: free Venue: Rotunda, Aston Webb Building, University of Bimingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT Summary: This eye-catching SciArt exhibition captures, for the first time on canvas, the rainbow colours of Nature’s iridescence. Mimicking iridescent structures of butterflies, the artist Franziska Schenk adapts revolutionary colour-shifting nanoparticles to inject a dynamic dimension into painting. With butterfly eyespots as example, relationships between colour and perception are explored.
INDIANA JONES MEETS IKEA (10.00) 15/09/2010   10:00-11:30 cost: free Venue: Museum Collection Centre, Nechells, 25 Dollman Street, Birmingham B7 4RQ Summary: A visit to one of the largest museum stores in the country. Usually only open on special days or by appointment this is a chance to get up close and personal with items of scientific, technological or historic significance. It's also a chance to wallow in nostalgia and surprise as an art deco chip fryer rubs shoulders with a Sinclair C5 and a 50s gas cooker sits opposite a mesopotamian pot!
INDIANA JONES MEETS IKEA (11.30) 15/09/2010   11:30-13:00 cost: free Venue: Museum Collection Centre, Nechells, 25 Dollman Street, Birmingham B7 4RQ Summary: A visit to one of the largest museum stores in the country. Usually only open on special days or by appointment this is a chance to get up close and personal with items of scientific, technological or historic significance. It's also a chance to wallow in nostalgia and surprise as an art deco chip fryer rubs shoulders with a Sinclair C5 and a 50s gas cooker sits opposite a mesopotamian pot!
INDIANA JONES MEETS IKEA (13.00) 15/09/2010   13:00-14:30 cost: free Venue: Museum Collection Centre, Nechells, 25 Dollman Street, Birmingham B7 4RQ Summary: A visit to one of the largest museum stores in the country. Usually only open on special days or by appointment this is a chance to get up close and personal with items of scientific, technological or historic significance. It's also a chance to wallow in nostalgia and surprise as an art deco chip fryer rubs shoulders with a Sinclair C5 and a 50s gas cooker sits opposite a mesopotamian pot!
INDIANA JONES MEETS IKEA (14.30) 15/09/2010   14:30-16:00 cost: free Venue: Museum Collection Centre, Nechells, 25 Dollman Street, Birmingham B7 4RQ Summary: A visit to one of the largest museum stores in the country. Usually only open on special days or by appointment this is a chance to get up close and personal with items of scientific, technological or historic significance. It's also a chance to wallow in nostalgia and surprise as an art deco chip fryer rubs shoulders with a Sinclair C5 and a 50s gas cooker sits opposite a mesopotamian pot!
X-CHANGE 15/09/2010   18:15-19:30 cost: free Venue: Blue Room, Students' Guild, Aston University Summary: Disagree. Question. Debate. Hear from a selection of the day's best speakers. Catch up on who was most controversial, interesting or downright hilarious. Find out who lit up the x-change team's day today. Enjoy a drink in Blue Room and let us ease you into the evening. We guarantee to make you think. Everything expertly knitted together by BBC journalist Sue Nelson.
OPEN MIC: THERE'S SCIENCE IN MY FICTION (AND POETRY) 15/09/2010   19:00-22:00 cost: free Venue: The Old Joint Stock Function Room Summary: "What if..?" ask both scientists and fiction writers. What if a gene mutates? What if she never married him? Science is fabulous inspiration for fiction - come read out your science-inspired stories and poems to win great prizes, including a Focus magazine subscription and champagne. Science-inspired authors Tania Hershman, Sue Guiney and Brian Clegg will judge. Put some science in your fiction!
THE SCIENCE OF PULLING 15/09/2010   19:00-21:30 cost: £ 5.00 Venue: Pinsent Mason, Suite 1, mac Summary: Are you looking for love? Tired of the same old chat up lines? Come along and gain a new perspective on the dating scene. Sexpert Dr Petra Boynton explodes some of the myths surrounding online dating sites and explains why we are so eager to meet our soul mates. After the talk try out some of your new-found skills in the very first British Science Festival speed dating event.
ANTHROPOLOGY AND ARCHAEOLOGY SECTION DINNER 15/09/2010   19:30-21:30 cost: free Venue: Summary: Join the Section for a pay-for-yourself dinner as we chat about anthropology and archaeology in a congenial environment.
SCIENCE FILM: JUNIPER FILM CLUB PRESENTS FANTASTIC VOYAGE 15/09/2010   19:30-22:00 cost: free Venue: The Jekyll and Hyde Summary: Medics get microscopically miniaturised and injected into a scientist's bloodstream to save him from a blood clot. Oscar winning sets and special effects complement tense dramatic scripting and tight direction as the team learn all about arterial traffic jams.
THE ART OF IRIDESCENCE: BEAUTY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 16/09/2010   10:00-17:00 cost: free Venue: School of Art, Birmingham City University, Margaret Street Summary: This eye-catching SciArt exhibition captures, for the first time on canvas, the rainbow colours of Nature’s iridescence. Mimicking iridescent structures of butterflies, the artist Franziska Schenk adapts revolutionary colour-shifting nanoparticles to inject a dynamic dimension into painting. With butterfly eyespots as example, relationships between colour and perception are explored.
THE ART OF IRIDESCENCE: BEAUTY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 16/09/2010   10:00-17:00 cost: free Venue: Rotunda, Aston Webb Building, University of Bimingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT Summary: This eye-catching SciArt exhibition captures, for the first time on canvas, the rainbow colours of Nature’s iridescence. Mimicking iridescent structures of butterflies, the artist Franziska Schenk adapts revolutionary colour-shifting nanoparticles to inject a dynamic dimension into painting. With butterfly eyespots as example, relationships between colour and perception are explored.
SOMETHING ABOUT NOTHING: MAGIC, COMEDY AND SCIENCE 16/09/2010   17:00-18:00 cost: £ 3.00 Venue: MB644, Aston University Summary: Nothing is notoriously hard to grasp. However, things are set to change as Dr Johnny Facade will fill in the empty gaps and explain almost everything he knows about nothing – from annihilation through to zero. Along the way numerous surprises will be thrown up like gone off prawns. A fast paced and interactive show that uniquely fuses magic, multimedia, science and stand-up comedy.
X-CHANGE 16/09/2010   18:15-19:30 cost: free Venue: Blue Room, Students' Guild, Aston University Summary: Disagree. Question. Debate. Hear from a selection of the day's best speakers. Catch up on who was most controversial, interesting or downright hilarious. Find out who lit up the x-change team's day today. Enjoy a drink in Blue Room and let us ease you into the evening. We guarantee to make you think. Everything expertly knitted together by BBC journalist Sue Nelson.
COCKTAIL CHEMISTRY (19.00) 16/09/2010   19:00-22:00 cost: £ 5.00 Venue: The Jekyll and Hyde Summary: Play 'liquid jenga' and learn the art of the pousse-cafe - spirit and liqueur layering that involves a knowledge of gravity and liquid density to create fantastic layered drinks. Just how many layers can be made depends on a variety of parameters. This workshop is complemented by a master class in the art of balancing drinks.
ROBOTICALLY CHALLENGED 16/09/2010   19:00-22:00 cost: free Venue: The Old Joint Stock Function Room Summary: Join the IET's Robotics and Mechatronics Network for the 'pub guide to robots' team quiz. This free fun evening will consist of 5 rounds of questions to test your robot knowledge, don't worry you don't have to be a robotics genius to get involved. Ideally each team should consist of 5 players and you all receive a free drink.
HANDS-ON OVERVIEW: DEVELOPING APPS FOR IPAD & IPHONE (10.00) 17/09/2010   10:00-12:15 cost: free Venue: The New Technology Institute (NTI) Birmingham, 15 Bartholomew Row, Birmingham, B5 5JU Summary: Enjoy this two hour hands-on intensive interactive demonstration on how to get started in mobile application development using the iPhone or iPad Software Development Kit. This event is open to all those with some programming experience.
THE ART OF IRIDESCENCE: BEAUTY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 17/09/2010   10:00-17:00 cost: free Venue: School of Art, Birmingham City University, Margaret Street Summary: This eye-catching SciArt exhibition captures, for the first time on canvas, the rainbow colours of Nature’s iridescence. Mimicking iridescent structures of butterflies, the artist Franziska Schenk adapts revolutionary colour-shifting nanoparticles to inject a dynamic dimension into painting. With butterfly eyespots as example, relationships between colour and perception are explored.
THE ART OF IRIDESCENCE: BEAUTY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 17/09/2010   10:00-17:00 cost: free Venue: Rotunda, Aston Webb Building, University of Bimingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT Summary: This eye-catching SciArt exhibition captures, for the first time on canvas, the rainbow colours of Nature’s iridescence. Mimicking iridescent structures of butterflies, the artist Franziska Schenk adapts revolutionary colour-shifting nanoparticles to inject a dynamic dimension into painting. With butterfly eyespots as example, relationships between colour and perception are explored.
HANDS-ON OVERVIEW: DEVELOPING APPS FOR IPAD AND IPHONE (14.00) 17/09/2010   14:00-16:15 cost: free Venue: The New Technology Institute (NTI) Birmingham, 15 Bartholomew Row, Birmingham, B5 5JU Summary: Enjoy this two hour hands-on intensive interactive demonstration on how to get started in mobile application development using the iPhone or iPad Software Development Kit. This event is open to all those with some programming experience.
X-CHANGE 17/09/2010   18:15-19:30 cost: free Venue: Blue Room, Students' Guild, Aston University Summary: Disagree. Question. Debate. Hear from a selection of the day's best speakers. Catch up on who was most controversial, interesting or downright hilarious. Find out who lit up the x-change team's day today. Enjoy a drink in Blue Room and let us ease you into the evening. We guarantee to make you think. Everything expertly knitted together by BBC journalist Sue Nelson.
BAD MEDICINE 17/09/2010   18:30-19:30 cost: £ 8.00 Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire Summary: Ben Goldacre is one of the most prominent science writers in the UK. His weekly 'Bad Science' column in The Guardian and his online blog engage the public with satirical criticism of the inaccuracies and scaremongering which cloud the public's understanding of scientific issues. His book Bad Science has sold more than a quarter of a million copies.
THE HYPNOTISABLE BRAIN 17/09/2010   19:00-20:30 cost: £ 5.00 Venue: MB517, Aston University Summary: What do people who are highly hypnotisable have in common with schizophrenia patients? Why do people who experience hallucinations also suffer distortions of time perception? Is hypnosis a useful therapeutic medium or a dangerous 'messing with the mind'? All these questions and more are addressed in a fascinating and sometimes amusing talk, that concludes with a group hypnosis.
POWERS OF TEN - A MUSICAL JOURNEY FROM QUARK TO COSMOS 17/09/2010   19:00-20:30 cost: £ 3.00 Venue: Great Hall, Main Building, Aston University Summary: Join 300 singers exploring the splendours of the universe from the smallest - atoms, quarks and strings - to the biggest - red supergiants, black holes and galaxies! Enjoy a romantic ballad about bacteria; a tango for the circulatory system; a lively waltz for tectonic plates. A range of musical numbers with dangerously contagious melodies explore extraordinary scientific vistas.
THE ART OF IRIDESCENCE: BEAUTY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 18/09/2010   10:00-16:00 cost: free Venue: School of Art, Birmingham City University, Margaret Street Summary: This eye-catching SciArt exhibition captures, for the first time on canvas, the rainbow colours of Nature’s iridescence. Mimicking iridescent structures of butterflies, the artist Franziska Schenk adapts revolutionary colour-shifting nanoparticles to inject a dynamic dimension into painting. With butterfly eyespots as example, relationships between colour and perception are explored.
MATHS BUSKING 18/09/2010   11:00-17:00 cost: free Venue: Various locations around city centre Summary: Combining the worlds of mathematics and busking, enthusiastic mathematicians will perform interactive busking shows for everyone who walks by. Using skills and training from busking, these 'maths buskers' will employ a range of tricks and demonstrations that are perfectly suited to engage a curious public.
INTERACTIVE EVOLUTIONARY ART: LET THE COMPUTER EVOLVE IMAGES THAT YOU LIKE! 18/09/2010   11:00-13:00 cost: £ 3.00 Venue: MB202, Aston University Summary: Join this hands-on event and learn about artificial evolution by contributing to computer-based evolution of images. Discover how the computer can produce aesthetically pleasing art when you select your favourite images from a group. Explore the processes of evolution by alternating image generation (by the computer) and selection (by you). Come along and get the computer to be creative.
MATHS BUSKING 18/09/2010   11:00-17:00 cost: free Venue: Various locations around city centre Summary: Combining the worlds of mathematics and busking, enthusiastic mathematicians will perform interactive busking shows for everyone who walks by. Using skills and training from busking, these 'maths buskers' will employ a range of tricks and demonstrations that are perfectly suited to engage a curious public.
AMOEBA TO ZEBRA 18/09/2010   11:30-12:30 cost: £ 3.00 Venue: The Drum, Main Auditorium Summary: A natural history musical 4.6 billion years in the making. Pop music and science fact come together in a unique and educational concept show that tells the story of evolution through 14 songs, narration, visuals and really wild props. Being 747 have been touring schools in the UK for the last two years with this show and are now ready to unleash their beastly creation at our festival.
THE RAP GUIDE TO EVOLUTION 18/09/2010   13:00-14:00 cost: £ 3.00 Venue: The Electric Cinema Summary: Written and performed by Canadian actor and rap artist Baba Brinkman, The Rap Guide to evolution presents Darwin's theory in a striking new form: comedy storytelling and hilarious remixes of popular rap songs. Why is bling like a peacock¹s tail? Can white people be afrocentric? Does anything rhyme with Australopithecus afarensis?
SKEPTICS ROADSHOW 18/09/2010   13:00-18:00 cost: £ 3.00 Venue: MB161, Aston University Summary: Inspired by the success of the national network of "Skeptics in the Pub" discussion groups, a range of short talks and discussions on topics as diverse as homeopathy, ESP, UFOs, and libel law. Between the talks, you can visit various stalls and displays, and have a (non-alcoholic) drink.
THE MACHINERY - MACHINE-INSPIRED DANCE 80 YEARS BEFORE DETROIT TECHNO 18/09/2010   13:30-14:00 cost: free Venue: The Library Theatre, Central Library Summary: This fascinating dance piece uses steps that mimic mill machines. Although these steps were danced a century ago by cotton mill workers, they seem ahead of their time, forerunners of today's machine-inspired dance music. We’ll examine working life in the cotton mills, revealing many parallels with life in today’s call centres, as we explore John Stuart Mill's early indictment of mechanisation.
THE HERESY OF NATURE 18/09/2010   15:00-17:00 cost: £ 3.00 Venue: The Library Theatre, Central Library Summary: A semi-staged play about the discovery of a Universe that appears indifferent to the human condition. Galileo and Darwin face ancient beliefs (represented by a cardinal) as they unravel the mysteries of Nature, while a couple of modern citizens fight against the apparent spiritual desolation of the Universe by seeking natural paths towards hope, meaning and purpose for the human existence.
THE BEAGLE HAS LANDED! 18/09/2010   19:00-21:00 cost: £ 3.00 Venue: G11, Aston University Summary: The Missing, Inc. bring to life a hilarious – and wildly inaccurate -account of Charles Darwin's voyage aboard HMS Beagle, his marriage to his cousin Emma, and some stuff about natural selection. (Contains beards and scenes of mild evolution.)
SHAZIA MIRZA 'MULTIPLE CHOICE' 18/09/2010   19:00-20:00 cost: £ 8.00 Venue: The Old Rep Summary: Most people have a crush at 16, a relationship by 32, sex in between. Not me and Susan Boyle (allegedly). What happens when you don't follow the obvious path? Brand new stand up show from international award winning comedian and Guardian Weekend magazine columnist. As seen on 'Have I Got News For You' (BBC) 'Last Comic Standing' (NBC) and 'Beautiful People' (BBC).
GET YOUR GEEK ON 18/09/2010   20:00-06:00 cost: £ 5.00 Venue: Guild Hall, Students' Guild, Aston University Summary: Grab your loafers, dust off your horn-rimmed spectacles, don some tweed or floral threads and let your inner geek loose on the dancefloor. Enjoy our interactive dancefloor and lounge with delights including burlesque performers with a science twist, pop up photo booths and costume boxes to let you play at being your ultimate science hero. Djs Beats in Abundance mix the tunes. Dress to impress!
IT'S A GEEK'S WORLD 19/09/2010   10:00-16:00 cost: free Venue: Guild Hall, Students' Guild, Aston University Summary: Want to understand what is inside the box or build your own gadgets? Enjoy multiple opportunities to nurture your inner geek. Workshops will run throughout the day, covering things from learning to solder to building a robot to making mechanical music. A full day of activity and demonstrations with a grand finale performance of music for midi-octopus.
LEGO MINDSTORMS ROBOTS WORKSHOP (10.00) 19/09/2010   10:00-11:00 cost: £ 3.00 Venue: Guild Hall, Students' Guild, Aston University Summary: Do you like Lego? Interested in something more advanced? Then this is the right event for you. Learn about software control and the different Lego sensors (sound, touch, ultrasonic and light) then program your own robot and take part in a short competition, where the programmer of the winning robot receives a small prize. Suitable for children aged 8+.
THE ART OF IRIDESCENCE: BEAUTY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 19/09/2010   11:00-16:00 cost: free Venue: School of Art, Birmingham City University, Margaret Street Summary: This eye-catching SciArt exhibition captures, for the first time on canvas, the rainbow colours of Nature’s iridescence. Mimicking iridescent structures of butterflies, the artist Franziska Schenk adapts revolutionary colour-shifting nanoparticles to inject a dynamic dimension into painting. With butterfly eyespots as example, relationships between colour and perception are explored.
THE ART OF IRIDESCENCE: BEAUTY IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 19/09/2010   11:00-16:00 cost: free Venue: Rotunda, Aston Webb Building, University of Bimingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT Summary: This eye-catching SciArt exhibition captures, for the first time on canvas, the rainbow colours of Nature’s iridescence. Mimicking iridescent structures of butterflies, the artist Franziska Schenk adapts revolutionary colour-shifting nanoparticles to inject a dynamic dimension into painting. With butterfly eyespots as example, relationships between colour and perception are explored.
TONY ROBINSON - ARCHAEOLOGY THROUGH THE AGES 19/09/2010   18:00-19:00 cost: £ 8.00 Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire Summary: Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, Bone Kickers - they all present an image of archaeology as rough-and-tumble treasure seeking. But the reality is that archaeologists are forensic scientists, scrupulously examining the strata of their trenches for clues about the lives of ordinary people in times past. Dig behind the scenes of Channel 4's ever-popular Time Team with its host Tony Robinson.
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