This week we look at the Explorathon Extravaganza event (Glasgow Science Centre, Friday 30th September, 6-11pm) and Crinolines, Coal Tar and The Colourists (University of Glasgow Library, Friday 30th September, 5.30-8pm).
Explorathon Extravaganza
For the third year running, the Glasgow Science Centre opens its doors for free for one night only, for an Explorathon Extravaganza!
With fun for all of the family, feed your curiosity and discover cutting-edge research, through interactive activities and demos, exciting talks, and comedy, plus a series of Planetarium shows throughout the night!
You’ll find the science centre packed with interactive stations with games, activities, objects and experiments. We have 50 research groups lined up with activities to suit all ages and interests. We’ll also have talks ranging from dinosaurs to space exploration. We’ll also have a Glasgow Skeptics event with a special guest talk from Steve Colgan, Qi elf from the BBC series, who will be exploring what aliens might look like.
Just some of the topics on offer: medicine, physics, politics, philosophy, art, robotics, engineering, law and food. How many activities can you fit in over our 5 hour extravaganza?! At the heart of the night are the researchers themselves, we spoke to Joseph Dixon a researcher, at the University of Strathclyde and GlaxoSmithKline, who will be delivering an activity based around his pharmaceutical research during Explorathon Extravaganza.
Joseph says, “Medicinal chemistry is all about designing and making molecules with the right 3D shape and chemical functionality to fit into specific pockets of proteins. Deciding what to make requires a range of modelling tools and at Explorathon Extravaganza I’ll be showing off a few of these tools and discussing how they help us make the best medicines we can.”
Book your free ticket for Explorathon Extravaganza now and keep up to date with this event on Facebook.
Crinolines, Coal Tar and The Colourists
Take a step back in time to the fashion and the science of the Victorian with this tour and talk in the University of Glasgow’s library.
The world-changing synthetic dye industry was a fusion of innovation, chance and entrepreneurship by 19th century chemists and dyers. Dr Anita Quye reveals how science and technology transformed the industrial coal tar waste of Victorian Britain into colourful synthetic dyes, kick-starting the foundation of modern organic chemistry along the way.
You can opt for a guided group visit to the Special Collection at the University of Glasgow library with Dr Quye before or after the talk to see rare 19th century books with samples of early synthetic dyes that she and her team are investigating by historical and scientific research.
Book your free ticket to Crinolines, Coal Tar and The Colourists today, remember to choose whether you’d like to go on the tour before or after the talk as there is very limited availability for this behind the scenes look. Keep up to date with the event on Facebook.
Visit the Explorathon website for more information about how you can get involved in events in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and St. Andrews visit our or follow us on social media (@ernscot #explorathon16). Booking for events may be required.
Look-out for more Glasgow City of Science blog posts as we count down to Explorathon 2016.
*EXPLORATHON (European Researchers’ Night Scotland) is funded by the European Commission under the Marie Sklowdowska-Curie Actions programme. Grant agreement No 722967