This year’s Glasgow Science Festival will feature 80 events taking place in 30 venues across the city from Thursday 4th to Sunday 14th June.
Many events are free and all are set to amaze and inspire people of all ages. They range from live experiments, tastings, film showings, talks, exhibitions and debates through to a panto, ceilidh and walking tour.
Glasgow Science Festival is receiving support as part of the Year of Food and Drink, delivered by VisitScotland and EventScotland, to deliver new festival theme ‘Creel to Meal’.
Something fishy will be going on at Glasgow’s much-loved Stravaigin (4th June) and the Drygate Brewery (11th June) when they host ‘Creel to Meal’, a dining experience and pop-up restaurant led by marine biologists who will take diners on a langoustine’s journey from West coast waters to our plate.
Science ‘gin-iuses’ will love Gin-o-mics, an evening exploring the chemistry of gin with delicious cocktails and food pairing at a molecular level at The Griffin.
2015 is the International Year of Light and many events will commemorate ‘Scotland’s forgotten Einstein’, physicist James Clerk Maxwell. One hundred and fifty years after he formulated his Electromagnetic Theory of Light, the Festival will shine a light on his life and science with talks, exhibitions, a laser show and even a specially choreographed ceilidh dance, ‘Maxwell’s Waves’, to be danced at Maxwell’s Birthday Ceilidh held at Partick Burgh Hall on Saturday 13th June.
How does space exploration affect our mental health? As the controversial Mars One mission prepares to send people to the red planet, Glasgow Science Festival will explore the psychology and technology of space travel with a screening of sci-fi drama ‘Moon’ at the Glasgow Film Theatre followed by a Q&A with astronomers and a clinical psychologist.
Elsewhere top scientists from Glasgow and beyond will attempt to answer other global questions such as: Where will the next pandemic virus emerge? Can eating insects save the world? What makes the perfect meal? How has light influenced religious thinking? How do social media and DJs influence our drinking?
There’ll be more sci-fi fun in the West Quadrangle of the University of Glasgow with the Glasgow Science Festival’s first outdoor pop-up cinema. Blockbusters the Matrix and District 9 are set to rock the campus.
As always, Festival audiences will be invited to participate in riveting live experiments ranging from a journey into the paranormal to uncover the truth about dowsing, telepathy and psychic readings to a mock trial exploring whether a chimpanzee could ever be guilty of murder!
Budding young scientists will be able to test their bushcraft survival skills with the RSPB in Kelvingrove Park, meet a real dinosaur hunter at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum’s science weekend and take a light-hearted look at how superpowers might work if our superheroes ever took to the streets of Glasgow. A world of cutting edge research will open up at the University of Glasgow’s Science Sunday.
An exhibition of award-winning photographs from the Society of Biology and a look at the invention that changed the world – James Watt’s steam condenser, which was aptly conceived during a walk on Glasgow Green in 1765 – are just two of the events celebrating Glasgow’s Green Year.
The Big Science Pub Quiz will return with a fresh batch of brain-busters and live experiments to test everyone’s grey matter. Scientists will also put themselves on the spot at the Stand Comedy Club and on the soapbox at Kelvingrove.
Launching the programme, Dr Deborah McNeill, Director, Glasgow Science Festival, said: “Since 2007, Glasgow Science Festival has grown into a wonderful, city-wide festival in the widest sense of the word. Whether you want to be inspired and challenged by some of the amazing state-of-the-art research taking place in laboratories and quiet corners of our finest universities or laugh and immerse yourself with some more outrageous perspectives on our world, there genuinely is something for everyone and all ages. Pick up a programme today and join us on an amazing journey!”
Links
Visit www.glasgowsciencefestival.org.uk for the full programme and booking information.
Glasgow Science Festival A4 poster (623.23 kB)
Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink 2015
International Year of Light 2015 (Scotland)