THE 2018 festival scene is gearing up across the UK and it contains some real science gems. So dig out your tent or borrow your mate’s van, pack your waterproof and set out on a festival crawl.
Hurry to (until 10 June), which will explore the connections and divisions that give our world its shape, from our love of pets and the horror of loneliness, to the spread of diseases and the epidemiology of ideas. There is a fair amount of future gazing too, the lesson being that the biggest influences on our lives are often the ones hardest to spot. (One session asks how the detection of dark matter might change our world view.)
At London’s Tobacco Dock, (6 to 7 July) will “occupy the future”, maintaining its edgy relationship with tech, and the hopes we have for it, through immersive installations, debates and talks. Headliners include former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, journalist Paul Mason, musician Imogen Heap and rapper Akala. AI and the future of work will feature strongly, though there is relief to be had from our immediate concerns through conversations with aliens and designing public services for Mars.
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All very grown up. By contrast, (12 to 15 July) focuses on the kids. They get to build a rocket with Rocketude, delve into herbology with the Chelsea Physic Garden and probe life’s building blocks with the DNA Explorers.
Set in the spectacular grounds of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, (19 to 22 July) opens with the Hallé Orchestra, conducted by George Fenton, performing his original Blue Planet soundtrack against an HD screening of footage from the 2001 series. Richard Dawkins, Jim Al-Khalili and Alice Roberts are among the speakers, and to unwind there will be musical offerings from the likes of Roni Size, Gary Numan and The Chemical Brothers.
Kew has its own (21 to 22 July) at its idyllic country home site in Wakehurst, Sussex. The venue contains the Millennium Seed Bank, so this is a rare chance to peek at Kew scientists as they develop techniques to conserve plants and seeds.
For the third year running, (26 to 29 July) boasts a Physics Pavilion. There may be elegiac moments to be had in Earthling, comedian and writer Gemma Arrowsmith’s one-woman show about the future of humankind. Much of the programme focuses on the science of everyday life. Anne Pawsey will talk visitors through “The Physics of Gin”, while Peter Barham (author of ), chef John Watson and chef/scientist Andy Chapman help soak up any excess spirits with their “Physics of Food”.
“There’s future gazing too, the lesson being that the biggest changes are often the hardest to spot”
If you need a real getaway, head for the Brecon Beacons, home to Green Man (16 to 19 August), where will be on top form for its 10th birthday. Among the highlights is a chance to take part in an artwork called One Thousand Mindreaders, where artist and magician Stuart Nolan will teach you how to spot the smallest movement of someone else’s hands as they draw – and then recreate that drawing. There is real science here: Nolan worked with University of Bristol researchers to develop tech that can sense subconscious muscle movements.
For a season finale, 91av‘s own festival, (20 to 23 September) returns to London’s ExCeL. There will be researchers reporting on everything from antibiotics to xenobiology. You might even learn how to spot the algorithms that run the world.
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore will reveal how the physical changes that happen in our brains during adolescence manifest themselves in teenage behaviour, while Carlo Rovelli, the Italian theoretical physicist whose Seven Brief Lessons on Physics sold in the kind of numbers usually reserved for bestseller fiction, will discuss his latest idea: that time doesn’t exist as we know it.
That is the magic of taking science out of the lab: you go home buzzing with heretical new ideas.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Britain’s season of science”
