Events for September 11, 2018

The different qualities of barley for making malt for brewing and distilling are explained by industry experts Marie Stanton, Eric Walker, and Dr Tim Dolan. Over-18s only, booking essential. Tickets £12. Organised by the Institute of Brewing and Distilling

Methane bubbling up from the seabed, gas explosions blowing craters in the tundra – is a thaw coming to the great Arctic sweep of frozen rock and soil? Prof. Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University provides the latest news and images.

Mountain rescue team go out in all weathers - and part of the reason for their survival involves physics, as Alison McLure of the Institute of Physics in Scotland, a member of Tayside Mountain Rescue Team, explains.

What is our world made of? Molecules and atoms, quarks and leptons? Prof. Alexander Lenz of Durham University introduces particle physics research at centres like the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and its consequences for our understanding of the cosmos.

John Firth, born in 1838 at Redland in the parish of Firth, recorded a wealth of stories about Orkney traditional farming life. Dr Tom Rendall describes harvesting and milling, courtship and wedding customs, with readings by Dr Sarah Jane Gibbon and Brian Flett. Sponsored by Orkney Car Hire - James

This event is now postponed to a future year.

The Moon's in Stromness for a spell, and here is Mr Boom as well! Children, bring an adult. Adults, bring a cushion.

An opportunity to hear about the chemistry of the process and the role of the herbs from sensory scientist Dr Irene Baxter of the Scotch Whisky Research Institute, and to see it at first-hand with samples of the product to try. Over-18s only, numbers limited, booking essential. Tickets £10. Organised

Quantum pioneer, predictor of antimatter, Nobel laureate – the physicist Paul Dirac was a man of very few words, and one of the strangest geniuses in the history of science. Dramatised lecture by his biographer Graham Farmelo, with actor David Sumner, co-founder of the Swallow Theatre in Galloway.