Project Description
Orkney International Science Festival 2014
Orkney International Science Festival 2014Vistas of earth, sea and sky opened up in 2014, with a look into Orkney’s geological past as a great lake in Devonian times, and then a look further back in time to the origins of the universe and of life itself with one of the great astrophysicists of our time, Prof. Chandra Wickramasinghe.
The Festival opened with the story of the Clipperton Project, with its director, Jon Bonfiglio, highlighting the importance of exploring for individuals and communities across the globe.
Steve Jacobs, Wizard IV of many American television science shows opened the Festival in scintillating style and Orcadian geneticist Dr Jim Wilson went on the trail of Orkney’s Norse roots, identifying two local families who are direct descendants of the ‘Ultimate Viking’ Sweyn Asleifsson.
Other topics ranged from the mathematics of knitting to the physics of the web of fate, and from metals in medicine to molecular switches, with a look at solar power, storing carbon dioxide under the seabed, and the story of radio in World War I.
For a look back to last year, you can download the 2014 programme here.
It’s no accident mariners sail by the stars; perhaps that’s really their intended destination.
I’d like to take the spirit of what you do to the far corners of the planet….. and then on to Mars and beyond.
In original human DNA studies 15 years ago there was an unusual cluster in the North Isles of Orkney. Breaking this cluster up into subtypes provides links with four families of today, two in Caithness and two in Orkney, whose descent can be shown to go back to the time of the Orkneyinga saga.
