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Orkney International Science Festival
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  • WHAT’S ON
    • thumb_owl_2_mediumBROWSE EVENTS
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        6-12 September 2018

    • thumb_owl_8PROGRAMME 2018
      • Thursday 6 September
      • Friday 7 September
      • Saturday 8 September
      • Sunday 9 September
      • Monday 10 September
      • Tuesday 11 September
      • Wednesday 12 September
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        • Find out details of competitions
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      • Here we provide background information about the Festival itself and about its island setting. The Festival is an ideal time to visit Orkney, to see more of the islands and their wealth of history, archaeology and natural beauty. The Festival programme includes outings with expert guidance, talks with new insights, and an opportunity to meet many people, local and visiting. There are also opportunities to sample Orkney food and drink in what is overall a true Festival atmosphere.
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      • FRONTIERS magazine The new online magazine Frontiers is now available. It is aimed to be a magazine in its own right, highlighting stories about science and people, with a wide range of contributors and a high quality of design.
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  • FEATURES
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          • Higgs 8: Physics is worth a massHiggs 8: Physics is worth a mass
          • Higgs 2: What makes light matter?Higgs 2: What makes light matter?
          • Notes and neuronsNotes and neurons

PLAY

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Permalink Gallery

From childhood tinkering to gravitational waves

From childhood tinkering to gravitational waves

OISF 2017, Play OISF Video, Video 2017

Had Prof. Ron Drever lived just a few more months this year, he would almost certainly have been awarded a share of this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics, for […]

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Permalink Gallery

Alamein

Alamein

Music Channel, OISF 2017, Play OISF Video, Video 2017

From the story of ‘Big Bill and the Guns of Alamein’ in the 2017 Orkney International Science Festival comes this song with Andy, Lewis and Chris.

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Permalink Gallery

Big Bill and the Guns of Alamein

Big Bill and the Guns of Alamein

OISF 2017, Play OISF Video, Video 2017

At the second battle of el-Alamein, where the Allied artillery was the only protection for the slow infantry advance through a vast minefield, Signalman Bill Sutherland from Orkney kept […]

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Permalink Gallery

Pepperwort and Parsley, Beeswax and Fulmar Oil

Pepperwort and Parsley, Beeswax and Fulmar Oil

OISF 2017, Play OISF Video, Video 2017

Mary Beith Memorial Lecture

Mary Beith was known as a lecturer and researcher of great clarity on the traditional medicines of the Highlands. Through her newspaper and magazine articles, […]

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Permalink Gallery

Maxwell’s Light

Maxwell’s Light

Play OISF Video

Images from two of the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell’s favourite walks, near Parton in Galloway, where the Lair Burn and the River Urr run close to his house […]

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Permalink Gallery

Hope’s Beautiful Daughters

Hope’s Beautiful Daughters

Festival Updates, Music Channel

A new CD bringing together Scottish and Slovenian musicians and storytellers is to be launched in Orkney on 3 September.

‘Hope’s Beautiful Daughters’, in both folk and rock mood, highlights […]

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Permalink Gallery

Brian Boru’s March

Brian Boru’s March

Music Channel

Brian Boru’s March, played on the harp by Lesley MacLeod, takes us back 1000 years to a battle which left its mark on northern history – and is featured […]

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Permalink Gallery

Broad Street Saturday

Broad Street Saturday

Play OISF Video, Video 2013

Broad Street in Kirkwall is the setting for some of the Saturday afternoon events in the annual Orkney International Science Festival. There is the Vintage Rally organised by Orkney […]

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Permalink Gallery

Europe’s Lost World

Europe’s Lost World

Play OISF Video, Video 2013

Hunters with spears scan an ancient landscape that now lies beneath the waters of the North Sea. The search for the lost world of Doggerland was the subject of […]

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Permalink Andy Munro with his daughter FloraGallery

Back for the Saturday afternoon Singalong!

Back for the Saturday afternoon Singalong!

Music Channel

Mr Boom’s new CD is special in two ways. First of all, he’s brought it out especially for the Festival, and is indeed calls it ‘Come to the […]

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Permalink Gallery

But Oh! the Stars in all their Beauty

But Oh! the Stars in all their Beauty

Festival Archive, Music Channel

The Sunday evening concert featuring the Mayfield Singers and organist George McPhee with guests is always a highlight, and last year it included the premiere of a new piece […]

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Permalink Gallery

Kirkwall City Pipe Band

Kirkwall City Pipe Band

Music Channel

Kirkwall City Pipe Band hold their final parade of the season on Broad Street on the Saturday evening of the Festival, which this year will be 7 September.

The sight […]

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Permalink Gallery

Three in a Bar

Three in a Bar

Music Channel

Three in a Bar came together to play at Festival events and in addition provide music at special events such as the North Ronaldsay Harvest Home and Burns Supper.

Here […]

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Permalink Gallery

New dance honours great Scot

New dance honours great Scot

Festival Archive, Music Channel

A NEW DANCE WAS LAUNCHED at the Festival to honour one of the greatest Scots of all time – who has had all too little recognition in his own […]

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Permalink Gallery

Reasons for Hope OISF 2012

Reasons for Hope OISF 2012

Play OISF Video

The 12th-century St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall was the setting for the lecture Reasons for Hope by Jane Goodall on 7 September 2012 in the annual Orkney International Science […]

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Permalink Gallery

The Grand Tour 2012

The Grand Tour 2012

Play OISF Video

This is a brief visit to four famous historical pipe organs in Germany, the Czech Republic and The Netherlands. High quality sampled version of these organs were played by […]

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Permalink Gallery

A Green and Medieval Afternoon 2011

A Green and Medieval Afternoon 2011

A Green and Medieval Afternoon, OISF 2011, Play OISF Video

Music and art, crafts and costumes, stories of people and ideas, all in the setting of the Earl’s and Bishop’s Palaces in Kirkwall, Orkney, in the 21st Orkney International […]

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Permalink Gallery

Maxwell’s Waves and Freeland’s tunes

Maxwell’s Waves and Freeland’s tunes

Music Channel

The music for the new dance Maxwell’s Waves was composed by one of the great figures in Scottish traditional music, Freeland Barbour. The dance made its first public appearance […]

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Permalink Gallery

Chemistry Show 2010

Chemistry Show 2010

Play OISF Video

The Flashing and Banging Chemistry Show lived up to its name in the 2010 Orkney International Science Festival, under the direction of Prof. Donald MacPhee of Aberdeen University.

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Permalink Gallery

For A’ That 2009

For A’ That 2009

OISF 2009, Play OISF Video

Magda: We get so much wildlife around our house because of the trees we’ve grown. Stan started planting them when we moved in, more than thirty-five years ago. He […]

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Recent Posts

  • The Big Bang 3: Lemaître’s universe, Hubble’s law
  • The Big Bang 2: A shift in the mist
  • The Big Bang 1: The first ideas
  • The physics of the Wood of Hallaig
  • Processes and objects
  • Eddington’s universe
  • Higgs 8: Physics is worth a mass

Archives

Categories

Cosmology

  • The Big Bang 3: Lemaître’s universe, Hubble’s law

  • The Big Bang 2: A shift in the mist

  • The Big Bang 1: The first ideas

Quantum physics

  • Higgs 8: Physics is worth a mass

  • Higgs 7: Three roads converge

  • Higgs 6: Can the circle be unbroken?

  • Higgs 5: The strong dominate the field

  • Higgs 4: Symmetry for the weak

  • Higgs 3: Symmetry for the strong

  • Higgs 2: What makes light matter?

  • Higgs 1: Frozen light

Archive 2012

  • The North Africa connection

  • The origami man

  • Solway shore stories

  • The giant snake from a lost world

  • Damascus swords had vanadium steel

  • Notes and neurons

  • Popular
  • Recent
  • The Big Bang 3: Lemaître’s universe, Hubble’s law
    January 29th, 2013
  • Damascus swords had vanadium steel
    March 25th, 2012
  • The giant snake from a lost world
    April 2nd, 2012
  • The Big Bang 3: Lemaître’s universe, Hubble’s law
    January 29th, 2013
  • The Big Bang 2: A shift in the mist
    January 28th, 2013
  • The Big Bang 1: The first ideas
    January 27th, 2013

Latest Tweets

OrkSciFest Prof. Dave Goulson, who is quoted in this report, will be one of the speakers in this year's Festival. https://t.co/n6WNze9MBl
OrkSciFest "Their findings suggest that a small, otherwise unremarkable species called the cleaner wrasse has joined an elite… https://t.co/o7Ku7818A1
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ABOUT OISF

A science festival has a radical role in developing a creative climate for a region. Here is the story of how it began, and how Orkney was involved from an early stage in the concept.

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