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NEWS

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Prof. Tom Stevenson to open 30th Festival
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Prof. Tom Stevenson to open 30th Festival

Prof. Tom Stevenson to open 30th Festival

Festival Updates, OISF 2020

Prof. Tom Stevenson to open 30th Festival This year’s Orkney International Science Festival will be opened by Prof. Tom Stevenson. He has the unique distinction of having

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SEA, SHORE AND DISTANT HORIZONS FOR 2020
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SEA, SHORE AND DISTANT HORIZONS FOR 2020

SEA, SHORE AND DISTANT HORIZONS FOR 2020

Festival Updates, OISF 2020

2020 will be the Year of Coasts and Waters in Scotland and we will have various topics about the sea and islands.

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Festival will commemorate Moon landing
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Festival will commemorate Moon landing

Festival will commemorate Moon landing

Festival Updates, OISF 2019

Festival will commemorate Moon landing Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary will be commemorated in Orkney in September with a programme of talks on space and astronomy in the islands’ annual science festival.

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Science festival gets foraging dimension
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Science festival gets foraging dimension

Science festival gets foraging dimension

Festival Updates, OISF 2019

Orkney International Science Festival this year will have an added outdoor dimension as it joins forces with a new Foraging Fortnight being established in Scotland.

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EXPLORATION, WILDLIFE, ADVENTURE IN 2019 FESTIVAL
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EXPLORATION, WILDLIFE, ADVENTURE IN 2019 FESTIVAL

EXPLORATION, WILDLIFE, ADVENTURE IN 2019 FESTIVAL

Festival Updates, OISF 2019

There’s an outdoor strand in this year’s programme, going from pole to pole, with Central Asia also to the fore.

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Come out foraging with us!
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Come out foraging with us!

Come out foraging with us!

Festival Updates, Foraging Events, OISF 2019

It’s fresh, it’s nutritious, and it’s free! The benefits of foraging is becoming realised, doing what generations of people have done for thousands, indeed millions, of years – finding food in the wild.

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PROGRAMME 2018
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PROGRAMME 2018

PROGRAMME 2018

Festival Archive

In this Year of Young People, young people will be very much to the fore in this year’s Festival, with two young Orcadians, Lucy Leech and Hope Laing, carrying out the opening, and a team of young people hosting all the events.

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Year of Young People to boost Festival
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Year of Young People to boost Festival

Year of Young People to boost Festival

Festival Archive, OISF 2018

Music from Ireland, astronomy from Uzbekistan, newly created art and design, and young people to the fore – these will all be features of this year’s Orkney International Science Festival in a special package for the Year of Young People 2018.

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PROGRAMME 2017
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PROGRAMME 2017

PROGRAMME 2017

Festival Archive

Walking, voyaging, travelling, exploring – with stories of polar exploration and Norse navigation, building great bridges and probing the seabed – plus a return visit of Nobel laureate Prof. Peter Higgs, are all to the fore in the programme for the 2017 Orkney International Science Festival.

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PROGRAMME 2016
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PROGRAMME 2016

PROGRAMME 2016

Festival Archive

This year’s Festival will highlight the discovery of the year – indeed one of the great scientific discoveries of all time – gravitational waves.

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Part of Gale Crater on Mars [Photo: NASA]
FROM ORKNEY TO SPACE: FOR SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY
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FROM ORKNEY TO SPACE: FOR SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY

FROM ORKNEY TO SPACE: FOR SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY

Festival Archive

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh are joining together with staff from the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh’s visitor centre to visit several schools and give a public presentation in Kirkwall on the evening of Thursday 23 March.

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LOST SHIPS, LOST LANDS, AND MIGHTY BRIDGES
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LOST SHIPS, LOST LANDS, AND MIGHTY BRIDGES

LOST SHIPS, LOST LANDS, AND MIGHTY BRIDGES

Festival Archive

The sound of the sea runs through this year’s programme, with topics ranging from ancient Norse navigation to tidal power in Ushant. We have stories of lost ships of

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FROM GRAVITATIONAL WAVES TO HERRING DAYS
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FROM GRAVITATIONAL WAVES TO HERRING DAYS

FROM GRAVITATIONAL WAVES TO HERRING DAYS

Festival Archive

The amazing discovery of gravitational waves will be to the fore in this year’s programme – along with dark matter, the Northern Lights, Antarctic exploration, dolphin communication, early humans,

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Programme 2015
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Programme 2015

Programme 2015

Festival Archive

Nobel Prizewinner Peter Higgs will be one of the speakers in this year’s Festival, in conversation with a fellow physicist, Frank Close.

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Year of Light to shine in Orkney Science Festival
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Year of Light to shine in Orkney Science Festival

Year of Light to shine in Orkney Science Festival

Festival Archive

The International Year of Light will provide one of the themes of this year’s Orkney International Science Festival – and the centenary of Einstein’s theory of general relativity will be another.

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Hope’s Beautiful Daughters
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Hope’s Beautiful Daughters

Hope’s Beautiful Daughters

Festival Archive, Music Channel, OISF 2014

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

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Aviation Festival for Orkney
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Aviation Festival for Orkney

Aviation Festival for Orkney

Festival Archive, Other Festivals

Aviation Festival for Orkney Orkney is to have an Aviation Festival. It will follow this year’s Science Festival and run from 10-14 September, highlighting the story of military

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Clipperton Floating Laboratory Explores Northern Waters
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Clipperton Floating Laboratory Explores Northern Waters

Clipperton Floating Laboratory Explores Northern Waters

Festival Archive, More Events, OISF 2014

What makes the Clipperton Project’s Floating Laboratory special is the mix of people aboard – scientists, artists, photographers and people promoting the spirit of exploration in tackling the challenges of today’s world.

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Discovery Channel scientist to open Orkney Science Festival
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Discovery Channel scientist to open Orkney Science Festival

Discovery Channel scientist to open Orkney Science Festival

Festival Archive, OISF 2014

Prof. Steve ‘Jake’ Jacobs has written and presented a series for the Discovery Channel, and also for National Geographic TV and Fox Television where he was the creator and on-air host of the series Jake’s Attic.

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Record attendances for 2013 Festival
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Record attendances for 2013 Festival

Record attendances for 2013 Festival

Festival Archive

The 2013 Festival had record attendances, with over 200 people at some events. The Family Day was the biggest yet, packed with activities, from marine life to Europe’s Lost World.

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Recognise Rae: call for stamp to honour Arctic hero
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Recognise Rae: call for stamp to honour Arctic hero

Recognise Rae: call for stamp to honour Arctic hero

Festival Archive

Recognise Rae: call for stamp to honour Arctic hero A call is being made for a stamp to be issued to honour one of the greatest Arctic explorers of

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Cancer: radical new approach to be proposed
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Cancer: radical new approach to be proposed

Cancer: radical new approach to be proposed

Going Further

A radical new approach to cancer is to be announced in London tomorrow (Wednesday 5 June), in a lecture hosted by the magazine New Scientist.

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Can Orkney become a northern gateway?
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Can Orkney become a northern gateway?

Can Orkney become a northern gateway?

Going Further

A radical vision for Orkney’s future has been unveiled. It looks to the potential of two areas of development – marine renewables and a container port in Scapa Flow.

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Win a night-sky photo in our new astronomy competition!
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Win a night-sky photo in our new astronomy competition!

Win a night-sky photo in our new astronomy competition!

Competitions Archive, Festival Archive

Win a night-sky photo in our new astronomy competition! Would you like a night-sky image on your wall, taken by the observatory above? Take part in our

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Filmmaker and film from lost city to open this year’s festival
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Filmmaker and film from lost city to open this year’s festival

Filmmaker and film from lost city to open this year’s festival

Festival Archive, OISF 2013

Filmmaker and film from lost city to open this year’s festival One of Britain’s leading documentary filmmakers is to open this year’s Orkney International Science Festival –

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A great man of science: Professor Archie E Roy
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A great man of science: Professor Archie E Roy

A great man of science: Professor Archie E Roy

Festival Archive, General

Archibald Edmiston Roy was born in Yoker, Glasgow, on 24 June 1924. His father was a draftsman at John Brown’s shipyard, and he himself originally wanted to be an architect.

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Remembering Thora
Gallery

Remembering Thora

Remembering Thora

Festival Archive, General

Our first Honorary Life Member, Thora Bain, died on 22 September, at the age of 95. Thora was one of the greats - a mine of information on Orkney, with

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Record-breaking week
Gallery

Record-breaking week

Record-breaking week

Festival Archive

Record-breaking week All records were broken for audience numbers in this year's Festival, when ended on Wednesday 12 September. Many events were completely sold out. Whether it was

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But Oh! the Stars in all their Beauty
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But Oh! the Stars in all their Beauty

But Oh! the Stars in all their Beauty

Festival Archive, Music Channel

The Mayfield Singers, George McPhee, Orkney string group The Sunday evening concert featuring the Mayfield Singers and organist George McPhee with guests is always a highlight, and last

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Stromness Spirit of the Sea
Gallery

Stromness Spirit of the Sea

Stromness Spirit of the Sea

Festival Archive, Other Festivals

Stromness Spirit of the Sea is a new three-day event developed to celebrate the town’s long connection with the sea, from the great days of sail to the new horizons of wave and tidal energy.

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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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