Join wilderness instructor Zeki Basan on a foraging walk where Orkney people gathered plants for food 5000 years ago. Outdoor event, numbers limited, booking essential. £20 price includes visit to the Tomb of the Eagles and Bronze Age burnt mound. Meet in car park at visitor centre.
Different people seem to age at different rates. Can we find a biological age that gives a truer picture of our body’s age than just the number of years we’ve lived through? Edinburgh University research student Erin Macdonald-Dunlop describes her work in seeking a kind of inner age that can give added insights to health.
Chef and food writer Wendy Barrie, leader of Slow Food Scotland’s Ark of Taste, is joined by baker Karin Jonsson and Stronsay forager Marion Miller to look at ways in which food from the wild can be used in Swedish style to enrich your baking.
Scottish healthcare services have made great advances in the prevention and treatment of disease. But which improvements have saved the most lives, and which ones are needed in the future? University of Edinburgh postgraduate student Paul Timmers explores the health records of almost 2 million Scots to give the answers.
Our weight has direct effects on our health and risk of disease. However, people of the same size can have different tendencies to heart disease or diabetes, due to the way fat is distributed on their bodies. Edinburgh University research student Katherine Kentistou reports on her work on the genetics of body composition.
A Sanday sunrise, a Westray sunset, a starry North Ronaldsay night – Dr Tom Rendall with beautiful images from island photographers showing the quality of light throughout Orkney, and readings by invited guests.
Traditional remedies used some unusual ingredients. Alongside many plants now considered weeds, medicines might include ox gall or badger fat, marble, lead or urine … How do they stand up to scientific scrutiny? Ethnobotanical researcher Anna Canning takes a look at old treatments and new insights – and why we should keep an open mind.
Ageing ships, high fuel use, rising costs of subsidies and ferry replacements … Prof. Alf Baird, a member of the Scottish Transport Ministers Ferry Industry Advisory Group, analyses the economics of the present pattern and argues that there is a way forward – changing to a lower-cost, lower-carbon design across all the Scottish services, in an integrated approach involving Scottish shipyards.
Seaweed, a familiar source of nutrition in the past, is having a revival. Simon Ranger of the Seagreens Trust has been to the fore in production, research and market application for the past 20 years. He has developed a small, pioneering consortium spanning the Nordic region and the British Isles, and seaweed ingredients in foods ranging from soups and snacks to sauces and supplements. He sees opportunities in Orkney which can benefit from such an international partnership.
Creamy miso and mushroom soup, Orkney roast beef with kimchi, vegetable masala dosa with peach chutney … all of these involve foods developed by microbes, as microbiologist Prof. Joanna Verran explains with the help of chef Freddie Pretorius. Inveralmond master brewer Ken Duncan introduces a range of beers from Perth and Orkney. Join them for a fascinating meal! Doors open 6.45 pm. Tickets £25. Supported by the Society for Applied Microbiology and the IBD
Hydrogen and helium, silicon and sodium … And behind the periodic table of the elements, developed 150 years ago, there are, says materials scientist Dr Jamie Gallagher, tales of romance and greed and wonder – and dramatic demonstrations as well in this family show.
Our atmosphere is a turmoil of chemical activity, says Prof. Dudley Shallcross of Bristol University. Some of the most powerful agents of change are molecules so short-lived that they have only been discovered in recent years. Formed when gases from plants react with ozone, they attack nitrogen and sulphur pollutants and turn them into fine aerosols which screen against the sun. What might this mean for atmospheric pollution and for climate change?
Stars and planets, people and poems come together in a sparkling collaborative new book and talk between the 10th Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Prof. John C. Brown of Glasgow University, and Rab Wilson, Scriever in Residence at Burns Birthplace Museum, Alloway. There are images of misty nebulas and blazing supernovas, stories of Scottish astronomers like Mary Somerville and Williamina Fleming, and poems – from Ayont the Sun to The Star o’ Hope. Sponsored by Loganair
Festival Club at The Reel
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.
