Marine biophysicist Dr Russell Arnott describes how a whole plethora of marine animals use the laws of physics to survive and thrive in all parts of the ocean. Marine biology meets physics in a range of examples, from the acoustic properties of whales to the tiny shrimp that packs a supersonic punch.
New clean-energy technologies require a lot of materials and metals. Where will they be sourced, and how can the mining be managed? Dr Sue Struthers of Skapa Mining Services outlines the challenge and opens a discussion.
How do you transform sound into visual imagery? Artist Orla Stevens works with the musicians of Nordic Viola and the composers they feature to provide a flow of images that interweave with the music. She shows how to do it in this one-day workshop which includes mixed media drawing, mark making and colour, to create expressive abstract paintings inspired by landscape and sound.
Ocean plastic is cluttering beaches and killing marine life. One approach, says Dr Katharina Vones of the Royal College of Art, is to turn it into a resource. She describes a tabletop-scale process which schools and communities can develop, with a shredder and extruder that converts it into filament for 3D printing – and hence into whatever design anyone wants to 3D-print.
Meet friends old or new and enjoy the best of Orkney cheese, meat, fish and baking. The One O’Clock Toast today is in memory of Dr Beatrice Garvie, North Ronaldsay’s doctor in the 1930s, who took many photographs of the island and its people. It is given by Fiona Sanderson.
Through storm and darkness the lifeboats have answered the maroons for 200 years. Naval architect Dennis Davidson and former seaman Len Wilson look back to the earliest designs and the seagoing disasters that led to the RNLI's founding. They describe the establishment of the Orkney stations, the men who crewed the boats, and some of the hazardous and daring service they provided.
We can all make a difference with plants, says Victoria Bennett, and when we do, we can find that we make a difference for ourselves. Remember, she says, that the weeds of today were often cultivated in the past for nutrition or healing, and that they grow where things that have been damaged, and we can learn from their resilience.
The first transatlantic cable, laid in 1858, soon failed, and it was only ten years later that Brunel’s steamship Great Eastern was able to go back with a strong enough cable and a safe enough underwater route. And as Dr Alan Walker of Edinburgh University explains, a key role in the project was played by the Scottish scientist Lord Kelvin, born 200 years ago.
In 1847 a young man in poverty found a way to open a small shop in Blackpool. Today the Booths chain, with stores across the north-west of England, continually seeks to encourage local suppliers and takes a pride in its staff. The company’s chairman, Edwin J. Booth, describes how his great-great-grandfather's values continue to make sound business sense.
How does a jury assess evidence and come to a conclusion? Join this reconstruction of the process created by scientists at the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science. They’ve imagined a case of murder and developed evidence for and against: you as a juror have to assess it and reach your verdict.
with the Craig Mainland Dance Band, for would-be and why-not dancers of all ages. Supper is included in the ticket.
Despite the many developments in forensic science, there are areas where more advances are needed, says Prof. Niamh Nic Daeid of the University of Dundee - and with each advance there can be risks and challenges. She looks ahead to new and more sensitive methods of detecting DNA, the increased use of AI, and the development of virtual reality to recreate crime scenes.
“Only those can know it intimately who do something on it,” wrote Robert Rendall in Orkney Shore, “harvest tangles, catch fish, gather whelks, study nature, or even comb the beach for driftwood.” Dr Tom Rendall explores the many delights of the book while Dr Sarah Jane Gibbon reads from the writing of her grandmother Bessie Skea.