Meg Rodger from Berneray founded the Birlinn Wool Company to sell the yarn from pedigree Hebridean sheep from her own flock and from neighbouring crofts. She works to a ‘whole sheep plan’ – covering yarn, sheepskins and meat boxes, and has woven a traditional Norse cloak. Alison Gault of Belfast School of Art describes community wool initiatives for Rathlin Island and for the Aran Islands, with computer-aided design and manufacture involved.
From distant stars to tiny cells, cameras open up new worlds – and now they have entered the quantum domain. At the University of California, Berkeley, a team of physicists and biologists use individual electrons to image proteins inside cells. One of the team, Dr Eric Cooper, shares the latest images and explains how quantum mechanics holds the key to building ever more powerful quantum cameras.
The dust from Mount Hekla’s 1845 eruption is said to have given Orkney’s potatoes a fine flavour. Could rock dust improve soil and help crops today? This year we're trying it with carrots. Growers in Moray and Orkney have set aside areas with and without volcanic rock dust, and with this year a difference – trying also dust from Orkney’s Cursiter Quarry. Hospitality students at UHI Orkney serve a selection of carrots, for you to taste and compare, and several people give insights on soil, crops, and cooking.
North Ronaldsay’s wool mill is expanding into new premises, with a meat larder alongside at a new commercial hub for the island. North Ronaldsay Trust's Community Development Manager Luke Fraser describes the project. We hear about the sheep and their traditional management from the Clerk to the Sheep Court, Michael Scott. Tim Ross describes the success of the North Ronaldsay Sheep Festival in repairing the 13-mile-long sheep dyke, and Jane Cooper reports on work on facilities for meat.
Meet friends old or new and enjoy the best of Orkney cheese, meat, fish and baking. Come in good time for the best choice of food and for the Toast.
The One O’Clock Toast today is to the island of North Ronaldsay. It is given by Howie Firth.
Dr Russell Miller and Dr David Whittaker of the National Physical Laboratory describe how quantum effects underpin much of technology today – from semiconductor chips in mobile phones to atomic clocks providing precise timing for telecommunications and banking systems. They tell the story of advances in precision measurement and demonstrate examples of cutting-edge techniques.
Join the European Marine Energy Centre for ocean energy talks at its main office in Stromness. Learn about innovative projects harnessing the power of Orkney’s seas, storing energy as green hydrogen, and creating e-fuels to decarbonise aviation.
A science and poetry workshop with poet and performer Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan. It will include writing exercises around the politics of discovery, and playing with different writing forms to interpret scientific information. No qualifications or in-depth knowledge about science are necessary, she says. “All you need to bring is curiosity and something to write with!”
Prof. Minhyong Kim, the director of the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences in Edinburgh, is one of the world’s leading number theorists. He is also the author of nine popular books about mathematics, several of which have become bestsellers in his native South Korea; his latest one is a colourful cartoon adventure for children. One of the Centre’s new projects is Mathematics for Humanity, aimed at supporting projects in mathematics that help to make the world a better place. He describes what a pure mathematician does and why.
Beneath its rough seas, Orkney is home to magnificent seaweed forests, emerald seagrass meadows and intricate maerl beds. Often overlooked, these rich habitats are vulnerable to development across the seascape. Heriot-Watt research student Millie Brown takes a creative approach to discuss what these habitats mean to all of us—communities, local fishermen, scientists and visitors.
Romance isn’t easy when you’re a honeybee, says biologist Johnathan Doran: fewer than 1 in 100 males ever get the chance to mate. “It’s a challenge made even tougher by everything from habitat loss and flower shortages to pesticides, construction and noise pollution.”
In a lively presentation for family audiences and everyone interested in the life of bees, he and fellow-biologist Dr Eoin Cowie take a closer look at what’s standing in the way of love for nature’s most famous pollinators. There is a mix of discussion and hands-on science demonstrations along the way.
Join poet Valerie Gillies and artist Rebecca Marr, with their current exhibition at the Pier, where they will weave a story of grass through poems and images and natural history readings. "Grass has regenerative powers." they say, "because it grows from the root not the tip. Grasses are a powerful symbol, withstanding constant grazing and trampling. We found that the grasses restored us."
Take the 6 pm ferry from Stromness to hear about Iceland life and landscape, and astronomy in the art of van Gogh.
Life in Iceland, says Prof. Roger Crofts, is the art of survival, between ongoing volcanic eruptions and coping with increasing visitor numbers and big energy development. He describes the challenges and how Icelanders are responding and shows scenes of a land of ice and fire.
Dr Vassilios Spathopoulos describes how the painter Vincent van Gogh often incorporated celestial elements into his work; and how we can now compare his paintings with real astronomical data – and the resulting surprises.
There are numbers beneath the surface in music: you can count notes, bars, words and letters of accompanying text …. So, says musicologist and composer Dr John Purser, music offers a rich potential for composers interested in patterns of numbers. He provides examples: the late 13th-century Inchcolm Antiphoner, the 16th-century Carver Choirbook, and William Wallace’s Creation Symphony in the late 19th-century. He shows number patterns in music and words, illustrated too by some of his own work, played by Iain Campbell (piano) and Elizabeth Sullivan (violin).
The James Webb Telescope has revealed the earliest stages of the story of galaxy formation – in stunning detail. It’s gone all the way back to the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang itself. Dr Adam Carnall of Edinburgh University’s Institute for Astronomy shows images of stars and galaxies formed over 13 billion years ago and tells the story of their detection – and of more mysteries ahead.
Poet Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan joins physicist Prof. James Millen on a journey of exploration into the quantum world. “Art and science are just different languages trying to understand the what, the why, and the how in everything around us."