YOYP 2018
We had a new look for the Year of Young People. Generous support from the Year of Young People Event Fund gave the programme an added freshness and originality.
MUSIC EVENTS
BUT OH MY LOVE! THE CHAIN OF TIME The story was that of the Irish mathematician Sir William
HIGHLIGHTS FROM EVENTS 2018
One of the highlights was Nobel Laureate Sir Paul Nurse (2001, Physiology/Medicine) in conversation with Dave Gray of BBC
HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2018 FAMILY DAY
How far can a model car run on hydrogen? You start by connecting up the leads and seeing the
The Selkie’s New Clothes
Are inspired by the selkie folklore, shape-shifting beings and their transformative powers. In order to shapeshift they had to cast off their sealskins. Within these magical skins lay the transformative power to return to seal form, and therefore to the sea.
Like the Corn Cut Down by the River
Sung by Sheena Wellington and the composer, Lorcán Mac Mathúna, The Walls of Dublin rounded off Like the Corn Cut Down by the River, the story of the battle of Clontarf...
ABOUT OISF FESTIVAL 2018
Orkney International Science Festival 2018 This was the year when the numbers took off further than ever.
Year of Young People to boost Festival
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.
Food Events 2018
There’s an opening lunch of Orkney seafood to follow the session on sustainable fisheries research, and the afternoon looks at further aspects of the sea for the future.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM EVENTS 2017
One of the highlights was Prof. Peter Higgs In Conversation with his former mathematical physics student Dennis Canavan. The
ABOUT OISF FESTIVAL 2017
Orkney International Science
HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2017 FAMILY DAY
You could make a cloud chamber and see particles from outer space. You could write in runes, or study
From childhood tinkering to gravitational waves
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 his part in one of the greatest scientific achievements of all time, the discovery of gravitational waves.
Alamein
From the story of 'Big Bill and the Guns of Alamein' in the 2017 Orkney International Science Festival comes
Big Bill and the Guns of Alamein
At the second battle of el-Alamein, where the Allied artillery was the only protection for the slow infantry advance
Pepperwort and Parsley, Beeswax and Fulmar Oil
Mary Beith was known as a lecturer and researcher of great clarity on the traditional medicines of the Highlands.
Maxwell’s Light
Images from two of the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell's favourite walks, near Parton in Galloway, where the Lair
Highlights from Events 2016
Marty Jopson of The One Show got the Festival off to a flying start, followed next day by a highly dynamic show on the science of everyday life.
About OISF Festival 2016
The sea surged through the Festival, in a year when the world looked back a century to the battle of Jutland and forward to the potential of tidal power.
Highlights from 2016 Family Day
You could find out about living in space, or operate a robot arm. You could make a noisy drawing or a porridge poultice, an ancient animal or a modern molecule.
Fashion the Future!
The window of a former Orkney clothing shop is back in action with costumes this week. Aislin, Nyx, Nehalennia and Calypso were specially created for the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design.
Highlights from Events 2015
It started with a seafood opening lunch, and over the next seven days more than 60 events followed. Topics ranged from astronomy to Arab science fiction, black holes to beremeal, relativity to early radio, new light on MS to hopes for hydrogen power.
Highlights from 2015 Family Day
There were lanterns to light and spectra to study. There were rocks to recognise and molecules to make. You could find out about flowers for native bumblebees, or make a foam fossil fish.
OISF Food Events 2015
Skaill House was the venue for a tribute to the remarkable Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron and pioneer of the principles upon which modern computing is based.
OISF Opening Lunch 2015
The harvest of the sea was to the fore in the 2015 Festival’s opening event. News of the latest research on sustaining local crab and lobster stocks was accompanied by a seafood lunch provided by Orkney Fishermen’s Society, with additional support from several sources.
About OISF Festival 2015
Nobel laureate Peter Higgs was in conversation with fellow physicist Frank Close, the venue the impressive new Orkney Theatre in Kirkwall Grammar School. The school also hosted the exhibition From Maxwell to Higgs, brought north by a team from Edinburgh University.
Particle Physics for Scottish Schools
From Maxwell to Higgs The Particle Physics for Scottish Schools exhibition comes to Orkney for the first time
Maxwell Torch
The Maxwell Torch was specially created for events throughout Scotland in 2015, the International Year of Light. The International Year of Light celebrates the 150th anniversary of James Clerk Maxwell’s papers...
About OISF Festival 2014
Vistas of earth, sea and sky opened up in 2014, with a look into Orkney’s geological past as a great lake in Devonian times, and then a look further back in time to the origins of the universe and of life itself with one of the great astrophysicists of our time, Prof. Chandra Wickramasinghe.
Sailing with Clipperton
Make it Egilsay, said Howard Buxton from New Zealand. Sail with the Selkie to the island where St Magnus was executed and explore.