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.
Highlights from Events 2014
Songs of strength and struggle, of women north and south, with stories as well, set the scene in an eve-of-Festival concert; and there were stories from many places – from William Balfour Baikie’s exploration of the River Niger to James Clerk Maxwell’s probing into the nature of light.
Highlights from 2014 Family Day
Seeing saltwater creatures and working with natural materials, steering a Mars Rover and making a flying saucer … the Family Day was packed with activities.
Peedie Producers Guide
When you sample the local fare at some of the Festival events, you may wonder where you can buy some to take home with you. There’s now a solution – a new pocket guide to some of Orkney’s ‘Peedie Producers’.
Hope’s Beautiful Daughters
A new CD bringing together Scottish and Slovenian musicians and storytellers is to be launched in Orkney on 3 September.
Clipperton Floating Laboratory Explores Northern Waters
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.
Discovery Channel scientist to open Orkney Science Festival
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.
About OISF Festival 2013
Exploration was to the fore in 2013, the bicentenary of the birth of the great Arctic explorer John Rae. The Festival was opened by the widely-travelled documentary film-maker Alan Ereira, who showed his new film, made with Kogi people of Colombia, opening up a dialogue with western science.
Europe’s Lost World
Hunters with spears scan an ancient landscape that now lies beneath the waters of the North Sea. The search for the lost world of Doggerland was the subject of two fascinating sessions...
Highlights from Events 2013
There was the story of exploration in the Arctic and in the depths of the sea, on Greenland’s glaciers and in the space probes pushing outwards through the Solar System.
Highlights from 2013 Family Day
This was the year when you could handle a meteorite and steer a Mars Rover, try out Stone Age technology and wear an Iron Age hood, join the Dustbin Detectives and the Viking soap carvers, meet an oil production safety team and study life in the sea, learn to card wool and weave threads.
Filmmaker and film from lost city to open this year’s festival
Filmmaker and film from lost city to open this year’s festival One of Britain’s leading documentary filmmakers
North Ronaldsay night sky photography competition
The skies above Orkney’s most northerly island are among the darkest in Europe. The winning images from the first two second annual competitions for North Ronaldsay night sky photographs shows the sharpness and clarity with which features can be seen.
Highlights from Events 2012
Jane Goodall in St Magnus Cathedral, the great climate debate in a courtroom format, medieval science in the Earl’s Palace, the Vintage Rally on Broad Street, and music at the Island Ceilidh and in the Festival Club…
Reasons for Hope OISF 2012
The 12th-century St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall was the setting for the lecture Reasons for Hope by Jane Goodall on 7 September 2012 in the annual Orkney International Science Festival.
The Grand Tour 2012
This is a brief visit to four famous historical pipe organs in Germany, the Czech Republic and The Netherlands. High quality sampled version of these organs were played by Professor George Mcphee using the Hauptwerk Virtual Pipe Organ system.
A Green and Medieval Afternoon 2012
The Earl’s Palace and the nearby Bishop’s Palace, both usually imposing, empty stone shells, came alive last Saturday, when they were invaded by children, historians, architects, storytellers, artists, musicians, craftspeople, kitchen caterers, and ice cream vendors.