HIGHLIGHTS FROM EVENTS 2017
One of the highlights was Prof. Peter Higgs In Conversation with his former mathematical physics student Dennis Canavan. The Nobel laureate looked back at the events that had shaped his career and led to the prediction and discovery of the Higgs boson. The Festival was opened in fine style by Christopher Somerville, the walking correspondent of The Times, and later a seafood lunch, following talks on the work to make Orkney’s brown crab fishery sustainable.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2017 FAMILY DAY
You could make a cloud chamber and see particles from outer space. You could write in runes, or study ancient seeds and pollen. You could try a Raspberry Pi or learn about life in polar extremes or on alien worlds. You could make a constellation chart, a molecule or a plastic-free kite. You could learn about dragonflies and damselflies, or test your speed and coordination in the Fitlab.
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.
Big Bill and the Guns of Alamein
The story of Bill and the role of radio communication in the battle was told in the 2017 Orkney International Science Festival by Robbie’s grand-daughter Serena Sutherland, together with Prof. Tom Stevenson and Dorothy Brankin of the Museum of Communication, Burntisland, and Sandy Firth of Orkkney Wireless Musuem.
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.