Setting her stories in a near but transformed future Justina Robson is an acclaimed Science Fiction author inspired by the potential of scientific advances only just outwith our current grasp. In contrast Dilys Rose is an award winning Scottish author known for her humorous and poignant poetry and short stories. Framing readings of both authors' work will be a fascinating debate inspired by the sociological impact of the scientific and technological advances that are shaping modern medicine.

The Toaster Project is story telling of a different kind. Calling himself "a designer (of a more speculative sort)", Royal School of Arts graduate Thomas Thwaites’ work is characterised by the thoughtful exploration of the science and technology behind our everyday lives.  In this talk he discusses his journey to build a toaster from scratch and asks, what is the real cost of our cheap consumer culture? 

On Saturday Wellcome Trust fellow Erinma Ochu and Chris Linnot of Zooniverse will host Crowdsourced Science an inspirational discussion about the principles of citizen science and how to embrace your inner scientist. In the last five years a dynamic online community of citizen scientists has emerged offering a range of assignments to suit almost anyone. The Zooniverse hosts the internet's largest, most popular and most successful crowdsourced projects. Elsewhere on the net you can participate in everything from recording bird species in your back garden to extreme geological photography - all in the name of science.

This weekend the Science Festival offers you the chance to get involved in a variety of exciting and immersive scientific projects. Discover your potential as an astronaut in Fit for Orbit with astro-surgeon Dr George Pantalos; Become an investigative scientist for the day, carrying out experiments in real labs in the extraordinary Secret of the Shooting Star; Explore the importance of play in society at Play Day by participating in the world premier of future game classics such as Ninja and the outrageously rude Swordfight. On Sunday, this year’s Science Festival comes to a close with Scotland’s first Mini Maker Faire, where you will have the opportunity to try your hand at everything from building a synthesiser to moulding you’re own soap.

There’s  really no excuse not to find out more, get involved and join the conversation about #CitizenScience !

Richard and his team were based on the fourth floor of the City Art Centre for the two hour afternoon show. Science Festival Director Dr Simon Gauge was on hand to answer queries and the show also brought along special guest scientists Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr James Logan.

Throughout the show Richard and guests also managed to wander around the venue to experience some of the amazing interactive activities in City Art Centre including an eyeball dissection in Visual Eyes, looking at a real heart in the Blood Bar and a trip downstairs to see the racing robots in Rampaging Chariots. 

For the last half hour they had a special ‘science themed’ phone-in where listeners could ask anything science related. Two additional science brains were recruited for this - geek songstress Helen Arney (catch her in Festival of the Spoken Nerd on Friday) and rapper Jon Chase (appearing in the Science of Dr Who on Saturday). They faced any science questions listeners cared to throw at them as well as some from children who were enjoying a day at City Art Centre.

This is the second time that the Richard Bacon show has broadcast from the Edinburgh International Science Festival - during the 2012 Festival they broadcast from the Science Festival’s InMotion exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland.

The 2013 broadcast from the Science Festival is available to listen to online until the 10 April from - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rlrd1

Scotland has been responsible for significant inventions in science, engineering and medicine. But how can we ensure that Scots continue to be world leading innovators? The Dark Arts of Innovation invites you to join the BBC's Mark Stephen, Gerry Mulligan from W L Gore and Associates, Professor Alan Miller from Heriot Watt University and Lee Innes from the Moredun Research Institute for an engaging, interactive and thought provoking discussion to explore how best to nurture, encourage and develop the Scottish Innovators of the Future. Discover the different tactics used by successful companies and research institutes to promote a culture of innovation, and uncover the key requirements to engender innovation and collaboration in both academic and commercial environments.

If you're keen to find out more of what the future holds check out E2:Futureshock on Thursday 4 April.  Following last year's successful event once again celebrates thinkers and thinking but this time with a focus on the future. Our panel of experts will be gazing into their scientific crystal balls as they reveal their differing secrets for the study and prediction of the future in a series or short sharp presentations.

The future isn't all about technology, as society's response to science has a profound impact on our cultural development and understanding and crowdsourcing - the process of outsourcing tasks to a distributed group of people - looks set to play a significant part. Crowdsourced Science on Saturday 6 April celebrates the DIY culture and mass participation experiments as Erinma Ochu and Chris Lintott explain the principles behind their work and show you how to embrace your inner scientist.

The Adaption Diet considers whether this could be the time to challenge our pre-conceptions about what we eat – join the debate and consider whether you would happily eat a burger made from synthetic meat or snack on insects. The discussions continue in Choosing Food: Past, Present and Future on Wednesday 3 April where a panel of experts set out to explore the factors influencing our food choices and how they could change in a challenging, hungry future.

Those with an appetite to get stuck in could try the second Forager's Breakfast on Sunday 31March where a walk round the Botanical Gardens with hints and tips on identifying edible wild plants is followed by a Breakfast in Earthy, Cannonmills. Alternatively, Sensory Dining on Monday 1 April explores the link between our senses and tastebuds over a 5 course tasting menu sure to intrigue and excite your palette.

And it all this food talk makes you thirsty - don’t forget there’s still time to pick up a bottle of our specially brewed Culture #1, available from our social space the Loft bar in Teviot and at Summerhall.

Granny Sally’s Soap Kitchen is an Edinburgh based company that specialise s in handmade soaps, scrubs skincare and candles. Renowned for using  only natural ingredients their products  are created with luxurious vegetable and fruit bases, making them animal friendly and suitable for those of us with sensitive skin. Granny Sally’s creations are gorgeous to look at too, think rainbow candles in cocktail glasses and soap that resembles a delicious glittering cheesecake. Luckily they have agreed to share their artisan techniques in a series of soap moulding workshops during the faire.

Dirty Electronics are offering a very different opportunity for budding makers -the Dirty team will teach you how to create a working synthesiser from scratch. Inspired by face-to-face shared experiences, ritual, gesture, touch and social interaction, this workshop is a fusion of process and performance. Beginning at the work bench you will build a synth before exploring your instrument through an unforgettable ensemble performance.

And that’s just the start! You can also join textile artist and illustrator Cassandra Harrison’s Gocco printing class to create your own screen prints; Sew a stunning cushion or lampshade  with the ladies from Materialise;  Become a confectionary artist with designer Mahala Le May who will be leading a sugar skull decorating workshop; Perfect your soldering techniques and build a working electrical circuit board  in Mad Lab; And become a jeweller for the day with designer Leanne Evans in her make your own ring workshop…

A few of our highlight events need to be pre-booked, full listings and booking information can be found on the Science Festival Website . This showcase is the perfect conclusion to the 25th Science Festival as people from across the Scottish maker community and beyond converge in Edinburgh and celebrate the art of tinkering, fabrication and invention.

Visit the Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire site for more information.

First pack  for Base Camp, then acclimatise to the heat and humidity before the real work begins – track down mystery plants, collect your own seed samples, compare specimens and get growing. Experts will be on hand as you trek through the Glasshouses and Garden to help you learn new skills. 

Expedition Botanics runs from Friday 29 March to Sunday 7 April.

There’s also a range of other fantastic family activities on at Botanics over this weekend including Forestry DNA Detectives where you can help search out the answers to a range of challenges, Birds on Expedition where you can learn about Bird Migrations and DNA Discovery Trail where you can test plant DNA. The Science Festival Busking Bikes will also be around again to entertain on Saturday .

Starting off with a crafty card trick to get the audience warmed up, Richard then invited some members of the audience to draw where the brain was and how they thought it looked before introducing Professor Blakemore. We were then treated to the expert’s illustration and description of the brain which lead on to a discussion on the various brain functions and how different sections of the brain have different tasks.

Professor Blakemore described how the brain is the most adaptable organ in the body and the complexity of it, including the average number of cells in a brain – a staggering hundred thousand million! He also refuted the ‘clinical myth’ that we only use 10 per cent of our brains – something which probably came about from a time when we understood less about brain functions and activity than we do today. It was particularly interesting to learn that around a third of our brain is dedicated to working on what’s going on around us, something we many of us take for granted, where as other things which we may think of as complicated  and requiring lots of concentration, like complex maths actually use much smaller areas of the brain.

Throughout the event, audience members were invited to put questions to the expert which lead a range of interesting discussions including to how blind people’s brains make alternative uses for what are the visual areas of the brain in those who can see, how some memories can become more poignant that others and the differences between men and women’s brains!

Anyone keen to delve further into the brain can catch What’s going on in his Head? At Teviot Row Debating Hall this evening and Richard will be back on Thursday when he’ll be accompanied by Marcus Chown for the Beginners Guide to... The Universe.

The Toaster Project had one (relatively) simple objective – to build a Toaster, from scratch. Beginning with raw materials and ending with a product that Argos sells for only £3.99.This nine month experiment sent Thwaites deep into the history and processes of metallurgy and plastics production. He explored the difficulties of recreating industrial manufacturing on a domestic scale by blagging his way into long abandoned mines and smelting iron ore in a microwave.

These entertaining practical challenges serve as a platform for Thwaite to discuss the greater social and environmental issues surrounding our cheap consumer culture. He questions the contrast between disposable domestic appliances and the cost of large scale commercial extraction and production; and asks his audience - what are the sustainable alternatives? Despite resembling a brick of molten lard, Thomas Thwaites’ creation may well be the most important toaster of all time.

Since publication, The Toaster Project  has been exhibited and presented internationally, including an illuminating TED talk in 2010 . Further information about this and Thomas Thwaites' other work can be found here. 

Don't miss The Toaster Project on Saturday 6 April at Teviot Row. Thomas Thwaites will also be appearing at the Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire at Summerhall on Sunday 7 April.

Tickets can be booked online, by phone on 0844 557 2686, or in person at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Shop on the High Street.

EdSciFest initially ‘made friends’ with the company when they took their Grasping Climate exhibition to the 2011 Abu Dhabi Science Festival, and a small group from Teknikens Hus then visited our festival in Edinburgh in April 2012. As a result, we were really excited to visit them to experience first-hand the science and technology activities they offer, and discuss potential opportunities for working together in the future.

Landing in Lulea airport was quite something – the airport is surrounded by forest and it was a surreal experience to emerge from the terminal into what seemed like nothing but trees.  At this point we also discovered that you can’t pay for the bus by cash (everyone uses credit cards) which seemed a bit strange coming from Edinburgh.

Teknikens Hus is a medium sized science centre in the campus of the University of Lulea. They have a number of permanent and temporary exhibition spaces and a planetarium (which makes perfect sense as they are ideally placed for viewing the Northern Lights) as well as plenty of workshop space - required because they make everything for their exhibitions on site.

We spent a day exploring Teknikens Hus which included a tour of the area. The permanent exhibitions are designed to reflect the region and its technology – for example mining, steel production, forestry, hydroelectricity, astronomy, etc.  We particularly enjoyed having a go at paper making and were very impressed by the exhibition where kids can drive a JCB to move logs around.

We also learnt about mining in the area and visited the steelworks, where we were able to go into the vast blast furnace and see some metal in liquid form.  The joined up thinking in the area is mightily impressive - the additional heat generated by the steelworks is used to heat the water for the surrounding houses – nothing is wasteful here, it’s all well designed and thought-out.

The trip also introduced us to some Swedish workplace customs including fika – a morning coffee /pastry session which everyone attends.  We also appreciated their devotion to lunch as the main meal of the day and thoroughly enjoyed the fantastic and plentiful meals which we were able to partake of during our time there.

Over the course of the two day trip, we also managed to fit in some sightseeing, including a boat trip round the archipelago in the bay.  This part of Sweden is definitely beautiful – the scenery was breath-taking and it was so peaceful.  Thankfully the weather was quite mild while we were there, as we are not sure how we would survive the winters, when the temperature can reach -35 degrees and locals travel across the water as a short cut to work!

We had a fantastic trip and really appreciated how welcoming and hospitable our generous hosts were.  It was really interesting to see how they do things and we enjoyed learning about the surrounding area.  In addition to our shared goal of creating inspiring science and technology learning experiences, we also realised that we have a birthday in common with Teknikens Hus as they are also celebrating their 25^th anniversary in 2013.

Now we’ve all had the space to gaze fondly at the Festival, a few points become quite clear...

1.  That was biiig.

It sounds obvious, but it’s hard to put into words just how big this Science Festival was. As someone who frequently had to walk from one end of it to the other, I was marginally annoyed that my job was starting to include something resembling exercise. Interesting fact of the day: we had 120,000 visitors. That equates to the population of East Ayrshire, twice the number of people living in Livingstone or the total number of red squirrels left in the UK. Oh yes, friends. We gave enough scientific edutainment to satisfy every red squirrel in the land.

2.  It was hard work...

...and that’s ok. There’s probably a proverb somewhere about anything worth doing makes you really blooming tired, and it’s very true. We helped train up a load of students to deliver successful workshops to thousands of kids. Judging from the present-giving, hugging and crying at the end of the festival, those students had an amazing time. At the end of the Festival, the new science communicators were given a fancy awards ceremony, which included speeches from every university explaining how much the festival had changed their lives. Turns out it was lots. Hurrah!

3.  It was amazing.

There is probably another proverb along the lines of: most extraordinary things only seem weird in retrospect. When you’re smack-bang in the middle of a huge science festival in a foreign country - herding kids and parents and soldering irons around - you just deal with it. You have a laugh with your workmates, bond over buffets (there were a LOT of buffets) and get used to lazing by the pool before work. And then you return to freezing Scotland and realise that you were part of something odd and special and you miss everyone and it’s so cold and the science communicators will have forgotten us in a year and...

Final proverb of the day: if you miss something once you stop doing it, it was probably A Good Thing.

Farewell, Abu Dhabi Science Festival 2012. Hope to see you again...give the camels our love.

Well, they neatly file for about 2 minutes, and then they all disappear under a pile of mess that seems to leak from every pore of every pupil until the big massive hall is crammed full of tiny people in cute school uniforms. And some bigger people in sensible school uniforms. And the obligatory class of teenage boys who everyone thinks are 40 year old teachers until they’re spotted punching each other on the arm repeatedly.

The groups are each given three workshops, shows or guided tours of exhibition spaces and then trundle off armed with wind turbines and science, vaguely smelling of crisps.

The school sessions are very different from the times the public come, and feel like they serve a very different purpose. While classes are in, we’re showing teachers that science can be delivered in fun, weird and interactive ways. We’re showing students that they can understand science, even if they’ve been told that it isn’t their subject. And we’re creating an environment where the whole group experience something memorable together: something to bond them, motivate them and help cheer them up next time someone mentions it’s time for biology.

It feels like we’re doing something which will have a tangible long-term impact because we’re tapping into these buzzing hive minds. This science festival, and our intrepid team leaders, are like spears of truth into the boils of education. Or, as one boy said the other day, ‘quite cool.’ Oh yes, dear world. The Edinburgh Science Festival has arrived in Abu Dhabi and we’re almost cool.

The workshops and exhibits that we’ve programmed in and brought over are spread over three massive halls in a building which is a bit like the SECC and a bit like a long clean walk through a spaceship designed by a species who really like conferences. Everything looks super slick: from the awesome graphics to the age-specific colour-coded carpeted areas. To be honest, the Team Leaders are probably the scruffiest things here, but luckily we’re all charming and endearing and no-one seems to mind.

There is a whole other bit of the festival down at the seafront, known as the Corniche, which has played host to science stars such as Dr Megavolt, and spanking new workshops including Chocolate Caviar: a workshop which involves making and eating chocolate. We could, at this point, go on about sparky ideas, or science at its most delicious, but we are not that cheap.

Instead, have a look at this write-up in the local press and marvel at how fabulous and famous we are. All that glory is enough to go to our scruffy little heads.

Some groups have been learning how to get kids excited about dinosaurs, while others have been learning the intricacies of coping with fainters in ER. It’s been scary because everything suddenly felt quite inevitable. The public were coming and we had to get the props and people up to scratch in breakneck speed.

Actually, the tight deadlines work wonders - as we discovered last year. There’s nothing like the pressure of teaching a workshop in a day to make people concentrate. Even those science communicators who spent a lot of the day wandering round comparing workshops with their friends soon realised (some later than others) that this Science Festival thing was actually real, and that they were actually going to be working at it. They were taking the lead, talking to children and slowly but surely the Team Leaders would step away and leave them to do it.

The next few days they might be performing with the stabilisers on a wee bit, with Team Leaders hovering like protective Dads, ready to catch them if they fall off. But in a few days time, we’ll take off the cheat wheels without telling them and yell: LOOK! LOOK! YOU’RE DOING IT ALL ON YOUR OWN! YOU DON’T NEED US ANY MORE! And, hopefully, the Science Communicators won’t glance behind them to try and hear what we’re saying and fall into a pile of nettles.*

It seemed to be universally the case that our Team Leaders breathed a sigh of relief on realising that, when confronted by Actual Children, none of the communicators spontaneously combusted. Some are, of course, more naturally suited to working with younger audience members but one of the best experiences is seeing how the more reluctant students adapt their style to suit a group of energetic young things. With the festival being even longer than last year, we’re all looking forward to seeing what progress can be made over the next ten days.

Now to sleep... (Or, more realistically, now to say we’re going to sleep but actually get caught up in some weirdly wholesome sing-a-long in the lobby.) Honestly, science communicators on tour always end up like overgrown Girl Guides with more beards and fewer life skills.

*this metaphor may have become confused with a real life incident which took place in 1989, but the point still stands.

Perhaps the reason we all forgot about the weather was because everyone’s memories were dominated by the people we met. A crack team of tutors, led by Tom ‘guy-on-the-posters-whose-head-is-always-on-fire’ Pringle, is currently touring around Abu Dhabi universities. They’re running two days workshops for local students, starting to mould them into science communicators for the emirate’s upcoming science festival. It’s the second year of doing this, so a lot of the unis are already buzzing from feedback from last year’s participants.

Turning perfectly nice people into science communicators is a fascinating process to watch, particularly in Abu Dhabi where we’re dealing with bright young things who might never have done anything approaching this before. One of the main elements of training is helping them become more playful in their communication - which can involve getting beautifully elegant women to pretend to be a tree, or an email or the concept of sound. Which, occasionally, feels like breaking into a finishing school and starting a pillow fight, but with more science.

On Thursday a heap of alumni science communicators all got together for the start of what will hopefully be a regular meet up. These guys went through the training, the festival and the weird aftermath where you need to sleep for three days last year, and many were now busy recruiting new communicators in the festival.

And so, with a mixture of new faces and alumni, the pieces of the festival are starting to come together. At the moment, things look a lot like a bunch of students making props out of paper and sticky tape, but it’s still kinda beautiful. Messy, nervous, beautiful.

We arrived in Beijing early on Tuesday after a long journey and were greeted very warmly by our hosts, who delivered us safely to our hotel in the Olympic Park.  There was a thick grey mist which sat still meaning that we could only see the first few towers in each direction and although our hosts told us that there is a saying here which goes 'People mountain, people sea' to describe the People's Republic, with all the mist there was no way of getting a real grip on the scale of the place. All the same, we were eager to head out into the city particularly as we needed to search for some bits and pieces for the workshops as some of our freight had been delayed at customs due to a change in regulations.

After we spent two busy days training and getting set-up, the Festival launched with great spectacle on Thursday night.  The main stage came complete with dancers, a full orchestra, fireworks, a raising stage, a fifteen meter wide full colour LED TV screen backdrop and a high energy science show.  For the culmination of the show 200 helium balloons were released, each with a flashing LED inside - it was quite something to behold.

The next morning our team were ready to go and, along with the help of 12 fantastic local volunteers, we were eased into proceedings with a slow but steady stream of traffic. The kids loved every minute of the workshops and by midday the place was heaving.  Due to the high level of demand we had to do some serious crowd control but the children were incredibly well-behaved and naturally engaged, and the volunteers were amazing - hardworking and enthusiastic. By the end of the first day alone around 300 kids had participated!

The remainder of the festival ran just as smoothly and we have met all sorts of interesting science communicators from around the world including people from South Africa, Italy, Russia, the US, Singapore, Australia.  The evenings provided excellent opportunities for cross-cultural exchanges and lots of fun.  It has certainly been a trip to remember and we will be taking fond memories home with us as we head back on the plane.

As ever, the Fringe provided a multitude of options and we enjoyed a selection of those with a science flavour.  Some of our highlights included the delightful Helen Arney's Domestic Science and Voice of an Angle; and Helen Keen: Robot Woman of Tomorrow. We also enjoyed a journey through the history of medicine in Edinburgh: The Medicine City and NVA's Speed of Light as part of Edinburgh International Festival was an incredible experience.

The book festival also provided a delicious assortment of events.  We got ready for the future with Ben Hammersley; deliberated howcrime writers keep up with the changing realities of crime scenes with Val McDermid & Sue Black and tried thinking in numbers with Daniel Tammet.

We are keenly anticipating events at the Turing Festival as it opens with an outstanding line up of talks and events from some of the world’s greatest innovators.  We plan to check out the event from CERN and the National Geographic talks Explorers and Citizen Science.

We have indeed been spoilt for choice this month!  And, feeling suitably inspired, as our call for ideas has now closed we are currently sifting through the assortment of responses as we continue to work on developing a first class programme for the 2013 Science Festival.

There were lots of exciting things happening at the National Museum of Scotland throughout the festival. Richard Bacon broadcast his BBC Radio 5 live show live from InMotion, an interactive showcase all about movement, sport and motion. During the show Bacon interviewed a line-up of top scientists who were also appearing in the festival.  Also causing a stir at the museum, mini humanoid robots previewed a choreographed dance routine that proved to be a big hit. The mini-robots recreated the movements of human dancers. In keeping with the movement and motion theme there were a number of other dance performances including a flash mob show from a 60+ dance troupe! See for yourself below, as it was all captured on video!

Speaking of video, you can see a range of fantastic new videos on our YouTube channel and on our site's Gallery covering some of this year’s festival favourites including LateLab, Firewalking and Foraging for Breakfast at the Royal Botanic Garden with author Miles Irving and River Cottage’s John Wright. The Botanics had a tasty line-up this year with a food-science programme for adults and children called Science on a Plate.

As well as causing a sensation with exciting events in the city’s finest venues, the Science Festival also made an impact with some big headlines. A mass participation experiment launched at the Edinburgh International Science Festival has reached a worldwide audience. The University of Hertfordshire psychologist, Professor Richard Wiseman, launched Dream:On – an experimental app which aims to find out if it is possible to give users more pleasant dreams –  at the Science Festival event ‘Sweet Dreams’. Hundreds of thousands of dreams have been reported back creating the largest dream database in history!

The festival’s coverage of environmental issues made a national impact as artist and designer Professor Helen Storey MBE and polymer chemist, Professor Tony Ryan OBE revealed their field of air-purifying jeans and kilts in St Andrew Square, and furthermore on the environmental front American Climate scientist, Dr James Hansen, received the 24^th Edinburgh Medal. He used the Edinburgh Medal address to call for help in making people understand the gravity of the situation surrounding the issues of climate change. Hansen described how the questions of his grandchildren had changed him from a scientist who shied away from the media and public activism to one who believed passionately that he must use his voice to change government policy and public opinion.  He stated, “It is immoral for us to leave to the next generation a planet whose climate is spiralling out of control.  I believe it is an issue of intergenerational justice – we can only pretend we don’t understand what is happening around us.”

We sincerely believe this was a successful, exciting and inspiring year for Edinburgh International Science Festival…but as always we continue to strive to make it even better. We welcome your feedback on any events you attended. What did you like? What didn’t you like? Why? Anything you can think of, throw it our way by completing our online survey, it will only take a few minutes. 

We've lots more exciting projects in development for the coming year and festival plans for 2013 (23 Mar - 7 Apr) are already underway, watch this space...

We’ve extended the Science Festival Photo Challenge so that we can receive more great photos to share with everyone, the enjoyment of the Science Festival as seen through your eyes. And if your photo is hailed as the most awesome of the lot by the Science Festival team, your photo may just win you a Kindle worth £89! Send them in today by Sunday 29th April and share your photography goodness! Hop over to ClicketKids.co.uk http://clicket.co.uk/news-and-features/science-festival-photo-challenge> for more details.

Science Festival Bloggers Challenge

You may have been following seven fantastic bloggers throughout the two weeks of the Science Festival on Twitter (#esfblog) or on Clicket.co.uk’s Blog. They were awesome and attended lots of festival events too. All their experiences were blogged and you can read all about their experiences on Clicket’s Blog. Click to read the blogs sent on 3^rd, 10^th  and 17^th April.

Be sure to check back Clicket’s Blog in the coming week to find out who, Amanda Tyndall (our Deputy Festival Director of Edinburgh International Science Festival) picked as the blogger to win the top prize of a Kindle!

In the meantime...

As recommended by one of our bloggers, Claire Connachan, from the Bloggers Challenge: “The Royal Observatory, Edinburgh Zoo, Royal Botanical Gardens, National Museums Scotland and University of Edinburgh are only some of the places you can get an interim science fix until next April when the Festival returns for another two weeks of amazing events.”

Prof. Barton, an evolutionary biologist from Durham University, has researched the effect of colour in competitive sport and has found that red seems to be the colour of winners.

“Red is associated with dominance, aggression and anger,” said Prof. Barton, explaining that the absence of red in the British Olympic design could prove fatal for the medal haul.

Drawing on research from a range of sports, Barton found that when matched with a competitor of equal ability, the athletes wearing red won more times than not. Barton suggested that this was due to a natural instinct that we can still see in animals today.

Mandrills display status and signal dominance and confidence through the brightness of the red on their noses. There is evidence to suggest that this animal instinct and susceptibility to the colour of red is still present in modern humans.

Read more about the details of the 2012 Team GB strip and the science behind it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17457729