Over this inspiring and challenging programme you’ll devise, design and prototype ideas that will establish systems for living, surviving and communicating on a new planet. With skills sessions, workshops and talks delivered by professional mentors from across Science, Technology and the Creative Industries, this experience will equip you with the tools and techniques to bring innovative ideas to life.

Whether you’re a young entrepreneur, a budding artist or engineer, or looking for ways to channel your creative energies; Fuselab will take your creative thinking out of this world.

Participants will be split into two groups, each attending one session; either 1-5 July or 5-9 July 2013.

Accommodation and all meals are provided completely free of charge. Applications from the UK and overseas are welcome and a travel grant of up to £200 per participant is provided.

The application process will close on Monday 3 June. Click here for more details and to apply.

Hickory and Dickory Dock will tour alongside an existing Wee Stories production, One Giant Leap, for adults and older children (10+).  Written and performed by Iain Johnstone, it tells the story of how a school project set him off on a mission to get his head around the universe.

Wee Stories is an Edinburgh-based, theatre company which has been making story-telling theatre for all generations and features a love of literature, high comedy, visual games, imaginative stagecraft and audience involvement at the heart of all their productions.  Iain Johnstone, Artistic Director of Wee Stories, said, “It’s great to be able to make work that responds to children’s curiosity about big subjects like time and the universe.  I wasn’t exactly a star pupil at school and I think that’s why now I really enjoy working out complex ideas and then finding exciting theatrical ways to explain them.”

The tour will be in Summerhall in Edinburgh on May 4 and 5, as part of their spring programme.  Hickory and Dickory Dock then returns to the city for a week’s run at the National Museum of Scotland during the first week of the school holidays (1-6 July).

For full details of dates, times and venues log on to www.weestoriestheatre.org  or call 0131 221 0606.

Embracing collaborations between art and science was a big part of this year’s activities. Patterns In Nature, our inspirational photography exhibition in St Andrews Square, allowed visitors to take a walk through some of nature’s most stunning visual creations and discover the secrets of how they are formed. Perhaps the biggest single impact of the 2013 Science Festival came from Pisces – a spectacular sculpture created in the Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland by artist Jason Hackenwerth. The specially commissioned piece, which was made with over 10,000 coloured balloons, drew crowds during the artist’s residency while it was created as well as when the finished piece was unveiled.

Our extensive children and families programme was popular as always. The National Museum of Scotland also hosted our newly developed marine workshop Secret Life of Coral and a number of interactive shows for children and families including Science of Doctor Who and the The Maths Olympics (how many digits of Pi do you know?).  For a more exotic undertaking, Expedition Botanics at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh gave families the chance to have their own Malaysian adventure in Edinburgh as they packed for base camp, collected and compared samples, and got planting.

City Art Centre was a resounding success once again receiving 12,000 visitors who enjoyed the new CSI and Polyfloss Factory events as well as traditional favourites including ER Surgery, Rampaging Chariots and Jungle Safari. This year City Art Centre played host to Radio 5 Live’s Richard Bacon show and the venue was also opened to adults for The Festival Opening Party which proved a fantastic way to kick things off as revellers had the chance to experience the amazing hands-on activities without the kids.

For our 2013 adult programme, we welcomed back some Science Festival favourites including testing our tastebuds in the Molecular Mastery and Sensory Dining, starting from scratch in Richard Wisemans Beginners Guide to… and a fantastic Night with Dr Dance. And, in a Science Festival first, this year the Edinburgh Medal was awarded jointly to Professor Peter Higgs and CERN in acknowledgement of the spirit of collaboration in science.

We also used our 25^th festival as an opportunity to horizon scan as many of our Science Festival themes looked to the future.  We had a strong focus on space and as we contemplated Future Worlds and considered whether we were fit for orbit, and how a mission to Mars could work.  Coming back to earth, we explored the social and environmental challenges presented by the largest wave of urban growth in history in our Future Cities events, including a fascinating look at architectures path to ecology and what makes a city smart.

Throughout the Festival we invited some of the UK’s most prominent scientists to engage with the public and one another as they discussed and debated some of the current ‘big ideas’ but it wasn’t all serious. Our Lates events provided creative and memorable nights out for this sociably minded, from the quirky comedy of Ugly Animals and Show and Tell to getting our game faces on for a night at the Games Hub.  In addition, Inspace was once again transformed into LateLab – a series of participatory events where adults could make, do and interact with science and technology – from tasting edible insects and flowers to trying a wearable balloon sculpture out for size.

The festival closed in spectacular fashion with the hugely successful Mini Maker Faire on the last day. Over 3,000 people attended this celebration of DIY Culture in all its forms at Summerhall, as 150 Makers demonstrated how they are currently doing an amazing variety of creative things in innovative ways.

In between all these, and the many more fantastic events which were part of the 2013 Science Festival programme we still found time to get social, chilling in the Loft Bar and celebrating our 25^th Festival by washing down all that science with specially brewed Culture #1.

It's been a heady mixture of hard work, excitement, stress and fun and we hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have... bring on 2014!

We’d still love to hear your thoughts on our events and activities in 2013 – add your feedback to our Survey

The programme is an immersive out of this world experience for 16 – 20 year olds which will take place at Edinburgh’s Summerhall in July. It will challenge participants to plan for the future of an as yet uninhabited world and to develop a sustainable way of life, free from the constraints of the systems and structures we live by here on Earth.

We are seeking 80 young innovative and creative minds – scientists, artists and engineers - to take part for the opportunity to challenge their thinking through workshops, skills sessions, talks and games; collaborating to design, prototype and test ideas.

Fuselab is a fully immersive four day experience run over 2 sessions:

Fuselab 1 runs from 1 – 5 July

Fuselab 2 runs from 5 – 9 July

Each session will have with a maximum of 40 participants from the UK and beyond – the programme is completely free of charge with meals and accommodation provided. 

Applications for both sessions are open from today, Monday 8 April.

To apply visit: http://www.sciencefestival.co.uk/whats-on/fuselab before Monday 3 June.

On Thursday They Came from Outer Space looks at whether life beyond earth exists and if humans will be able to identify it in an entertaining and insightful introduction to astrobiology. Later in the evening Astronomy’s Bright Future looks at how far astronomy has come in the last 100 years as well as discussing the challenges currently facing astronomers and where we might look to for the future.

Curious about the health implications of space travel? Fit for Orbit on Friday looks at how these might affect our future aspirations for space tourism along with the tools which are being developed to help us overcome some of the challenges. In One Way ticket to Mars you can meet co-founder of Mars One – the organisation recruiting volunteers for a first attempt at interplanetary migration in 2023 - for a discussion exploring what it will take to push the boundaries of space travel further in the non-too distant future.

If you're ready for a more immersive experience, try The Secret of the Shooting Star next Saturday where you can become a specialist investigator for the day in an Edinburgh wide adventure game.

The sculpture, created by world renowned New York experimental artist Jason Hackenwerth, represents the artist’s interpretation of the legend of Aphrodite and Eros. The spiraled double helix structure has been created with more than 10,000 coloured balloons and hangs over 40 feet tall. 

Jason, who was born in St Louis and now lives and works in New York and has exhibited his work around the world at galleries and museums including the Guggenheim in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and at the 51^st Venice Biennale as well as in Hong Kong and Mexico.  Pisces is the first artwork that he has created in Scotland.

It has taken three members of Science Festival staff six days to blow up the 10,000 balloons which have been woven into an intricate three dimensional structure by Jason and his assistant Leah Blair.   It has not only proved to be backbreaking work, but Jason and his team have also to wear ear defenders to protect their hearing from the constant popping and squeaking of balloons, and protective tape on their fingers.

The sculpture will be on display in the Grand Gallery until 14^th April. 

Future-proof Healthcare offers the chance to join a panel of experts as they consider the big issues affecting healthcare from both sides of the fence – patient and practitioner. Focusing on Diabetes as an exemplar condition, Dr Simon Gage, Director of Edinburgh International Science Festival, Graham Mackenzie of NHS Lothian, Jane-Claire Judson of Diabetes UK and a young person living with Diabetes will debate the issues using case studies and real-life stories to provide a window on to the possible future of our health.

Professor Sheila McLean, Professor David Porteous and Professor Anna Dominiczak will explore the questions and issues surrounding our relationship with pharmaceuticals and the advent of ‘personalised medicine’ in Medicine and Me on Tuesday 26 March.  The event will be chaired by Peter Silvester of Life Technologies who will also be bringing along their desktop DNA sequencer.

Those with an appetite for learning at lunch can check out our series of ‘Healthy Lunches’ which run across the second week of the festival. Zebrafish Stripes and Skin Cancer on Monday, Aspirin a Day on Tuesday, Chest Medicine and the X-ray on Thursday and Understanding Childhood Epilepsy on Friday.

Finally, for some future health this Friday, Like A Virgin traces the history of ideas about reproduction and reveals how some cutting edge laboratories are creating the reproductive technology of tomorrow and Can You Hack It? reveals how body hacking, which pushes the boundaries between technology and the human body, has moved from the realms of science fiction to science fact!

In 2012 the world awoke to the news that CERN’s Large Hadron Collider had detected the existence of an elusive, sub atomic particle consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson.  Professor Peter Higgs, the Edinburgh scientist, was one of the first to suggest the existence of the particle that now bears his name.  Since it was first proposed in 1964, the search for confirmation of the particle has been the collaborative work of countless scientists and in acknowledgement of the fact that science is a collective endeavour and in celebration of the spirit of collaboration, the Edinburgh Medal has been awarded to both Professor Higgs and CERN, the world class organisation who led the quest.

CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, was established in 1954 to organise and sponsor international co-operation in research, promoting contacts between scientists and interchange with other laboratories and institutes.  CERN’s main area of research is particle physics, the study of the fundamental constituents of matter and the forces acting between them.  The endeavour of science brings nations together in a common goal and many of CERN’s experiments are international collaborations. 

Professor Peter Higgs is a theoretical physicist and emeritus Professor at Edinburgh University.  In 1964 Higgs predicted the existence of a force-carrying particle, part of an invisible energy field that filled the vacuum throughout the observable universe. Without the field, or something like it, we would not be here.   The search for the Higgs boson has become a major objective of experimental particle physics. 

The first Edinburgh Medallist in 1989 was the theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner Abdus Salam; of the subsequent twenty four Medallists, three have gone on to be awarded the Nobel Prize.  A selection of previous Edinburgh Medal recipients are returning to the Science Festival this year, including neurobiologist Professor Colin Blakemore and UCL’s Professor of Climate Science, Chris Rapley, to share their dangerous ideas in a rare chance to hear from some of the most provocative minds in science.

Fun for Children and Families:

Families can a visit our science playground in City Art Centre, which kicks off on Saturday morning. As well as bringing back popular favourites, including Rampaging Chariots and ER, this year we have some brand new workshops. Check it out for your chance to solve a crime in CSI or make funky recycled object in Polyfloss Factory.

There’s lots happening in the National Museum of Scotland – children can make their own sea creature in the Secret Life of Coral or come and meet particle physicists in Finding Higgs Boson. Renowned artist Jason Hackenwerth will also be setting up residence in the Grand gallery from Saturday as he and his team begin to create Pisces, and Janis Claxton Dance will present Chaos and Contingency.

We also have some great free family activities happening in shopping centres. Check out the interactive exhibits of InMotion in Ocean Terminal. And, if you’re keen to venture further afield, why not pop along to The Future’s Bright at Livingston to try out a range of fun activities that show how easy it is to have a cleaner, greener lifestyle.

Entertainment for Adults:

Adults looking for some food for thought this weekend can join Professor Anne Glover as she explores ways to stimulate the debate between scientists and citizens in Communicating Science: How can we share it? Or learn just how abnormal many of our brains are in Picturing Your Brain.  You can also join Landforms: Audience with Charles Jencks on Saturday to hear him discuss his reflections and inspirations, or try Pie in the Sky for a fascinating look at Vertical farming.

On Sunday, Stem Banks and Seed Vaults examines how stem cell technology could help endangered animals and Peter Randall Page explores the glorious beauty, symmetry and complexity of nature’s pattern forming tendencies in Nature’s Patterns.  You could also try Forest to Junk: Tracing the Teak Road at the Royal Botanic Garden for a look at the sustainability of and stories behind the wood we buy. Alternatively, for a unique take on everyone’s favourite bit of school, join Robin Ince’s Show and Tell as his parade of special guests ‘show and tell’ their favourite things from the world of science.

The vote aims to discover the nation's favourite invention or discovery from an exciting selection of major British advances over the past century by asking people to choose their favourite from a range of options including the DNA Double Helix, the World Wide Web, the first successful Atomic Clock and Penicillin.

One of the organisations behind the campaign is The Royal Society, who have asked nine research fellows to describe an innovation in their field and how this has influenced their research today. This includes a submission from Dr Rachael Pearson, from University College London, who sets out the case for Stem Cells – something with particular relevance to her work.

Dr Pearson has helped develop a therapeutic approach that replaces lost cells with functioning ones to restore vision.  For the chance to hear her talk about how this research could revolutionise treatment of visual impairment in the future check out Stem Cells: A Cure for Blindness at the Edinburgh International Science Festival.

There are 6 days left for the public to vote for their favourite innovations and the winners will be announced on Monday 25 March.

For today only, we'll donate £1 to Comic Relief for every ticket booked to our Science Festival 2013 comedy events.

So book now for some stand-out scientific entertainment!

The following events are eligible for this offer:

Robin Ince's Show and Tell
(Ages 14+)
Sunday 24 March, 8pm
National Museum of Scotland

The Maths Olympics with Simon Pampena
(Ages 12+)
Monday 1 - Wednesday 3 April, 3pm
National Museum of Scotland

The Fame Algorithm with Simon Pampena
(Ages 18+)
Thursday 4 April, 9pm
Teviot Row House

Festival of the Spoken Nerd
(Ages 18+)
Friday 5 April, 8pm
Teviot Row House

Edinburgh is a city steeped in history, but what challenges does the future hold and how can we adapt our lives and our buildings to face them? Here, the sprawl of the Old Town was updated with the contrasting addition of the ordered, flowing landscape of the New Town, but what will come next? Hear prominent figures in urban planning and design discuss the challenges and solutions for our city’s future at Edinburgh Rebooted on Thursday 28 March.

The trend for city living shows no signs of abating – almost 80% of the globe is expected to reside in urban centres by 2050. But this doesn’t necessarily mean giving up green spaces; Future Cities offers some unique solutions to maximising outdoor space. Discover vertical farming at Pie in the Sky on Saturday 23 March, guerrilla gardening at Greening the City on Friday 29 March and unique ways to incorporate nature into the fabric of our buildings at Living Architecture on Saturday 6 April.

As urban populations increase, technology will play a vital role in helping us manage our environments efficiently to avoid overcrowding and wasted resources. On Wednesday 27 March, What Makes A City Smart? introduces a 21^st century model of urban organisation, using real time, instant information on smart phones and the internet. And on Sunday 7 April Professor Harald Haas from The University of Edinburgh will introduce Li-Fi – a new wireless system that could utilise lights our homes and offices to provide a brand new communications network.

All Future Cities events are available as part of our Early Bird offer – buy any four tickets for our Science Festival Events programme by Saturday 16 March and receive a fifth ticket free. This offer is valid for five separate events only and must be booked by phone on 0844 557 2686 or in person at the box office at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Shop on the High Street.

Pie in the Sky
Saturday 23 March, 8pm
National Museum of Scotland
£8/£6

The ARUP Lecture 2013: What Makes a City Smart?
Wednesday 27 March, 8pm
National Museum of Scotland
£8/£6

Edinburgh Rebooted
Thursday 28 March, 5.30pm
National Museum of Scotland
£8/£6

Greening the City
Friday 29 March, 5.30pm
National Museum of Scotland
£8/£6

Living Architecture
Saturday 6 April, 12.30pm
National Museum of Scotland
£8/£6

Li-Fi: Data Through Illumination
Sunday 7 April, 3pm
National Museum of Scotland
£8/£6

EPSRC is pleased to support the Future Cities programme which reflects its research in engineering and the physical sciences, helping to develop innovative solutions to technological challenges and create a healthy, productive and sustainable future.

With invasive animal species upsetting natural ecosystems, could eating them solve environmental challenges as well as boost our food supply? Eating Aliens is a dinner party with a difference, serving up some unusual yet incredibly tasty morsels with speakers from the Scottish Government and Scottish Natural Heritage.

Following its success in 2012, Sensory Dining is back with some old favourites and new surprises that explore the link between our taste buds and our senses and allow you to savour enticing flavours, textures and smells like never before.

If cocktails are your thing, join Andrea Sella for Molecular Mastery and discover how the scientific equipment and techniques of molecular gastronomy have been applied to mixing drinks with intense and varied flavours in unexpected combinations.

Green-fingered foodies will enjoy a delicious and enlightening morning foraging with author and expert Miles Irving at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. At Forager's Breakfast, Miles will lead a walk through the Garden, identifying edible wild plants and offering hints and tips on using foraged foods in your cooking. You’ll then be treated to a breakfast of wild delights at Earthy Canonmills, where Miles will discuss the menu.

Click here for more events exploring the future of our diets, and explore our Science Festival Themes for even more highlights and suggestions for a great Science Festival 2013.

Eating Aliens
Thursday 28 March, 7pm
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
£35 (includes a 3 course meal)

Molecular Mastery
Thursday 28 March, 8pm
Teviot Row Debating Hall
£20 (includes drinks)

Forager’s Breakfast
Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 March, 8am
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
£25 (includes breakfast)

Sensory Dining
Monday 1 April, 7pm
Teviot Row Debating Hall
£35 (includes a 5 course tasting menu)

If you prefer to keep your feet firmly on the ground, there are plenty of chances to discover the fascinating world of astronomy. Families can head to Our Dynamic Earth for Science Live: Explore Your Universe, a hands-on show that uses cutting-edge research by the Science and Technology Facilities Council to let us marvel at spectacular sights beyond Earth.

For ages 14+, why not join Stargazing LIVE co-host Mark Thompson, along with local astronomers, on Wednesday 27 March for Stargaze with Mark at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and explore the awesome beauty of the Cosmos in an accessible guide to the night sky? As well as plenty of stargazing, you’ll have the chance to handle a meteorite and witness the formation of a comet.

Fancy moving to Mars? Meet the organisation looking for recruits for man’s first migration to the Red Plant, scheduled for 2023, in One Way Ticket to Mars and discover how space travel could impact on our health in Fit for Orbit?, both on Friday 5 April. And if you think you’re up to it, why not put your astronaut credentials to the test and head to LateLab for a pre-flight health check?

Explore more Future Worlds events and other Science Festival Themes here.

Tickets for LateLab are available at inspace.ed.ac.uk from Saturday 9 March.

The 25th Edinburgh International Science Festival offers a number of stunning visual spectacles including a specially-commissioned, experiential sculpture from New-York based artist Jason Hackenwerth which will reach from floor to ceiling in the Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland. .

A stunning outdoor photographic exhibition in St Andrews Square launches today (31 January) and celebrates the work of some of the world’s leading photographers who have been inspired by natural symmetry. Patterns in Nature examines the glorious beauty and complexity of nature from individual snowflakes to the stripes of an angelfish. Landscape architect Charles Jencks and artist and sculptor Peter Randall-Page look at how nature has inspired their work.

The 2013 event programme is as innovative and engaging as ever and looks to tackle the challenges of the future, today. Audiences can explore the innovations that will transform the cities we live in and the energy that powers them; experience the cutting edge developments that can alter and enhance the human body; and take the chance to question the ever-increasing prominence of technology in our lives.

The special future themed programme strands cover everything from Future Food – where diners are tempted with alternative menus of insects and invasive species (Eating Aliens 28 March, The Adaptation Diet 30 March) to Future Play, which includes the chance to make the whole city a playground in a specially designed interactive quest (Edinburgh City Sci-Quest 23 March – 7 April, Why We Play 27 March).

Future Worlds looks to the skies with an appearance from Mark Thomson, fresh from co-hosting Stargazing LIVE with Professor Brian Cox (Stargaze with Mark, 27 March) while One Way Ticket to Mars (5 April) sees Bas Lansdorp, co-founder and Director General of Mars One, discussing the project that is currently recruiting volunteers for a first attempt at interplanetary migration in 2023.

Those looking for an inspiring, creative and memorable night out can enjoy the Science Festival Lates events where science, music and art collide - starting with the Festival’s opening party at City Art Centre (Science Festival Lates: Opening Party 21 March) and concluding with Mini Maker Faire Afterparty (7 April). The programme also features the return of Festival of the Spoken Nerd with Life, Oh Life and last year’s hugely popular sci-creative series LateLab which takes place at Inspace throughout the Festival.

For families, the Science Festival remains the perfect Easter Holiday adventure. Edinburgh’s City Art Centre is transformed into a world of scientific adventure, packed with scary skeletons, racing robots and manic monsters. New activities for 2013 include the Polyfloss Factory, where children will help out in a working plastic recycling plant – sorting waste plastic, melting it down and creating brand new colourful products to take home, and Crime Scene Investigation where children can try their hand at forensic investigation and decipher the clues in a crime scene.

Other family events around the city include workshops and scientific trails at the National Museum of Scotland and a Malaysian jungle-themed expedition at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The University of Edinburgh presents a programme of events at the National Museum of Scotland and, after entertaining 35,000 visitors at the 2012 Science Festival, the Scottish Government Expo Funded exhibition InMotion will be running at Ocean Terminal, free of charge, from 23 March – 7 April.

Tickets for all events can be booked on-line at www.sciencefestival.co.uk or through the Box Office on 0844 557 2686 from Thursday 31 January 2013. Patterns in Nature is a free, open-air photographic exhibition in St Andrews Square, open from 8.00am to 6.00pm daily from Thursday 31 January to Sunday 7 April 2013.
 

Click here to Download the 2013 Programme

Click here to view the the 2013 Programme online

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This landmark Festival offers the perfect opportunity to remember our past, enjoy our present and look forward to a dynamic future at the forefront of engaging the public with science and technology.

You’ll find amazing and inspiring future-focused events happening all over Edinburgh – from family workshops and interactive events, to exhibitions, discussions and big nights out for sci-curious adults.

Already announced for 2013 is Scotland’s first ever Mini Maker Faire at Summerhall on Sunday 7 April, showcasing the work of 50 diverse and inventive makers of everything from traditional crafts to cutting edge digital technologies. The Call for Makers is still out with applications closing on Friday 1 February. More details are available at makerfaireedinburgh.com.

The Festival will also be returning to St Andrew Square, presenting a stunning large-scale photography exhibition entitled Patterns in Nature, exploring the beauty, symmetry and complexity of the visual forms created by the natural world. The exhibition runs from 31 January – 7 April and St Andrew Square is open from 8am-6pm.

Booking for the 2013 Science Festival opens on 31 January and tickets can be purchased online, by phone on 0844 557 2686 or in person at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe shop on the High Street.

The Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire will be filled with novel gadgets, ingenious inventions, toys, crafts, machines, demonstrations, performances, exhibitions and interactive workshops and the Science Festival organisers are calling for 50 of Scotland’s most inventive and innovative ‘makers’ – designers, engineers and anyone who makes things - to come and take part.

Amanda Tyndall, Deputy Director of Edinburgh International Science Festival said “As technology becomes more accessible, and in these times of financial austerity, a new DIY culture is rapidly emerging in which people do all sorts of things for themselves! Whether you’re a tech enthusiast or a tinkerer, an engineer or an artist, Edinburgh’s Mini Maker Faire is for you.  If you make wearable technology or have invented a new musical instrument, use a 3D printer or have created a new computer game, if you are prepared to share your insights, connect with your audience, and inspire others, we want to hear from you.”

This family-friendly interactive showcase will be a day-long celebration of the burgeoning worldwide ‘Maker’ movement and will give audiences a chance to interact and connect with the people who are creating the next generation of technologies, bringing traditional skills and crafts into the modern world or making beautiful, useful or simply playful things.

To find out how you can showcase your work at Mini Maker Faire - see our call for makers

Find out more about Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire here

Launched by Good Thinking in association with Soho Skeptics, the competition received over 100 entries before an expert panel of judges whittled them down to the following shortlist.
 

• Stuart Clark: Across the Universe
• David Colquhoun: DC’s Improbable Science
• Ed Yong: Not Exactly Rocket Science
• André Tomlin: The Mental Elf
• Suzi Gage: Sifting the Evidence
• Dorothy Bishop: BishopBlog
• Neuroskeptic: Neuroskeptic
• Oliver Childs, Henry Scowcroft & Kat Arney: Cancer Research UK Science Update
• Dean Burnett: Brain Flapping
• Athene Donald: Athene Donald’s Blog
  
  The overall winner will be announced at the Prize Night on Sunday 25 November. The event will feature guests including Ben Goldacre, Simon Singh and Helen Arney and each blogger will talk about their blog or blogging before the overall winner and runners up are revealed.

To purchase tickets for the prize night visit http://2012scienceblogprize.eventbrite.com/#

This second festival represented a substantial growth in scope from the inaugural event in 2011. It was again held over two venues - the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) and the Corniche - but with significantly increased space and running for a longer period of time. 

The 11 day festival included 71 events, interactive workshops, activities and shows programmed by Edinburgh International Science Festival.  The exciting variety of exceptional science experiences included fresh attractions such as a life-sized roaming T-Rex Animatronic Dinosaur, an impressive presentation of electricity by Dr Megavolt, a chemistry demonstration with plenty of explosions in Bigger Bang Show, and mix of arts & science through bubbles moving to music in Pep Bou.  

New events created for the festival by the Edinburgh International Science Festival team included: Crime Scene Investigation - a workshop where participants used forensic techniques to solve a crime; and The Super Cool Game Show - a special adaptation of Edinburgh’s Cosy Cosy Game Show designed to reflect the conditions experienced in the United Arab Emirates where participants try to keep their table top houses cool using air conditioning and insulation.

In order to deliver the festival, a huge team of local communicators was required and 800 students were recruited from some of the leading UAE universities. They undertook a training programme delivered by Edinburgh International Science Festival which spanned an entire month and is probably the largest programme of its sort in the world.  

Over 120,000 people attended over the course of the festival representing a 20 percent increase on the previous year’s visitor numbers. The festival also focuses on schools and over 20,000 pupils from 224 local schools attended via organised school tours - this represented another significant increase as it was 33 percent more than in 2011.

One visitor of note was Edinburgh’s Lord Provost (Honorary President and former Chair of Edinburgh International Science Festival) who attended the Abu Dhabi Science festival the 11 and 12 of October during which time he saw the schools programme in action and toured the ADNEC facility as well as visiting the Corniche venue.

Simon Gage, Director of Edinburgh International summed up the experience “The 2012 Abu Dhabi Science Festival was another tremendous success and we were delighted to once again be part of this inspirational investment in the children of Abu Dhabi.  We aim to encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to discover the wonder of the world around them and have relished the opportunity offered by this partnership to once again take some of our interactive science activities, created and developed in Edinburgh, to an international audience.”

In preparation for the jump, Baumgartner consumed a "low-residue, low-fibre" diet so that his food would pass quickly through his body without any build-up of gas, as this might expand and cause him severe internal pain in a low-pressure environment.  He also "pre-breathed" oxygen for two hours before his ascent to help reduce the amount of nitrogen in his blood.

Reflecting on the day's achievements Baumgartner said "It was an incredible up and down today, just like it's been with the whole project."  The attempt had faced some weather-related delays before finally lifting off under favourable conditions on Sunday morning.  The jump itself was not without drama as an issue with the power supply to Baumgartner’s visor meant that his vision was impaired and, after a perfect exit, Baumgartner had to try to stabilise himself from spinning which he described as “really brutal at times”.

One of the jump's key scientific goals was to learn, via a series of monitors on his body, more about what such an experience does to the human body.  The physiological exertions Baumgartner experienced during his descent are still being studied by his team.

Baumgartner and his team spent five years training and preparing for the mission.  The equipment for which included: a capsule acting as a pressurised environment which protected him from sub-zero temperatures on the way up; a full pressure suit and helmet to act as his personal life support system; and a one of a kind parachute system.

The team have previously noted that they plan to share all their finding and breakthroughs in areas of aviation and aerospace with the scientific community around the world as they aim the achieve advancements in medical science and contribute to the understanding of survival in space.

*The data on the records set by the jump are still pending confirmation from the authorised governing bodies.