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For cinephiles and sci-fi fans we’ve got a fantastic series of special screenings, conversations and events inspired by films that deal with the question of what it means to be human. Human:2.0 is a rare opportunity to see some fantastic sci-fi favourites on the big screen and to join in topical discussion about technology, drugs and genetic manipulation. Films include Robocop, eXistenZ, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the 1931 classic adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

For foodies there’s Science on a Plate; a diverse line-up of food-meets-science events taking place at the Royal Botanic Garden. These events are suitable for a family audience but if you’re looking for something a bit more adult-themed check out Aphrodisiac Cocktails and Canapés. Join our experts for a tasty and tantalizing evening of food and fun as they explore the amorous qualities of every bite, sorting aphrodisiac fact from fiction.

For the thrill seekers, we’ve lined up a special treat…well if you consider the opportunity to take a wee walk over red hot coals a treat! Discover the science behind Firewalking and try it out for yourself. Is it a supernatural phenomenon, the power of physics or simply mind over matter? Find out first hand in Princess Street Gardens.

For the innovators we’ve organised a unique opportunity, a meeting of great minds, with the Edinburgh Enlightenment Exchange – aka Edinburgh E2. We’re bringing together some of the country’s most inspirational individuals from the sciences, arts and business world for a day-long showcase of innovative, enlightened ideas.

This is just a mere taster of the multitude of events on offer. This year we’ve taken science out of the lab and infused it with art, food, philosophy, comedy, film… and just good ol’ fashioned fun! Don’t risk leaving booking till last minute, you may miss out. Tickets are on sale now so get browsing and get booking!

Tickets can be purchased onine, by phone through the Science Festival Box Office on 0844 557 2686 or in person at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival shop, 180 High Street, Edinburgh (open 10.30am – 5.30pm Monday to Friday, 11.00am to 5.30pm Saturday).

Edinburgh International Science Festival refuses to stand still as it leaps into 2012 with a packed programme celebrating science through vibrant, innovative events, hands-on activities and explosive experiments for adults, children and families all across the city from 30 March – 15 April.

Highlights include:

A new laboratory, hailed as the most high-tech in the history of the Olympic Games, has been unveiled in Essex. It will be used to combat the use of prohibited drugs by athletes in the upcoming Olympics in London. Not only is the lab better equipped than any other facility ever used for this purpose, it will also carry out more tests than ever before, operating around the clock to test all medallists and in total about 50% of competitors. A record-breaking 5,000+ tests for performance enhancing drugs will be carried out over the events duration.

As part of its £20 million donation to the games, pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline equipped the lab. This is the first time that a pharmaceutical company has sponsored an Olympic anti-doping lab but the company insists that there is no conflict of interest. GSK Chief Executive Sir Andrew Witty explains “our involvement is the support and delivery of the facility; we have no role in the testing process."

The best experts and anti-doping scientists from all over the world will carry out the key lab-work at the facility, assisted by a number of volunteers. Intelligence, along with a routine testing and random selection, will be used to decipher what athletes are tested and when. The anti-doping officials will meet daily during the games to analyse the intelligence and decide where to focus their tests. Sources of information will include cleaners and venue staff who will be briefed on what to look out for and instructed to report on suspicious behaviour and materials. There have been several instances in past Olympics of cleaning staff coming across materials associated with doping.

Not only this, the 2012 Olympics in London will be the first summer games to use "biological passports". These detect doping by monitoring performer’s blood over a long period of time. The International Olympic Committee confirmed that some competitors in London will be using them. Changes in blood variables can be attributed to the intake of substances and may raise suspicion and the need for testing.

The team of doping experts and scientists will be led by Professor David Cowan from King's College London. He is confident the London Games will be as drug free as is possible and believes that athletes who use the courts to challenge the process of testing will be wasting their time. "We are going to be fast, sensitive and efficient, and we are going to be right."

In January Nasa discovered the first planet outside of our solar system that has a similar composition to that of Earth. Later in the year numerous exoplanets and a ‘Super-Earth’ with an average temperature of 22C, were discovered within the ‘Goldilocks zone’, making 2011 a fantastic year for astronomy.

In April Trekkies hopes were raised that they may someday be beamed up as researchers made advancements in teleportation. The breakthrough involved dispersing light and putting it back together elsewhere…in other words it’s not quite ready for humans just yet!

In July a man in Iceland was the first person to receive an organ grown entirely in a lab. His stem cells were used to produce a new windpipe which was then transplanted. The possibilities resulting from the success of this procedure are very exciting.

Some mind boggling statistics were announced in August as a survey revealed that the earth is home to about 8.7 million species. What’s even more amazing is that it is thought that 86% of life on land and 91% of sea life remain unidentified.

In October the world’s most celebrated innovator Steve Jobs dies at the age of 56. The breakthroughs he made in digital technology throughout his career have had a huge impact on the advancement of personal computers and how we live our lives.

CERN’s big announcement dominated scientific news as the year drew to a close. As the LHC produced results hinting at the existence of Higgs boson the world awaits 2012 and further news on the subject with baited breath!

Whilst recently we braced ourselves for “Hurricane Bawbag” (and amusing videos such as Trampoline Trampoline resulted), nature dealt a very different hand to Japan in March. Online video platforms have made footage from natural disasters more widespread and raw. People all around the globe watched the devastation unfold as amateur footage and news reports were posted every few seconds. This video of the tsunami hitting, destroying everything in its path, captured the fierce power of nature like we’d never seen it before and gave the world a shocking sense of the scale of this disaster. With over 20 million hits it is one of the most watched videos globally for the year.

For years mathematicians have struggled to effectively reproduce hyperbolic shapes to simply explain and visually demonstrate the fundamentals of the subject matter. Many believed it was impossible to model such structures materially. In1997 however, a Latvian math professor, Diana Taimina, had a crafty idea. She took two very separate interests of hers and combined them in an unlikely collaboration. Yes, Diana crocheted the first hyperbolic plane to illustrate her teachings to a class! The idea was inspired as it took a complex mathematical material and made it visual and accessible for a wider audience. By bringing crochet and knitting to the subject, she has made it easy and fun to construct hyperbolic surfaces that vividly illustrate these geometrically problematic shapes.

Since this first application in ‘97, the idea of knitting and crocheting scientific shapes has spread with some truly fantastic results. It was picked up by The Institute for Figuring and turned into the ecological project Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, which involved thousands of participants worldwide. Diana herself has gone on to knit a multitude of extraordinary shapes; many of which have been displayed in museums and even art galleries around the world. In 2009 she made her work even more accessible, reaching a wider audience, in a book entitled Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes.

This week Diana’s work has once again made headlines as the prestigious Euler Book Prize was awarded to Diana for her unusual publication. The Prize is intended to recognize authors of exceptionally well written books with a positive impact on the public's view of mathematics.The award acknowledges the fact that Diana’s novel approach to geometry has brought a whole new audience to mathematics. The governing body (The Mathematics Association of America) explains “It is perfectly capable of standing on its mathematical feet as a clear, rigorous, and beautifully illustrated introduction to hyperbolic geometry. It is truly a book where art, craft, science, and mathematics come together in perfect harmony.”

On the Yamal Peninsula of Russia a six-month old female woolly mammoth calf was discovered. Despite being over 10,000 years old the creature was remarkably well preserved. The animal's trunk and eyes were still intact and even some fur remained on the body. The carcass was carefully transported to Kinki University in Japan (the hub of research on the subject), where upon further examination the researchers confirmed that the calf’s thigh bone contains well-preserved marrow cells.

The next step is to attempt cloning. If they manage to extract an undamaged nucleus they will then attempt to insert it into an elephant’s egg.  The plan is for the elephant to act as surrogate and bring the mammoth to term. It sounds like the stuff of science fiction…and it may prove to be that (for now) considering that even procuring elephant ova is a challenge in itself and the cloning success rate for existing animals like sheep is still quite low. If the cloning and implantation of the embryo is a success, it must then gestate within the body of the elephant for more than one year; a feat which has obviously never been attempted before!

The message from all involved in the study is optimistic as they claim a woolly mammoth once again walking this earth is a realistic possibility within the next five years. Others in the scientific community remain sceptical. It’s a difficult process which will undoubtedly pose a range of new challenges. The scientists may now have their DNA specimen but it’s far from plain sailing!

Image by Mauricio Antón:  from C. Sedwick (1 April 2008). "What Killed the Woolly Mammoth?". PLoS Biology 6 (4): e99. DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060099.

A 60+ strong team from EISF (comprising of a production team of eight, four technical crew and around fifty other team leaders and other assistants) were involved in both the planning of the festival, and its delivery. They brought to Abu Dhabi tried and tested workshops from our Edinburgh line-up such as Dino Dig, Unwrapping the Mummy and Jungle Safari, to name but a few. Furthermore some 500 undergraduates were trained by members of our team to work at the festival as science communicators. Their transformation was a fantastic achievement as, as they grew in confidence their enthusiasm for the project flourished. In the build-up to opening day all were excited to see if our special fun approach to science would successfully translate to another culture. It did!

The festival’s main location, and hub of a lot of activity, was the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) which was opened by The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Saif bin Zayad, on Friday 18 November. Visits from numerous other Sheikhs and dignitaries were to follow. The sight of such prominent guests sparked a pride in all involved as it was evident the festival was highly regarded. Things were off to a flying start with the main venue reaching capacity within one hour of opening its doors! In the days that followed many of the shows were fully booked day and night with school groups, families and the public in general, eager to experience this exciting new event. Any fears that the events would not transfer were quickly dissolved.

By the end of the busy nine days the consensus from all was the whole undertaking was a ground-breaking accomplishment. People of all ages were intrigued and entertained by what they saw; embracing the idea that learning science can be fun. Edinburgh International Science Festival was responsible for all but one event in the festival; delivering 100% of the events and services we undertook to provide. With credits such as these we feel our pride in the overall success of the festival is merited and a fantastic testament to the ability and professionalism of our organisation. The success of Abu Dhabi has proven that Edinburgh International Science Festival can travel…you could say we’re even more international now!

It has been long established that each family of killer whale has its own dialect. Many of their sophisticated communications have already been studied and categorised. Recent research however has shown that pilot whales also produce similar calls of complicated combinations of pulsed and tonal components. Their sounds have been harder to acquire and study, partly because they are less likely than their killer whale relations to inhabit the seas close to land. Now a team of scientific organisations, which includes The Sea and Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews, have collaborated on this exciting challenge and collated pilot whale sounds from around the world. The next task is to categorise them, to potentially decipher meaning and expand our understanding of these creatures and ensure their protection.

A website, Whale.fm, has been set up which invites the masses to become ‘citizen scientists’ and help sort the sounds. Using sound bites of both, killer and pilot whale calls, people are asked to listen and pair the noises they find most similar. The increasing size of the sound database and the large variation make it difficult for scientists alone to effectively categorise the material. A single person would take months to go through the data, and the results would be limited by the persons’ individual interpretation – hence the call for the masses to help solve the puzzle! You can assist determine how the dialects are grouped. Every time you pair calls together you’re casting your vote for those two calls to be considered ‘similar. Through this process patterns will emerge and dialect groupings can be established.

At Edinburgh International Science Festival we love to see the Scottish public getting actively involved with science. WhaleFM invites you to play a crucial part of this very worthwhile study. What’s more listening to the whale sounds is interesting and the puzzle-like challenge of pairing them – fun! Lend science your ears and show your support for this fascinating study. 

Photo courtesy of www.geekphilosopher.com

Along with the public, the media have taken a large interest in the work going on in the festival. Last night, we were visited by Abu Dhabi TV which visited many of the events and interviewed science communicators, along with Team Leaders from Edinburgh International Science Festival.

Print press have also been chatting about the Festival, especially after the opening days’ events: ADNEC played host to VIP visitors and the seaside area of the Cornichem where Yves ‘Jetman’ Rossy made a dramatic entrance by soaring over the crowds strapped to a jetpack.

The ADNEC area was officially opened by Lt General Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, and has since welcomed many important local figures, including children of prominent Sheikhs. Although all visitors to the Festival are welcomed warmly, the sight of such prominent guests has sparked a pride in many of the communicators: this is a festival being taken seriously by the UAE and the start of something big.

Read more about it!

http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/science/who-needs-superman-when-there-is-jetman

http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/education/hands-on-experience-for-junior-scientists

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/b994fb10-baa9-4d97-9a16-8e65db14b2eb.aspx

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle11.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2011/November/theuae_November553.xml§ion=theuae

The festival’s main location, and hub of a lot of activity, is the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Saif bin Zayad, opened the Festival on Friday and proceeded to tour several of the workshops with his two children. The festival is proving popular as figures show over 5200 people visited the ADNEC on the opening day alone! People of all ages are intrigued and entertained by what is on offer and classes from schools across the Emirate are flocking to city on tours, embracing the idea that learning science can be fun.

At Edinburgh International Science Festival we’re proud to say we had a sizable part to play in getting this new festival up and running. Many of the workshops have been adapted from those which we developed. Furthermore over 500 people in Abu Dhabi have undergone training with our team to become competent science communicators, delivering a range of shows and demonstrations brought to the UAE from Edinburgh.

A few days in and the festival seems to be achieving its goal; from building Lego robots to unwrapping Egyptian mummies, Abu Dhabi Science Festival is entertaining and educating the public about science in a whole new way!

Over the past two days, over 500 new science communicators have been trained to deliver a range of shows brought especially to the UAE. From dinosaurs to DNA, a pristine batch of students from around Abu Dhabi will be entertaining and educating local young people about scientific topics in a whole new way.

Many of the shows have been adapted from those developed at Edinburgh’s Science Festival, which has also provided the team leaders who’ll be supporting the new communicators in their role. The team leaders are all science communicators in the UK, many are regulars at the festival, and all are itchy with anticipation about tomorrow’s grand opening.

Edinburgh’s reputation for a stirring festival has fitted neatly with the dramatic Abu Dhabi vision, and the team leaders have relished sharing their passion for the role with their new peers. They’ve been building on an intensive workshop provided by Tom ‘Dr Bunhead’ Pringle, who flew out from Scotland last month with a group of experienced trainers, giving the students a solid grounding in communicating difficult topics.

Tomorrow, all the hard work will come to bloom. Classes from around the Emirate will be treated to trips to the festival, while the evenings and weekend will be filled with members of the public who want to give their families an outing with a difference. 60,000 visitors are expected to visit over the next nine days (and no, that isn’t an accidental extra zero). And Edinburgh’s science communicators? They’re waiting for that snip of a ribbon from a member of the Royal Family and a chance to see a wee piece of Auld Reekie in the Middle East.

If you’re a pupil whose scientific curiosity we ignited, we’d love to hear how. If you’re a teacher who finds (or found) our workshops helpful, do let us know. If you’re a science communicator who has a favourite memory from a tour, we want to hear about it. Whatever your experience of Generation Science, join in our celebration of a great Scottish programme by sharing it! We’ll publish some of our favourite responses on our website. Email Joan at generationscience@scifest.co.uk

Generation Science tours schools of Scotland annually from January to May on a mission to inspire, encourage and challenge primary aged children to explore and understand the world in which we live. We strive to do this in an innovative, fun way, and through our research and feedback received we believe we have been successful in this goal. The shows and workshops are designed to complement the schools science curriculum through educational entertaining performances and hands-on activities. This year’s workshops include Power from the People, Fizz Fizz Boom Boom, Little Giants and Body Builders to name but a few. To find out more about Generation Science and what we offer check out our website.

We’re also planning a party in 2012 to celebrate so watch this space for more information.

Speed of Light is a national programme which combines physical and cultural activity in an innovative and exciting way. The programme will culminate with a unique series of night runs on Arthurs Seat next August and one of Scotland’s official contributions to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. From the 9 August - 1 September, Edinburgh’s largest hill, Arthurs Seat, will be transformed by trails of light. An audience will witness this extraordinary physical artistic display, but more importantly, people are also invited to experience this event by actively being a part of it.

The illumination of the hill will be a performative event; carried out by participating members of the public. Participants will wear specially designed energy harvesting light suits, which will animate the hillside with trails of patterned light. Runners will become part of the visual spectacle, through their movement, as they ascend and descend the summit.

Whether this event intrigues you as a work of public art, an innovative science experiment, or a unique fun run, The NVA Speed of Light is an extraordinary undertaking with mass appeal.  Places are on a first come first, serve basis, so if it sounds like something you would like to be a part of, register early as a runner to ensure you don’t miss out. Visit www.speedoflight2012.org for more information and to register.

Edinburgh International Science Festival is delighted to be partnering with NVA on this unique and exciting project. Our specially developed workshop exploring the technology behind the light suits will be touring schools across Scotland from Jan – May. Find out more here

Some twenty events from Edinburgh International Science Festival will feature in the Abu Dhabi Festival and more than forty trained science communicators will travel to Abu Dhabi to lead and work alongside local undergraduates.

The nine-day Festival aims to spark the curiosity of the Emirate’s youth in science, technology and innovation (STI) and will encompass over 150 of the world’s most exciting informal science learning experiences, including interactive exhibits, fun workshops and spectacular shows.

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs said: “Scotland is one of the world's most creative and innovative nations. The Edinburgh International Science Festival is world renowned for bringing the subject alive, inspiring future generations. This fantastic collaboration, mutually beneficial for both festivals, will raise Scotland’s profile internationally and showcase our creativity in the Emirates.”

The Abu Dhabi Science Festival will run from Friday 18 to Saturday 26 November 2011.

Read our press release here

www.abudhabisciencefestival.ae

The 2012 programme sees the return of some of Generation Science’s most popular shows like Little Giants, Fizz, Boom, Bang and Wonderful World of Water as well as some exciting new additions. We’ve teamed up with NVA to present Power from the People – a brand new workshop about generating green electricity to tie in with their Speed of Light project as part of Edinburgh International Festival in 2012.
 
We’ll also be giving pupils the opportunity to get up close to some real life animals in Rainforest Rangers and we’ll be exploring some seriously exciting robotic technologies in our new body workshop Make a Move.
 
All Generation Science shows are developed to fit in with Curriculum for Excellence and constantly receive great feedback. All shows and workshops are available to visit your school from January – May 2012. Visit the Education section of our website to find out more and download the brochure.

Got a fascinating concept to communicate and an exciting way of doing it? Why not submit your idea for consideration as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival programme in 2012. 

2012 will see the Festival deliver a more vibrant and varied adult programme than ever before so we're seeking events that use innovative approaches to bringing science and scientists out of the lab.

We'd love to hear your ideas for inspiring presentations, fascinating conversations, thought-provoking discussions and interactive events that bring scientists together with other relevant voices – think philosophers, authors, artists, performers – and mix them up to create all sorts of new and unexpected experiences.

Find out more about how to apply here.

Led by our experinced science communicators, Science Summer School is a chance to get really involved with hands-on workshops, experiments and mind-blowing demonstrations. Each day focuses on a different aspect of science and technology, including light and sound, chemistry, electricity and space.

Find out more about our Science Summer School here

Stem cell biology has fundamentally changed our understanding of how the human body works. Its experiments have been the subject of fascination for scientists, writers and artists and the breakthroughs it has made have transformed lives.

The film charts the history of this fascinating research - from the discovery of stem cells in the body to the leading current clinical and scientific developments. It is the result of a genuinely creative collaboration between scientists and film makers, featuring eminent figures in stem cell research, novelist Margaret Atwood and beautiful hand-drawn animation.

Suitable for ages 16+, screenings of the film and Q&A sessions will take place in cities across the country throughout summer 2011. The Edinburgh screening takes place at Teviot Row House, University of Edinburgh on Monday 30 May at 7pm and includes a Q&A with Sir Ian Wilmut, the university's Professor of Reproductive Biology.

Visit the website for more information, details of UK screenings and to register for this event.

Each year, over 100 women are put forward to receive the award, which is now in its sixth year. Seven winners have been selected for 2011. These women showcase the achievement and leadership of women working in Science, Engineering and Technology, increase the visibility of women as inspirational role models and encourage others to acknowlede and celebrate the achievements of women in this field.

The 2011 winners are as follows:

For Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Academia and Research):
Professor Eileen Ingham BSc, PhD

For Innovation and Entrepreneurship, (Business and Industry):
Cary Marsh BEng (Hons)

For Inspiration and Leadership (Academia and Research):
Professor Dame Ann Dowling DBE, FRS, FREng

For Inspiration and Leadership (Business and Industry):
Dervilla Mitchell BE, FREng, FIEI, CEng, MICE

For Communicating SET to Society:
Kate Bellingham BA, MSc, MIET, DTech

Tomorrow's Leader:
Eur Ing Dr Phebe Mann MA (Cantab), MSc, PhD, CEng, MICE, MRICS, MCIOB, MCIArb, FHEA, FSA

Lifetime Achievement:
Professor Dame Athene Donald DBE, FRS

The portraits of this year's winners are available on a gallery on guardian.co.uk.