Family science fun this weekend

Over 80 family friendly events will be spread throughout the city as the Science Festival takes a journey through the ‘Centuries of Science’, celebrating the achievements of Cambridge University and science over the last 800 years.

The Science Festival will be opened by TV personality Jem Stansfield and the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Alison Richard, at 10am in the courtyard of the Downing Site. Jem Stansfield, eco-engineer and inventor, will also tell tales of his time on the National Geographic programme 'Planet Mechanics' in a special lecture on the day.

Among the highlights this year is the author Lucy Hawking, daughter of Professor Stephen Hawking, who will take the audience on an adventure through the galaxy with her creation George the cosmic explorer and his friends. Lucy will read extracts from her books and will be available to sign copies of her latest after the lecture.

Science Festival Patron Carol Vorderman will introduce Chris Bishop, Chief Research Scientist at Microsoft Research, whose lecture will take a peek at computers of the future.

Among the many hands-on activities will be ‘Crash, Bang, Squelch’, run by students at the University will feature exciting, fascinating or just plain weird experiments about how the world around us works.

Other free activities through the day include making ice cream, creating an alien and finding out how to make green slime. The secrets of the Corpus Christi Chronophage clock, which you may have seen on the corner of Trumpington Street and Bene’t Street, will also be revealed by its creator Dr John Taylor.

Saturday also features the Science Festival’s very first concert. Musicians from the Intercontinental Music Lab will unleash scientists from the past singing about their discoveries and passion for science. The interactive concert will feature live demonstrations, plenty of audience participation and a few surprises along the way!

Nicky Buckley, co-ordinator of the science festival, said: “Science on Saturday is a very exciting day, with thousands of members of the public entering University departments, museums and numerous other locations across the city to discover more about centuries of science.

“It's very rewarding seeing many months of hard work by event co-ordinators across the University and partner organisations come to fruition. I'd like to thank hundreds of my colleagues across the University who put so much voluntary time into making the Science Festival so popular."

For details of all the events running through the festival visit www.cambridge science.org or to request a brochure call 01223 766 766 or email csf@admin.cam.ac.uk.

The Cambridge Science Festival’s sponsors include the Wellcome Trust, Cambridge University Press, Microsoft Research and the Medical Research Council.