Science Week:Science Week 2007 is up and running with events for children and adults that will entertain and also inform. More than 400 talks, shows, exhibitions and lectures are planned for the week which started yesterday and runs through next weekend.
Now in its 11th year, Science Week each day offers a varied mix of events for all ages and interests. These take place right across the country with many focused on the local university or institute of technology, libraries and schools. Many companies are also involved, offering guided tours of high-technology manufacturing centres.
The week is organised and planned by the Government's Discover Science and Engineering programme (DSE). Most of the events are free and open to the public, but space is limited at many of the venues and so booking is often necessary. Contact numbers and details of what's on through the week are available at a dedicated website: www.scienceweek.ie
As usual there is an interesting line-up of lectures, including four staged in association with the Royal Irish Academy and Women in Technology and Science (Wits). These reflect the theme selected for the 2007 Week, "Surrounded by Science".
There is a lecture tomorrow at the academy on the science behind the making of a football boot. Other lectures in the series include talks on space travel, delivered appropriately enough by a Nasa astronaut, the science involved in developing beauty products and a lecture on forensic science, the reality behind CSI.
The aim of the week and the DSE programme is to help promote science amongst children but also the general public, looking at science as an interesting subject but also recognising its importance to society as a whole.
The powerful focus on children also means there are lots of science shows planned for the week where the audience is encouraged to participate in entertaining but very real lab experiments that usually pop, bang or fizz.
The Science Week line-up is expected to attract more than 90,000, making it the largest single public understanding of science event in the State. Visit www.scienceweek.ie to locate something near you.