Britain's biggest science festival comes to Dublin next year and its organisers want you to help set the programme. Dick Ahlstrom reports.
A travelling circus of sorts comes to Dublin next year, not the kind with tigers and bears, but certainly one that will offer clowns and high-wire acts. The main difference is this circus is all about science and research.
Dublin plays host in 2005 to the British Association for the Advancement of Science's annual Festival of Science. Normally staged on UK university campuses, the 2003 event was at the University of Salford and this year the University of Exeter is host. Next year's event comes to Trinity College Dublin.
"In September 2005 the Festival visits Dublin for the first time since 1957 and the organisers want to make sure that the science that is included in the programme is the science that interests the people of Ireland," says Annette Smith, science events manager with the BA.
"When the BA says 'science' it means not only physics, chemistry and biology, but also engineering, maths and the social sciences, so sociology, psychology and economics will also be in the mix," she adds.
The festival is the BA's showcase event and has existed in various guises since the BA was founded in 1831. Its main mission is to communicate scientific ideas to the public and help people better understand the technologies that affect their lives.
In recent years it has taken the form of a five-day event during which typically 350 practising scientists covering the pure and social sciences appear in public to explain their work and answer questions from the visiting public.
Most of the researchers will participate in scientific "events" where three or four speakers working in related areas will each talk about their research. The public attends these events and questions the researchers afterwards.
There are events all through the day and often into the evening and the organisers also lay on many popular events including talks by "celebrity" scientists, bar-room style discussions in the "Festival X-change" and family programmes.
In parallel to the adult events, the BA organises large hands-on science discovery programmes for 8- 13-year-olds and their teachers. Older groups of students have their own events and can also join in the main programme.
The annual festival typically attracts between 3,000 and 4,000 adults, about 1,000 teenagers and 3,500 younger children, Smith says. It is about fun, information, interaction and engagement, with the public getting a chance to get an up close and personal view of science.
For this reason the BA is asking for the Irish public's views on what to include in the 2005 festival. "To help in the planning, we'd like to hear from you," says Smith. "What are the issues in science - and that includes engineering, technology, maths, sociology and psychology as well as the traditional sciences and medicine - that you'd like to see at the festival?"
It might be a discussion about the future of agriculture, the impact of information technology on privacy, the latest cancer research or the genetics of racehorses, she says. "Let us know what you'd like to see and we'll publish the most fascinating responses. The best will win a week's pass to the festival," she adds. "The sooner we get responses the better and we can select and report on them on our website."
Send ideas to the organisers at BAFOS2005@the-ba.net or write to: BA Festival of Science, Dublin 2005, Science Events Manager, The BA, Wellcome Wolfson Building, 165 Queen's Gate, London SW7 5HE, England