| Tuesday 7 September |
| 10:00:00 am 11:00:00 am | Pickaquoy Centre, Kirkwall |
| THE SCIENCE OF THE TOYS OF THAILAND |
Khun Thanakorn Palachai of Thailand's National Science Museum brings out some traditional toys from Thailand, and demonstrates the science behind them – and provides an opportunity for you to play with some of them yourself!
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| 11:30:00 am 12:30:00 pm | Pickaquoy Centre, Kirkwall |
| A TRUE MASTER |
D’Arcy Thompson, born 150 years ago, was one of the greatest biologists of his generation, expert also in classics and mathematics. His pioneering book, On Growth and Form, reveals the mathematical patterns underlying the growth of a seashell or a sunflower head; it greatly influenced Robert Rendall. A later holder of the same chair of natural history at St Andrews University, Prof. Peter Slater, tells the story of the man, and Howie Firth expands on the added significance of the mathematics today.
Sponsored by Crantit Dairy
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| 1:00:00 pm 1:05:00 pm | Peedie Kirk, Kirkwall |
| The One O'Clock Toast |
Today's toast, to the poet and shell expert Robert Rendall, is given by Dr Simon W. Hall, author of The History of Orkney Literature. Lunches with soup and Orkney fare are served in the Peedie Kirk from 12.30 pm.
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| 2:00:00 pm 3:00:00 pm | Pickaquoy Centre, Kirkwall |
| THE SCIENCE OF COINCIDENCE |
In 1930 a longlasting collaboration began between two of the greatest thinkers of the time. One was the physicist Wolfgang Pauli, one of the founders of quantum theory. The other was the psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung. Jung analysed Pauli’s dreams and Pauli contributed to Jung’s concept of synchronicity – how events sometimes seem to coincide. Marita Lück tells how two men from very different backgrounds came together to explore unknown territory.
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| 3:30:00 pm 4:30:00 pm | Pickaquoy Centre, Kirkwall |
| TIME AS A RIVER, OR TIME AS A SEA? |
Is time like a river, flowing from the past? One idea in quantum theory is that it may also flow from the future; another that it is a sea, with two dimensions, part of a six-dimensional universe. Howie Firth introduces some of the new ideas now being developed about time, their links to the nature of light and the role of order, and how they may open the way to a bigger picture uniting quantum theory and relativity.
Sponsored by the Institute of Physics
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| 5:15:00 pm 6:15:00 pm | King Street Hall, Kirkwall |
| PROBING THE DARK SIDE OF EINSTEIN’S UNIVERSE |
Gravitational waves, the ripples in spacetime predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, are produced by some of the most violent and energetic phenomena in the universe, including black holes, neutron stars and supernovae. Dr Martin Hendry of Glasgow University introduces the new field of gravitational astronomy and explains what discovery of gravitational waves could mean for attempts to understand the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.
Sponsored by The Royal Society of Edinburgh
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| 7:30:00 pm 8:30:00 pm | King Street Hall, Kirkwall |
| WILLOW WOOD, WASTE, AND WARMTH IN WINTER |
They grow quickly, can be cut regularly, and can clean effluent – and in Northern Ireland they’re heating colleges, swimming pools and council offices. Dr Alistair McCracken of the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute in Belfast describes a new source of farm income and environmental benefit. There’s time afterwards, over some Orkney grain supper snacks, to find out more about opportunities.
Sponsored by UHI HI Links, a free service helping businesses and organisations in the Highlands and
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| 9:00:00 pm 10:00:00 pm | King Street Hall, Kirkwall |
| CORNCRAKES AND BUMBLEBEES |
Have you heard a corncrake this year? Or seen a Great Yellow Bumblebee? Andy Knight, the RSPB’s Reserves Manager in Orkney, describes how the farmed environment is helping to sustain the future of these native birds and bees.
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