Cow post-mortem beefs up science festival programme

Published on Tuesday 16 February 2010 09:03

AN AUTOPSY on a cow, the search for artificial blood and a chance to learn about the creation of computer games are among the highlight's of this year's Edinburgh International Science Festival.

The programme for this year's festival, launched today, also revealed that visitors would be able to investigate human, animal and machine intelligence, find out whether faulty equations caused the economic meltdown, and discover how robots play football.

The festival will once again bring the very best of popular science to the Capital, with an impressive line-up of entertaining scientists and thinkers.

One event likely to raise a few eyebrows is a planned autopsy on a cow, set to be carried out at Edinburgh Zoo by their specialist veterinary team.

The event will help people to learn more about the animal, which has four stomachs, intestines that are more than 20 times its length and a tongue that can weigh up to three pounds.

Organisers were tight-lipped on where the cow was coming from, but said it had been donated.

The zoo is again hosting a sleepover, for crowds to learn more about the nocturnal habits of their animals, and chief executive David Windmill said: "We look forward to welcoming visitors to our exciting programme of events happening at Edinburgh Zoo, including our popular children's sleepover and a cow post-mortem."

This year's programme includes more than 200 events encompassing comedy, film, music and drama, as well as experiments, activities, workshops, exhibitions and talks.

The City Arts Centre will host a new floor about the human body, which will include a brand new ER where children can scrub up as doctors and nurses, a Blood Bar where they can make their own scabs and touch a real heart, and an area called 'What are Scientists Made Of', where they can build their very own virus.

Other events include a new Video Games Workshop for teenagers to learn about the technology that goes into creating some of the biggest-selling games in the world, a chance to join the search to make artificial blood, and a closer look at Bloodhound, the British attempt to keep the land-speed record.

Among the debates and lectures in the Big Ideas strand are Richard Dawkins discussing Darwin and natural selection, consultant psychiatrist Raj Persaud inviting Graham Farmelo, biographer of Paul Dirac – the British physicist and founder of quantum physics – into the Psychiatrist's Chair, Professor James Ironside asking what should happen to our brains after we die and Mark Lewney explaining the physics of rock guitars.

Simon Gage, director of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, said: "This is a show-stopping line-up, a festival programme to match the very best science festivals in the world."

The festival will be held over 30 venues around the city, including the Jam House, Festival Theatre, Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh Filmhouse and the Scotch Whisky Experience, the National Museum of Scotland, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, the Scottish Seabird Centre and Dynamic Earth.

Minister for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, said: "The Expo funding of just over 50,000 will help the festival to continue to inspire us all and nurture future talent, maintaining our enviable position as one of the most creative and innovative nations."

This year's Edinburgh International Science Festival will run from 3 to 17 April.