Science and art are mixing this week as IF Oxford, the city’s science and ideas Festival, continues this month (October 6-30) with a range of events inspired by facets of time and space. read about it here
1) CRAFT A VACCINE – Have a go yourself at creating a vaccine to combat disease at the Tech Works Family Day on Saturday 15 October. Try your hand at surgery, create a star in a jar and have a go at the virtual reality robotic arms used in the real star machines. Tech Works: Saturday 15 October, 11am – 5pm, Oxford Works, ARC Oxford (formerly Oxford Business Park), Cascade Way, OX4 2SU https://if-oxford.com/event/tech-works/
2) CHILDREN’S SPACE TRAVEL – Navigate through the cosmos using an app with illustrations by acclaimed children’s author-illustrator Oliver Jeffers as you are immersed in a scale model of our solar system, armed with a virtual suitcase that includes everything space visitors need for their journey through time and space and collect space souvenirs along the way. Tech Works: Saturday 15 October, 11am – 5pm, Oxford Works, ARC Oxford (formerly Oxford Business Park), Cascade Way, OX4 2SU. https://if-oxford.com/event/tech-works/
3) NERD COMEDY for teenagers and adults – American comedian Mike Capozzola’s live, multimedia ‘nerd-comedy’ show Self-defence for Time Travellers comes to Oxford Playhouse with IF Oxford. Highlighting the unexpected consequences of irresponsible time-travel, Capozzola has come up with inventive and hilarious ways to outsmart historical adversaries from velociraptors to Victorians. Oxford Playhouse, Fri 21 October, 5–6pm Tickets £5 https://if-oxford.com/event/self-defence-for-time-travellers/
4) SLEEP PROBLEMS – Appraise your daily routines from the perspective of the brain with Russell Foster, Professor of Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, in the Wig & Pen pub on George Street. Presenting his new book Life Time, he explains why teenagers aren’t lazy, why business executives get up at 4am and how artificial light, jet lag, night shifts, air pollution, and out-of-sync work and meal routines are conspiring to ruin our sleep patterns. Wig & Pen, 21 October, 6pm – 7pm https://if-oxford.com/event/using-body-clock-science-to-improve-your-health/
5) Human Flourishing. Kathy Sykes, presenter of BBC hit Rough Science and Andrew Briggs, Oxford University Professor of Nanomaterials and author of Human Flourishing question the role of technology and the nature of truth in our world answering questions such as Why are we here? and What makes for a good life? University Church of St Mary the Virgin, High Street, Oxford, OX1 4BJ; 22 Oct 7.30pm https://if-oxford.com/event/human-flourishing/
6) BIO-ART Internationally renowned bio-artist Anna Dumitriuat brings Collateral Effects to The North Wall – made in collaboration with researchers and scientists to explore the collateral effects of the pandemic on science and society. The exhibition includes lines of miniature hospital beds that both evoke the Nightingale hospitals, focuses on the increase in domestic violence, while digital artwork ‘Susceptible’ represents tuberculosis (TB) bacteria growing in the presence of different antibiotics. Collateral Effects: North Wall until Sat 29 October https://if-oxford.com/event/collateral-effects-2/
7) MEET THE RESEARCHERS – On Saturday 15 October, meet some of those whose work around infectious diseases and climate change and chat to them about how they have navigated the pandemic and the unexpected impacts it has had on their research.
Collateral effects of the pandemic – meet the researchers: North Wall, Saturday 15 October, 2 – 4pm. https://if-oxford.com/event/collateral-effects-of-the-pandemic-meet-the-researchers/
To find out more information on these events, book or see the whole festival programme, visit www.if‑oxford.com. The majority of festival events are free to enter. (Donations will be requested using a Pay What You Decide model).
