SCIENCE FESTIVAL

OUR BUILT ENVIRONMENT SPECIAL EVENT
GREENING THE CITY
Are cities and the countryside
distinct environments, or can we
bring the two together? With a
proposal to create a ‘Leaf Walk’
bio-bridge in Edinburgh, we
explore urban planning, green
innovation and its links with public
health. In this event we will bring
together Melissa Sterry, scientist
and futurist; Pierre Forissier,
director at Biomorphis, the
practice designing the Leaf Walk
bridge; and Prof Richard Mitchell,
Professor of Public Health. You
will also get the chance to exercise
your green fingers.
5.30pm | 90 mins
£8.50/£6.50/#SciPals students £4.25
Summerhall | Dissection Room
Our Built Environment events are supported
by Scotland’s Year of Innovation, Architecture
and Design
READING EXPERIMENT SCIENCE AND CULTURE DISCUSSION
A IS FOR ARSENIC
Agatha Christie, The Queen
of Crime, is renowned for the
use of poisons in her plots. A
staggering variety of compounds
were employed to bump off
her characters during her long
writing career and her scientific
accuracy is impressive. Kathryn
Harkup, author of A is for Arsenic,
explores the science behind the
poisons Christie used and how she
sometimes used the symptoms
of poisons to give clues to her
famous sleuths. Expect cunning
clues, red herrings and magnificent
moustaches.
5.30pm | 90 mins
£8.50/£6.50/#SciPals students £4.25
Summerhall | Main Hall
In association with Bloomsbury Publishing
DISCUSSION
THE SCIENCE OF
PANDA BREEDING
Pandas are threatened by
extinction in their native region of
China so it’s ever more important
that captive breeding programmes
exist. RZSS Edinburgh Zoo has
the UK’s only giant pandas, Tian
Tian and Yang Guang, but to date
a panda cub has remained elusive.
Join Director of Giant Pandas
Iain Valentine, alongside RZSS
Edinburgh Zoo’s in-house expert
panda keepers, vets and external
partners for a discussion on the
science behind panda breeding.
6.30pm | 2 hours
£8/£6 RZSS members | RZSS Edinburgh Zoo
Budongo Trail
Presented by RZSS Edinburgh Zoo
The Banshee Labyrinth 7.30pm AT THE FRINGE OF REASON: SKEPTICS IN THE PUB See page 39
ADULT EVENTS
OUR BUILT ENVIRONMENT
From the first forest shelters to the Sagrada
Familia, humanity has shaped its own
environment to an extraordinary degree. The
spaces we inhabit have a direct impact on
how we feel, think, and behave and, as part
of Science Festival 2016, we’ll be asking how
science, technology, architecture and design
can impact on our homes and cities to help us
to live well through a special series of events
focusing on Our Built Environment.
Look out for events tagged with Our Built
Environment throughout the brochure and on our
website: sciencefestival.co.uk.
In Scotland’s Year of Innovation, Architecture
and Design, we’re looking at eco-friendly
portable living spaces in our Tiny Homes
Village (p.49), creating a platform for
discussion around what turns a simple roof
over our heads into somewhere we are happy
to call home. Explore the exhibition on The
Mound Precinct or join in the debate at Tiny
Home Sweet Home (p.48).
Stepping up in scale, we’ll conduct a site
survey of Planet Earth, looking at everything
from how we can interact with our cities
through play (p.37) to debating the how and
why of zero carbon buildings (p.38). We’ll be
asking if cities and the countryside are really
two distinct environments in Greening the City
(p.41) and bringing the built environment and
human happiness together in Healthy, Happy
Cities (p.54).
Our Built Environment
is supported by:
ONLINE BOOKING: sciencefestival.co.uk BOOKING HOTLINE: 0844 557 2686 41