TAKE a bottomless beaker of imagination and funnel in some of science’s biggest names. Spend various centuries cultivating a city at the forefront of research, then add to your Petri dish a dynamic programme comprising over 140 events. Next, grab your safety goggles and throw in unlimited oodles of fun. Oh, and ensure your laboratory is in a European City of Science, preferably an industrial trendsetter.
You’ll find a menu as inclusive and eclectic as science itself
There you have the complex MSF formula which over the next ten days will be dished out across 40 venues citywide. Judging from our sneak peek at three festival highlights, it’s set to be a creative combustion of epic proportions. Best keep those safety goggles handy...
First up, a myth buster. Think science and art are incompatible? MSF would disagree and, with a timetable that harmoniously blends both, they’re out to prove it. Arguably the flagship of the science-art theme this year is Tania Kovats’ sculptural seascape. Evaporation’s watery mainstay is three large-scale metal bowls representing the world’s oceans lifted from the globe, through which she explores their immense power alongside issues such as climate change and human debris.
All The SeasMeanwhile, All the Seas does what it says on the tin, bringing together all the earth’s watery outlets as one. It’s still 31 short, however, so if you happen to visit one of those (impossibly accessible) still missing, send in a sample. Once complete, MOSI are planning to enter the ambitious collection into the Guinness World Book of Records.
Craving more? Food is another key strand, headed by Cravings. From taste to waist, brain to second brain, this gutsy exhibition is packed full of tasty informative morsels. Can the colour of cutlery influence taste? Can NASA develop nutritional space fodder? Are squares spicier than circles? Find the answers to these and lots more beguiling questions, including controversial topics like addiction. Does it truly exist? Some scientists say yes, others no. Speaking of which, there’s even a paintbrush-brandishing, potato-peeling Oxfordian analyst creating Kandinsky salads... we’ll leave it there.
Cravings - that's a gut by the waySalad art aside, what festival would be complete without a load of balls; 81,000 of them in fact. Perhaps MSF’s most anticipated event of all is the adult-only Jump In! ball pool (main image). If you’ve ever sat staring longingly at hordes of children monkeying around in the children’s versions, now’s your chance to get revenge. Jump, throw, leapfrog, whatever your inner child dictates, and indulge in the good old-fashioned power of play.
So we’ve given you a taster: now it’s time to let loose your inner Einstein and tuck into an explosive main of talks, demos, film, tours, conversations and expositions. From Dawkins to drones and Cox to coding, you’ll find a menu as inclusive and eclectic as science itself. See our juiciest MSF picks here.
