Blood and guts are on the menu at the Edinburgh International Science Festival in April. The annual festival of popular science, which aims to educate through hands-on activities and topical talks, has a new floor at one of its main venues, the City Art Centre, devoted to the human body.
It includes an ER where children will scrub up as doctors and nurses and a Blood Bar where they can make their own scabs, mix up a gooey blood milkshake and "even touch a real heart". The debate may continue to rage about stem cell research, but back in the lab at the City Art Centre kids will be learning about building healthy stem cells, making test-tube babies and examining their DNA, and steps to creating a new virus.
Adults aren't being forgotten about in the gore stakes (or perhaps that should be steaks). For over sixteens, there will be a two-hour autopsy of a cow at Edinburgh Zoo on 13 April.
This year’s programme of over 200 events encompasses comedy, science related film at The Filmhouse, music and drama, as well as experiments, activities, workshops, exhibitions and talks.
You can hear how mathematics can be applied to predict the future, watch robots play football, or have a chuckle at the psychology of comedy.
There's also a new video games workshop for teenagers and Selex Galileo's Rampaging Chariots event comes to the City Art Centre.
Richard Dawkins brings his particular brand of controversy to town with a talk about Darwin and natural selection, in an expanded series of talks and discussions, entitled "Big Ideas."
Among other guest speakers there's consultant Professor James Ironside asking what should happen to our brains after we die and Mark Lewney on the physics of rock guitar.
Meanwhile, psychiatrist Raj Persaud invites Graham Farmelo, biographer of Paul Dirac (the British physicist and founder of quantum physics) into the Psychiatrist’s Chair.
“This is a show stopping line up," said Simon Gage, director of the Edinburgh International Science Festival.
"Whether it’s watching a cow autopsy, climbing into a giant artery, laughing at a night of stand-up after analysing cocktails, this festival lets you rip the white coat off science to reveal the bizarre, the intriguing and the occasionally mind blowing.”
Minister for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop said: “As Europe’s largest public celebration of science and technology, the Edinburgh International Science Festival is a wonderful testament to Scotland’s great history of invention and innovation. The Expo funding of just over £50k 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.”
The Scottish Government’s funding has enabled Wee Wonder World at the City Art Centre and a new experience, Sonic Dreams, which features "a super-realistic 3D sound system called the iXDLab" in St Andrew Square.
The Festival takes place from 3rd to 17th April in 30 venues around the city including the Jam House, Festival Theatre, Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh Filmhouse and the Scotch Whisky Experience.The City Art Centre plays host to much of the Family Programme, together with Discover Science at the National Museum of Scotland, the Botanics, Edinburgh Zoo, Scottish Seabird Centre and Dynamic Earth.