Edinburgh International Science Festival 2012
Date: 30 March – 15 April
Venue: Edinburgh, various
Communicating the excitement and benefits of science.
Mini scientists
Step into the Medical Research Council lab, and put on a white coat and safety specs to try our activities. You can build your own healthy cell, make a test-tube baby and examine its DNA, create a virus and figure out what disease it causes, help to send signals between cells – or even make a DNA bracelet to match your eye and hair colour. You’ll get to meet some real-life medical research scientists too! Age 7+
Mysteries of the Human Genome, Sunday 1 April
Dr Colin Semple, Head of Bioinformatics at the Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit, knows that your genome is an amazing thing. It directed your journey from a fertilised egg to the person you are now, and our growing understanding of it promises to revolutionise our view of what it is to be human. Join him as he reveals why.
The other side of sex, Wednesday 4 April
We’ve all heard the saying, ‘men are from Mars and women are from Venus’, but are we truly worlds apart? And, perhaps more intriguingly, what part might testosterone have played in the global financial crisis? Chaired by Professor Alan McNeilly, internationally renowned neuroscientist Professor Joe Herbert and MRC Centre for Reproductive Health Director Professor Philippa Saunders.
Pregnant in the wrong place? Friday 6 April
Join Dr Colin Duncan and Dr Andrew Horne from the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health to hear about the progress being made in diagnosing, understanding and treating an ectopic pregnancy.
For more information visit: http://www.sciencefestival.co.uk