To our great disappointment, we have been informed that two science festivals in Scotland will not be going ahead this year, citing the ‘unfavourable economic climate’ and the subequent effect on sponsorship.
The first of these is the Carnegie Festival, expected in Dunfermline in September. The inaugural festival was held in September 2008 to a great reception, and all parties were eagerly anticipating the return of the festival in 2009, however this has proved to be financially inviable. There are however high hopes for a return of the festival in 2010

The second festival to be hit is the Highland Science Festival, which will no longer continue. Although there has been interest from businesses to sponsor this festival, without the reliable source of core funding from public sources, the decision was taken to end the run of the Highland Science Festival.

These cancellations come as a disappointment to all parties involved, but we are hopeful that with the closure of these doors, some windows will open. The ‘Seeing Life’ team is looking forward to a number of festivals later in the year, including the Orkney International Science Festival and the Manchester Science Festival later on in the year.

That’s right - we’re getting with the current trend of the day and posting on Twitter. Check us out at http://www.twitter.com/seeinglife for immediate updates on what the project is up to and for fun facts on light and its uses.

Tags: Twitter

Well, we’re all back from the Edinburgh International Science Festival, having had a very busy, yet productive week. In a first for us, this news item comes with a video article on the use of an endoscope to explore a pepper! Many thanks to all the people who came down to see us and also to those who came to help out. Everyone had a great time, and we’re looking forward to another monster summer of festivals!
Get the video here!

In other news, our Teachers’ area takes another important step towards realisation with the inclusion of a new website engine. Regular visitors may notice that there has been a slight change to the site, with addition of flash videos to some areas of the site. Check out our “Pepperoscopy” here.

Stay tuned for more updates...

We have slightly revamped the website to include more content. Please explore the site, and we hope you will notice the changes. Still to be added is the Teachers' Area where we will be including a collection of teaching resources for use in all levels of education. Watch this space!

A new year, a change of outreach coordinator. Andrew McKinley has taken over from Claire Patterson in running the "Seeing Life Through A New Light" project. We wish Claire all the best in her future endeavours.

In the meantime, we are looking forward to another successful year, and the calendar is rapidly filling up with festival dates. If you would like us to visit you with our workshops and talks, get in touch soon. We look forward to hearing from you!

Congratulations to Jörg Baumgartl, Michael Mazilu & Kishan Dholakia on their recent publication in Nature Photonics. The researchers in the Optical Trapping group made a surprise discovery using light beams that can travel around corners. In their paper, they exploit the use of Airy beams — an unusual class of optical waves — in optical manipulation. The beam can be used to transport particles along curved paths without moving the light beam, a technique that seems poised for many microfluidic applications especially in the biological sciences. They have named the technique Optical snowblowing. Read more..