WHERE in the world could you get eaten, experience a virtual migraine attack
and pry into kinky sex? The answer, you might not be surprised to learn, is at
this year鈥檚 Edinburgh International Science Festival, which runs from Saturday
22 March to 6 April.
Joseph Rotblat, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, kicks off events on the
eve of the festival, 21 March, with a lecture. And at the other end of the
festival Zeneca Pharmaceuticals will unveil its virtual reality migraine
machine, designed to mimic the feel of a real attack.
Children, meanwhile, will be able to see what it鈥檚 like to be a chunk of food
passing through the human gut. 鈥淭he door of this room is like a giant mouth and
you walk up a giant tongue to get in, then get spattered by `saliva鈥�,鈥� explains
Pauline Mullin, a festival organiser. Next, you clamber through a tubing
鈥済ullet鈥�, arrive in the stomach, and whiz off down more tubing that represents
the intestine. Some visitors might feel cheated that they don鈥檛 follow the usual
route out, but it was thought too extreme. 鈥淚t could be a bit disgusting,鈥� says
Mullin.
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In the City Art Centre, music giant EMI will be marking its centenary by
unveiling an exhibition celebrating 100 years of music. And if you鈥檝e got any
plastic memorabilia or dolls that are beginning to deteriorate, come to the
plastics clinic, run by Anita Quye, for advice (see 鈥淭ragedy in toytown鈥�,
New 杏吧原创, 21/28 December, p 38).
Road rage is on the agenda of the British Psychological Society鈥檚 annual bash
at Edinburgh, as is the question of whether psychologists should have a say when
people apply for gun licences. Not interested? Well, you can always attend 鈥淢ad,
bad or sad?鈥�, a lecture exploring the psychology behind kinky sex. Andy
Coghlan
Tel: 0131 220 3977/fax 3987 for more details, or visit the festival web
site on www.go-edinburgh.co.uk Email:esf@scifest.demon.co.uk