Here's our guide to the best entertainment on offer for grown-ups at this year's Norwich Science Festival.
The Unexpected Truth About Animals with Lucy Cooke
Penguins are perverts, pandas like sex, hyenas are feminist icons and bats are the animal kingdom's most generous lovers and friends. In this talk, zoologist and television presenter Lucy Cooke (Springwatch, Curious Creatures) dispels the myths and reveals the scientific truths about some of the world's most – and least – popular animals.
Lucy Cooke is an award-winning broadcaster and filmmaker with a Masters in zoology from Oxford University.
She began her career working behind the scenes in television comedy but is now an increasingly familiar face on natural history TV, having presented prime-time series for BBC, ITV and National Geographic.
Saturday, October 20
12pm–1pm
The Forum, Auditorium
£5
Age 14+
Universilly Challenged with Jonny Berliner and Simon Watt
Are you ready to get quizzical? Science troubadour, Jonny Berliner, and Ugly Animal wrangler, Simon Watt, have created a nerdtastic night to remember. You will have your geek knowledge tested, take part in the origami Olympics, and play with puns. Niche prizes to be won. Full marks for foolishness. Paxman would hate it.
Science troubadour, Jonny Berliner ('Seriously funny'- Scotsman) and Ugly Animal wrangler, Simon Watt ('All the wit and passion of the best comics'- Chortle) have created an especially silly pub quiz cum cabaret with a difference.
Each ticket is valid for 1 team member, with the maximum team size being 6.
Friday, October 19
8pm–10pm, inc. interval
Epic Studios
£6
Age 18+
Bakineering in Space with Andrew Smyth
What links baking and space travel? How can meringue explain how astronauts explore space?
Join The Great British Bake Off finalist and aerospace engineer, Andrew Smyth, on a gastronomic journey into orbit.
This interactive event will explore the surprising connections between everyday bakes and the extraordinary engineering that helps keeps astronauts alive in space.
Your curiosity will be whisked, stirred, and taken out of this world with live baking demonstrations and samples!
Tuesday, October 23
2pm–3pm
Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form
£6
Age 10+
A Pint of Science with Lizzy Daly and Dr Andrew Mayes
Pint of Science is returning to Norwich Science Festival, this year with talks from TV presenter Lizzie Daly and researcher Dr Andrew Mayes from UEA. They will be speaking about plastics, and the way that they influence the environment around us. Set to be a wonderful night for the eco-conscious, materials-nerds, and anyone else in between! Of course, we can't forget about the 'pint' portion of the night, so Fat Cat Brewery Tap will be bringing along their pop-up bar.
Saturday October 20
7.30pm–9.30pm (doors 7pm)
The Forum, Gallery
£4
Age 16+
An Eye Below Zero with Doug Allan
Did you ever wonder how to approach belugas underwater? Get up close and personal with polar bears without being eaten?
How much do wildlife programme makers rely on scientists, and do our programmes ever contribute to scientific discoveries?
Doug Allan is one of the world's best known and respected cameramen, and in this presentation, he'll be sharing his own personal insights about marine biology, diving, and filming at the poles.
Illustrated with his own photographs and clips from his best-known series, and with a wealth of behind the scenes stories – Doug's aim is to amaze, inspire and challenge.
His photographic awards include eight Emmys and five BAFTAs. He has four Honorary Doctorates in recognition of his camerawork, as well as two Polar Medals.
Friday, October 26
6.30pm–7.30pm
Norwich School, Blake Studio
£15, £10 concessions
Age 10+
Technology - Redefining the Impossible with Simon Wheatcroft
Technology redefines what is possible.
Simon Wheatcroft has taken this philosophy and literally run with it. Losing his sight at seventeen, Simon has utilised technology to augment what he is capable of – initially using off-the-shelf tech, then forging forward to collaborate in creating the technology of the future to enable him to run marathons.
Simon truly demonstrates the synergy of man and machine.
Wednesday, October 24
2.30pm–3.30pm
The Forum, Auditorium
£7
Age 8+
Myth or truth? Here are some of Lucy Cooke's animal myth busters
Penguins are monogamous partners and devoted parents (myth)
Penguins are prone to paedophilia, necrophilia and are one of the only animals known to
engage in prostitution (truth)
Vultures are unclean (myth)
Vultures hoover up pestilence and poop out purity - their acidic excrement is such an
effetive disinfectant you could use it as a hand sanitiser (truth)
Pandas are pathetic sex-shy bears that need our help to survive (myth)
Pandas are virile studs that have sex up to forty times in a single afternoon and a taste for
group sex (truth)
Bats are disease-riddled rats with leather wings that get stuck in your hair (myth)
Bats are as important pollinators as bees and were conscripted in WW2 to carry bombs
(truth)
Sloths are lazy evolutionary losers that sleep all the time (myth)
Sloths are one of the most successful tropical mammals and sleep less than 10 hours a day
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