The ATOM Festival talks this year have been very successful with ticket sales exceeding expectations.
The Market Place activities also went well. It was a dry, warm and sunny day today with blue skies.
Abingdon Astronomical Society were there with telescopes and information of what to look out for in the sky at night.
Culham Centre for Fusion Energy had robots people could operate, and under a dark cover a plasma ball, to demonstrate some of the technologies and science they use as they look to generate energy from fusion.
A group at Sandford Lock are looking for investors to finance a hydro to generate electricity.
The Abingdon Naturalist Society had lot of pondlife for people to observe.
One of their new projects involves nesting boxes for swifts to try and halt the decline of the swifts’ population. They also do interesting talks.
Other stalls included: a sample of the blackest material yet made; and nano surfaces that waterproof mobile phones and make water roll about like drops of mercury. There were lots of very interesting things going on, and it seemed especially family friendly.
As always, no-one is commenting on a “good news” post! The Market Place event was great – lots of stalls with hands-on stuff and demonstrations and well-informed people to explain it all in simple terms to lay people of all ages. Great to see so many children clearly enjoying it.
Overall the ATOM Festival seems to have been fantastic: the two talks I went to were excellent and very well-attended, again by all ages. But what really impressed me was the professional way in which the whole festival was presented – an excellent example of what can be done by a really dedicated team of volunteers, supported by a small team of paid people and generous sponsorship from a wide range of local companies. A real community effort and ATOM can now take its place alongside the Airshow as a top-class event, bringing people into the town. Hopefully it will inspire others to create more of them.
Thanks Hester. The Market Square event was great for many reasons. We interviewed some of the companies on the stalls themselves and one of the surprising things was just how much they enjoyed doing this in their home town (many of them live in or near Abingdon). They often travel around the country – or globe – doing events, but this was a chance to talk to family, friends – and also reach out to people who may never have been curious about the science on their doorstep.
Incredible lucky with the weather – but yes, a good news story for our town. We got a *lot* of feedback from attendees, much of it positive (and you can be sure suggestions for improvement will definitely be noted), and plans already being made for next year.
We’d love to have more people involved – get in touch 🙂
It was so nice to see children taking an interest in science – after all, they are our future.
I’d like to see more grown-ups get involved in science too. A lot of people put the shields up when they hear the word (“oh, I was useless at maths at schools. etc.”) and in fact there are loads of skills that science companies and organisations need that many people have – but wouldn’t consider a career in.
This article is worth a read if you are interested: Adults Are The Future
But we need to inspire the kids too 🙂
Mark – Interesting article, thanks.
Hester – At least there aren’t any negative comments which is a start I guess.