Festival season?

Science and music festivals are carefully coming back

Science festivals and science busking have had a difficult few years. While everyone has been very creative with online events, the excitement of seeing a performance or experiment in person just isn’t quite the same as watching it on a screen. But this week I saw an update on the Discover blog Science Near Me and it looks like in-person science festivals are gradually coming back. 

Photo by Aranxa Esteve on Unsplash

And those are not the only places you can see science performances. Large music festivals that were on hold for the past two summers are now hopeful about a 2022 come-back. Both Glastonbury (UK) and Lowlands (Netherlands) regularly host scientists and are planning to be back this season. Green Man Festival in Wales already had an event in 2021, so they (and their very sciency Einstein’s Garden) will also likely be back in 2022, as will Blue Dot (which cancelled its 2021 plans).

It won’t be the same as in 2019 – expect more online alternatives, some last-minute cancellations, fewer hands-on experiences – but if you’ve missed meeting scientists at festivals, this year could change that. (Just be aware that there are still risks of getting infected, and that not everyone is comfortable yet with in-person events. If you’d rather not go in-person, there are still more online and hybrid events than ever before!)

Interesting links

• Did you know that the shape of your beer glass changes how much you drink? This and more in The Dose, a newsletter by medical student Dennis Tonui. 

• In Popular Science, Maggie Galloway describes how chia oil helped preserve centuries-old art from Mexico.  

• “The bizarre deep-sea creatures living on the Endurance shipwreck”, by Benji Jones for Vox

• Finding out the age of rock art with a non-destructive method, by me for Forbes.com

• “Artist and physicist Libby Heaney is harnessing quantum code to reimagine Hieronymus Bosch’s 15th-century The Garden of Earthly Delights”, by Nick Compton for Wallpaper

• Michael Hargreaves interviews bio-artist Jennifer Willet for CBC news

• “Eddie Vedder joins forces with NASA for 'Invincible' Artemis music video”, by Steve Spaleta for Space.com 

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