Light show at Torness Power Station a highlight of Dunbar SciFest 2016

A series of events are being held over the weekend - and beyond - in the John Muir campus of the town's primary school as well as the nearby Bleachingfield Centre as part of Dunbar SciFest.

The 'Chain Reaction' light show will be projected onto Torness power station every evening between 6.30pm and 10pm, from tonight (Friday) to March 13 (see pic below, all pics by Jon Savage).

Free parking is being provided on the EDF road, accessed off the Skateraw Road just off the A1, and this parking will be marshalled.

That's far from the only attraction, though.

This year’s exciting line up commences with two different EDF Energy Science Ceilidhs for families.

The first will take place this evening (Friday), 7-10pm. This Dunbar Community Science Ceilidh will incorporate all of the favourite dances, from the Gay Gordons to the Flying Scotsman but will include a science twist. Pupils from Dunbar Primary School will share a new ceilidh dance that they have developed, so during this dance, families won’t just be recycling dance moves on the ceilidh floor...they'll be discovering how the Circular Economy works!

On Saturday, 7-10pm, families will be joined by a team of University of Edinburgh Chemists for the Illuminating Ceilidh, that will allow everyone to shine on the dance floor and have fun finding out about the science of light. Families will discover together photons in the Dashing White Light Wave, find out how glowsticks work in the Fluorescent Fling and discover the hidden chemistry within TVs in the Orcadian Strip-the-Optic-Cable dance!

Between 6.30-10pm over ten evenings, from Friday to next Sunday, everyone can enjoy the festival's free Chain Reaction light show that will animate the facade of Torness Power Station.

This newly created light show includes a series of artistic interpretations that reveal the complex and unseen processes that generate steam energy which drives the electricity generators in Torness power station.

The slowly-changing imagery will be visible to thousands of people passing Torness on the A1 or on trains heading south during the ten evenings of this year's festival.

The festival's Family Weekend is on Saturday and Sunday (10am-5pm both days) in the John Muir Campus of Dunbar Primary School and the Bleachingfield Community Centre, with cafes in both venues.

Get stuck into wacky workshops, sit back and enjoy the fabulous Viridor Science Stage Shows, they are presented in British Sign Language or are BSL/English interpreted and have fun at diverse drop-in sessions. For under-fives, there’s storytelling and soft play. Family tickets (2 Adults & 2 Children) cost just £15, with £20 Weekend Family Ticket (£5 per adult & £3 per child).

New storytelling activities include Dynamic Earth's sessions celebrating Tim Peake’s mission to the International Space Station and discovering some of the exciting and dangerous challenges he faces living in Space.

The 10 workshops Computer Xplorers' Cartoon Creation and 3-D Animation; Amazing Immunology; Dino Dig; Light Lab; Artifact Attack; Mars Lander & Meteorites in the Cosmos Planetarium; Animates Amazing Animals; Eureka Edinburgh's Things that Go Up and the ever popular Organ Dissection workshops. Book your workshop place as soon as you arrive.

Once again there's a huge variety of drop in sessions, including the University of Edinburgh's 'Meet your social brain', 'Green Chemistry' and 'It's just a phase' and Heriot Watt University's '3D printing polymers' and 'Mixed up science', as well as Queen Margaret University's 'What can you taste?' and 'An Ingenious Whittler - John Muir the Inventor'. Dunbar Grammar School pupils will exhibit some of their work and everyone can do some of their experiments on colour and perform some tricks with light, while Dunbar Science Club will run Raspberry Pi computer programming sessions.

Firm favourites include 'Rockpool Adventures' with Heriot Watt University, Royal Haskoning and St Abbs Marine Centre; Glasgow Science Centre's FitLab; the University of Edinburgh's Bio-Discoveries and asthma research; Geology and Geoconservation; East Lothian Wildlife with the Ranger Service and East Links Family Park and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, as well as EDF Energy, Community Wind Power and Be Green, Viridor Waste Management, Zero Waste Town Dunbar, Sustaining Dunbar.

SCI-FUN, the University of Edinburgh’s Scottish Science and Technology Roadshow will take over the Bleachingfield Community Centre with 50 interactive science activities that will keep families entertained for hours. The Early Bird event on Sunday, 9-10am, for children with Autism Spectrum Condition and other special needs and their families, provides exclusive access to experience the SCI-FUN interactive exhibits.

The EDF Energy Education Programme will be delivered within local schools between Monday and next Friday, delivering a variety of workshops, including Animates, Computer Xplorers, ESH Construction, Lights Labs and Fiddling in the Brain, as well as two stage shows "The Kids Who Fell To Earth" by Eureka Edinburgh and Macastory's "Big Idea".

The Adult Programme of five evening events will take place between Wednesday and Sunday, March 13, where you can discover the Heroines of the Nuclear Age and The Scottish Midge - a Tiny Terror and enjoy Bite Size Science and Wild Cocktails and fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe, the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas Triple Act and Hearing loss or deaf gain?

On Wednesday, 'Heroines of the Nuclear Age', will be on in the Dunbar Library, Bleachingfield Community Centre, 8-9.30pm Adults £5 BYOB. Ian Hamilton from Belhaven examines the inter-connected roles of four remarkable and courageous women and how their lives, research and discoveries inter-twined and led the way in our understanding of the inherent risks of ionising radiation. Bring your own bottle but glasses supplied.

On Thursday, come to the Piano Room, The Rocks Hotel, Dunbar, (8-9.30pm, Adults £8) to hear about 'The Scottish Midge - a Tiny Terror!'. Dr James Logan, originally from North Berwick, is a Senior Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a C4 and BBC TV Presenter. James researches novel ways to control insects that transmit human and animal diseases in the UK and overseas, exploring the complex interactions between the insect vectors, the vertebrate hosts and the pathogens that cause disease. Find out everything that you need to know about Scotland's fearsome wee beasties!

Enjoy Bite Size Science and Wild Cocktails on Friday, March 11 (8-10.30pm, Adults £8) in the Goldenstones Function Room, Dunmuir Hotel. Champagne, oysters, buttered asparagus, chocolate, chilli... Do these foods make just your heart rate rise? Come and hear about the science and psychology of aphrodisiacs so that you know exactly what those morish morsels are doing to you, with Dr Kathy Charles, Edinburgh Napier University.

Mark Williams of Galloway Wild Foods presents the Wild Cocktail Cabinet: Foraged Drinks and Elixirs exploring the challenges of and opportunities to use wild ingredients and reveals the cornerstones of the wild booze larder.

Dr Ian Edwards of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh takes a look inside Scotland’s natural larder and provides inspiration for anybody wanting to be a bit more adventurous in eating nutritious meals that are wild, Scottish and free. Includes some tasters of seasonal and foraged delights.

Dr Derek Ball, Heriot Watt University, will serve up a potted history of sports nutrition. Using diet to manipulate exercise performance is not a new phenomenon and Derek will reveal how different nutrition strategies have been used historically to improve human performance.

Fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe, the 'Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas Triple Act' is on Saturday, March 12 (8-10.30pm, Adults £8) in the Goldenstones Function Room, Dunmuir Hotel. The Beltane Public Engagement Network and Fair Pley have brought the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas to the Edinburgh Fringe since 2013.

The Cabaret gives researchers and members of the public the chance to discuss and debate cutting-edge research in an informal, entertaining way. Dr Lewis Dean, a primatologist from the University of St Andrews, will put a chimp on trial!

A court in America recently ruled that chimpanzees should be regarded as ‘persons’, giving them basic human rights. But with rights come responsibilities. Could a chimp ever be guilty of a human crime?

Women – science isn’t for you! The UK desperately needs more scientists and engineers, yet highly qualified, talented and ambitious women are still deserting science & technology. What’s really going on? Could the answers be found in role models, mentors and male-support, or do women simply lack ability in science? Join Dr Clare Taylor, Edinburgh Napier University, to discuss what, if anything, we should do about it.

Feel like your brain is half-baked? Join Psychologist Dr Alan Gow, Heriot Watt University, in the Great British Brain Off, to consider the recipe for the perfect brain and what to do if you feel that your own grey matter needs some extra spice.

Finally on Sunday, March 13, (8-9.30pm, Adults £5) come along to the entertaining debate 'Hearing loss or deaf gain?', also fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe in the Dunbar Town House Museum.

Enjoy another Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas show challenging how we should think about deafness. How should we describe deaf people? Join Professor Jemina Napier, Heriot Watt University, and Dunbar SciFest’s very own Dr Audrey Cameron to debate whether it is hearing loss or deaf gain?

Fancy a Friday forage? Explore Dunbar’s wild larder on a low spring tide with Mark Williams of Galloway Wild Foods - Scotland’s only full-time foraging tutor. Learn to find, identify, sustainably harvest and cook seaweeds, shellfish, coastal herbs and succulent plants. Treats and tasters throughout culminating in a cook-in, where you will make wild sushi with your finds from the day.

Dunbar SciFest hosts three exhibitions this year. Enjoy the evening street art shows when the two Royal Photographic Society exhibitions “International Images for Science” and "Light Works" will both be projected onto the Dunbar Town House Museum.

Running from 5 March to 31 July, An Ingenious Whittler – John Muir the Inventor exhibition will be on inside the Dunbar Town House Museum.

Dunbar SciFest regularly attracts thousands of people to the area and for more information on everything that's on over the course of the festival, go to www.dunbarscifest.org.uk