I developed this tentative-taxonomy-of-science-festivals 2 for a talk I gave in New York in November 2010 and thought it might be worth making it more widely available. I found it interesting that Science Festivals seemed to draw to different extents on two distinctive traditions for public events, namely the University Open Day and the Arts Festival and would be very interested in other people’ views
Wild Hackney nominated for two BBC Audio Drama Awards
•January 12, 2012 • 3 CommentsWild Hackney has been nominated for two BBC Audio Drama Awards in the Best Online Audio Drama and Innovation categories.
The drama is set in the aftermath of the inundation of the East London flood plains, a not so wild guess at what sea level rise might mean to the low lying coastal world capitals. Public Engagement with climate change given the upstream treatment?
Wild Hackney
•July 22, 2011 • 1 CommentFresh from winning a Silver Sony Award for Night in Hackney Francesca my daughter and producer has given me the chance to narrate another piece Wild Hackney that takes its inspiration from the Victorian Gothic novel After London by Richard Jefferies that describes London reverting to nature after a flood, with only a few survivors roaming the marshland under which the once great city is submerged. Francesca at her compositional best in exploring a scenario that might still become a reality [although it’s a huge comfort that we could all take refuge in the Olympic Stadium].
Science comes to the Canterbury Festival
•July 22, 2011 • 1 CommentVery excited as the programme for the science strand I devised for the Canterbury Festival is published. It’s all about science and performance, my two great loves and features some of the liveliest minds at that fascinating boundary between science and the arts.
Get down to Canterbury between October 18th and 22nd if you can.
“Night in Hackney” nominated for Sony Best Internet Programme Award
•March 31, 2011 • 1 CommentJust found out that my daughter Francesca’s programme that takes you through a typical Hackney night and for which I got the acting credit for the narration is shortlisted for a Sony Radio Academy Award. Great feeling to get nominated for an acting award again after all these years. To listen to the programme go to: Night in Hackney
Finally the proof I needed
•March 30, 2011 • 1 CommentDr Thiswont Hurt
Harley Street
London
To whom it may concern
This has cost Francis Burnet a great deal of money and is to certify that he suffers from an extremely common genetic condition caused by the absence of the so called “Green Gene” on the Y chromosome.
If you should mistakenly serve him salad you might have to use the Heimlich anti-choking manoeuvre as illustrated below
Yours in the money
Dr T. Hurt
[Specialist in mens’ problems by appointment of His Royal Highness Prince Philip]
Unforgettables 2011
•March 22, 2011 • Leave a CommentWatching the Egyptian revolution unfold on TV and suddenly realising that Essam Sharaf an extraordinarily warm and intelligent man who I spent time with in both London and Alexandria in December had become Prime Minister of Egypt by popular acclaim
The “Taking Science to People” and “Why and How to Communicate your Research” guides can now be downloaded free from the relevant pages
•January 8, 2011 • 6 CommentsUnforgettables 2010
•December 27, 2010 • 7 CommentsThe Great Pyramid of Giza
It doesn’t matter how often you have seen pictures. Standing in its shadow you are one of the Pharaoh’s subjects
Egyptian Driving
Makes the Italians look like road safety fetishists. There are no discernible rules of the road and undertaking and overtaking are equally attractive options. However fast you are travelling
Dad’s 90th
Setting the record for the number of inebriated super seniors you could serve champagne, salmon and trifle to in what an estate agent would have described as, a surprisingly roomy dining room.
Tripoli Airport
An unscheduled ash cloud generated stop off during a four day journey back from Saudi to Canterbury. The passenger lounge was an exact replica of a 1950’s British Railways canteen and someone nicked my luggage.
The Swiss getting quite excited
I happened to be in Bern the evening that Switzerland beat Spain in the World Cup
Sci-Art in New York
An amazing conference combined with chance to take the anal temperature of the western world’s economy. Was there just a teensy bit less conviction in those “Have a Nice Days”? Well maybe, but it’s hard to measure something that already scored 9 on the Rictus Positive Attitude Scale.
Night in Hackney
Narrating this New York Radio Festival Gold Award winning podcast produced by my eldest Francesca. Night in Hackney
Frank Burnet 