[size=55:w5f88zwx]BNR

Bulgaria’s first ever science festival opens in Sofia

Why are human bones so strong and will humans be able to walk on walls and ceilings as Spiderman does? Could an elephant and an octopus fit into a human palm? Why is the sky blue? How can we turn water into wine and vice versa? Why is love actually a combination of chemical processes? What exactly happens inside the Great Hadron Collider of CERN? Scientists from Bulgaria and abroad will be at the festival to answer these and many other intriguing questions. Even the biggest of sceptics will be able to see that science is not a dry, boring subject as many people think it is, but that it can be much fun.

All this will take place from 11 through 15 of May in Sofia during Bulgaria’s first ever Science Festival. The event is organized by the British Council and the non-governmental organization Forum Democrit under the patronage of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Science and in partnership with Sofia Municipality. The Sofia Science Festival is now part of Sofia’s Cultural Calendar. It is also a way of marking several important anniversaries - the centenary of Marie Curie’s Nobel Prize for Chemistry which made her the first woman to earn a Nobel prize and the first scientist to earn two Nobel prizes in the world, then the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight into outer space, the 20th anniversary since the British Council opened its doors in Bulgaria as well as the marking 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry, of Volunteering and of Forests.
What surprises have the organizers of Sofia Science Festival prepared for the residents and guests of the Bulgarian capital?

More from Lyubov Kostova, head of Projects and Partnerships department at the British Council in Sofia:
“We have put up tents in the Doctors’ garden down town Sofia for the audience where various events will be staged. We have prepared workshops for children who are still in pre-school age but it is never too early to have your first encounters with science. Children will be able to discover the incredible beauty of the underwater world with the help of biologists. They will be able to study the specific properties of water and to find out why some objects sink and others float. We have also prepared workshops for high school students where they will be introduced, in an entertaining way, to the basics of nanotechnology, radiation and radioactive materials. We are also inviting everyone interested in science to take part in our visual shows. People would be able to learn more about interesting and serious topics such as “What happens in CERN” directly from two of the creators of the biggest scientific experiment of humanity, the Great Hadron Collider, who have arrived especially from Switzerland to take part in the Sofia Science Festival”, Lyubov Kostova from the British Council explains.

The first ever Science Festival organized in Bulgaria will also feature a “Scientific Bar” where Frank Burnet, biochemist and the first professor in science communication in the United Kingdom, will transform a night out for a drink in a bar into a scientific show. Using only coins, saucers, cups and a box of matches, he will demonstrate unusual phenomena in front of the very eyes of the audience. Marc Lewny from the United Kingdom will explain the law of physics with the help of a rock guitar and will show that the vibrations of the guitar chords can give an answer to the big questions of the universe. A lot of young Bulgarian scientists will be part of the festival. On the opening evening, two of Bulgaria’s young chemists will fascinate the audience with their Chemical Illusion-ism show where they will show that clean white sheets from TV adverts are not at all as white as they seem and what chemistry has to do with this.
The idea of the organizers of the Science Festival is to make this event an annual forum similarly to many countries worldwide. The organizers also aim at making the festival part of Sofia’s cultural life and including it in the program with which the city will apply for European Capital of Culture for 2019.