Dinosaurs, Mars & Game Of Thrones. Scotland Has It Covered.

On the 29 and 30 September join us across Scotland to discover, explore and celebrate European Researchers' Night. There will be hands-on activities, talks, films, stand-up comedy and more taking place in Aberdeen, St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Below are some of our more unusual highlights from the night.

Scotland and the dinosaurs

Via explorathon.co.uk

Café Scientifique Edinburgh delves deep into history in an exploration of Scotland’s wild past with dinosaur expert Steve Brusatte at the Levels Café on Holyrood Road. Dinosaurs are icons of prehistory, but how did they grow to such huge sizes and become so dominant? What do new discoveries from Scotland reveal about the lifestyles of these 170-million-year old beasts?

The reality behind Game of Thrones

You might think fantasy is the opposite of science, but comedian Helen Keen and a round table of researchers would disagree. Could wildfire really exist? How similar are the families of the seven kingdoms to the Vikings? Join them in Aberdeen for an evening of fire, ice and fun.

Fancy dress encouraged.

How can we store 24 billion selfies?

University of Glasgow

Imagine how much storage space you’d need on your phone if you stored every selfie ever taken! How will the world cope with the ever growing need to store data? Forget megabytes and terabytes…we’ll soon reach ZETABYTES! Researchers from the University of Glasgow will demonstrate hands-on activities showcasing the current data storage technology and how they are working to advance it.

Explore how the world will cope with storing the world’s selfies and interact with magnetic putty, shiny exposed hard drives and raspberry pi techno selfienators at the Explorathon Extravaganza at the Riverside Museum in Glasgow.

Life outside of Scotland

Join Dr Stephen Bowden from the University of Aberdeen to hear about technologies used to look for life in extreme environments on Earth, and perhaps one day for life on other planets. Stephen will use case studies from the Haughton Mars Project, Iceland and other extreme environments.

This event is part of a Discovery Night at Aberdeen Science Centre where you can also experience a live-stream from CERN.

Wood Sawmill: Man vs tree

In one evening Patrick Bowden-Smith will chop up an entire tree (using a sawmill), exploring the uses of timber in industry and research. Is timber still useful in today's society? How can we best manage our woodlands for both humans and nature? Come and discuss with Patrick and sustainable development researchers at the Byre, St Andrews.

Passport Control

University of Strathcylde

Ever wondered how passport control officers can match different images of people they have never met before? With changes in lighting, camera, hairstyle and the natural ageing process, face recognition can prove tricky. Researchers from the Universities of Strathclyde and Stirling are studying how many police and passport control officers display above average face recognition abilities – terming them as super-face-recognisers.

Find out if you are a super-face-recogniser in our ‘passport control’ area during Glasgow’s Explorathon Extravaganza at the multi-award winning Riverside Museum. Learn about face recognition science; take part in real psychological experiments using eye tracking technology.

Maggots fighting TB: the white death

Via giphy.com

Scientist Fran Entwistle sends forth her infant maggots into her petri dishes as they battle our villain TB, a dangerous disease known by some as White Death. Find out more in St Andrews.