Pitching science in a tent

Over 20 Oxford volunteers recently pitched a tent at this year's Royal Berkshire Show, Newbury, to tempt visitors into exploring scientific experiments and ideas.

The entertainment on offer included mathematical games - such as building a giant fractal - demonstrated by Marcus's Marvellous Mathemagicians, slime-making and burning magic paper performed by chemist Roger Nixon, and a range of smaller experiments out of which the soap and bath bomb-making proved particularly popular.

Access Coordinator and organiser Naomi Capell tells us: 'The main part of the tent was a variety of little science busking experiments, things like creating homemade lava lamps, making coloured non-Newtonian fluid with cornflour, water and food colouring, and exploding cola bottles with mints.'

'It was a very busy day but the feedback we got from parents and teachers was great!'

If you fancy a taste of what was on offer at Newbury then you can join Marcus's Marvellous Mathemagicians tomorrow [1 October] where they'll be running a show called Playing with Numbers at London's Barbican.

Whilst you're at the Barbican why not also go to see their mathematical leader, Marcus du Sautoy, give a talk tomorrow evening on Symmetry: A Journey into the Patterns of Nature [tickets for these events sold separately].