The second day at Science on Stage Europe 2015 was even more enjoyable and valuable than the first day. We didn’t have as much time as we would have liked to go around different stands, because the day was packed with engaging events like on stage science shows, workshops, seminars and plenaries. The buzz we get from this overdose of creativity and networking is pretty astounding and we just couldn’t let the day end without reporting on it, especially when the evening ended with a cinema viewing of Back to the Future Part II. Why part II we thought, but of course it was all revealed when the Delorean’s clock is set for 2015 
We always love it when history catches up with the Science Fiction imagined by film writers decades before. So, our immediate questions were… “Ok, so where are the flying cars? Or the overcraft?” But there are things that can be compared to these in our 2015. Drones are a pretty popular, though expensive, toy, the iPhone-like gadget Doc has when spying on Martin McFly Junior is a pretty good guess, the phone glasses are a pretty sound reminder of Google Glass…
Back to the Fair
So, after this short digression to our present future (excuse the pun), we are back at the fair where we saw the most amazing project. On stage there was a large plastic bin, with a hole at the bottom and a fog machine next to it. Our immediate reaction was “Ah, ok! The Giant Airzooka! Seen it… Done it… Can we move on please?” Well, we could not be further from the truth, because the actual presentation began with the most amazing video of dolphins making air vortexes under water and playing with them as if they were hoola hoops! We had never seen anything like this and that would have been enough to satisfy our curiosity for the rest of the day, but the French presenter kept the audience captivated with what his young learners achieved. They went through a journey of proper scientific exploration to solve a real problem and model different ways to produce air bubble vortexes underwater. Enjoy the extract from this awesome talk below, because it really is worth it!
Workshops and Seminars
We thought the day could not get any better, but we promised we would be back at the Italian stand and we kept our word. In fact, we did more, because we joined the fascinating seminar on physics experiments to carry out with an old record player, things that only DJs know about these days. Giovanni Pezzi, as ever, went through a plethora of innovative and creative ways to link Maths, Physics and very real and everyday things! Just take a look at the great photo below and the video from his Doppler Effect experiment with record player and smartphones.
The Highlights
The Fair’s highlights presented by the very entertaining and approachable Matt Parker brought us some short presentations from the stands and you can see a couple of Periscope videos below.
The day ended with a fun show on the “Magic” of the Periodic Table, a really well prepared and presented show by the Spanish delegation. In fact, it was so entertaining and engaging that we didn’t manage to take a video.
