Out and about

The 15th Cambridge Science Festival will be officially opened on Saturday 14th March by TV presenter and eco-engineer Jem Stansfield, who will also talking of his time on the National Geographic programme Planet Mechanics.

Carol Vorderman helps launch the festival

The festival's patron, Carol Vorderman, will also be making an appearance as she introduces a fascinating and interactive talk by the Chief Research Scientist at Microsoft Research, who takes a look at computers of the future.

Once again, there'll be plenty of chances for children to get hands-on with a range of demonstrations, drop-in sessions and activities from ice cream making to the weird and wonderful experiments at 'Crash, bang, squelch!'

Cambridge Chaos member in action!

For music lovers the festival's first concert will be a light-hearted, family friendly extravaganza with scientists from the past singing about their discoveries along with live demonstrations and plenty of audience participation... there really is something for everyone!

BBC Cambridgeshire gets hands-on!

Here at BBC Cambridgeshire we'll be joining in the fun, learning about science and with any luck blowing things up! Jeremy Sallis will try to 'beat the lie detector', we'll be having a 'keepy-uppy' masterclass in the car park and the guys from the Engineering department will be coming in to help us launch some rockets!

Big bangs with Dr Wothers

Mark Rumble's show will be coming live from 'Science on Saturday' on the 14th, 12-2pm. And of course our very own Naked Scientists will be broadcasting highlights from the first weekend on their show at 6pm on Sunday 15th.

Listen in to BBC Radio Cambridgeshire during the festival on 96 and 95.7FM, DAB digital and online!

More festival highlights

• Author Lucy Hawking reads from her new book 'George and the cosmic treasure hunt' (pre-booking required)

• Bottle your genes and take them home with you

• Discover Antarctica's amazing history at the Scott Polar Research Institute Muesum

• Design and race your own hovercraft

• Explosions, bangs and more with Dr Wothers in the Chemistry Zone

• 800 years of death and disease walking tour

• Portraits of astronomers exhibition

• Test your IQ and see if you're logical or creative