Day three of the festival and there is science royalty in town… the press tents are all ringing to the name of a certain physicist who will be gracing the stage later on this evening. Will we catch a rare glimpse…? Oh the excitement!

But back down to earth for now, a double whammy of alternative energy workshops open the day. In ‘Could Solar Energy Save the World?‘ the Solar Sparks get the audience in on the action, putting together some mini solar panels over the course of the session using titanium dioxide and fruit juice! The British Geological Survey are up next with The Heat Beneath Our Feet, bringing their bike powered heat pump to the stage to extol the benefits of ground source heat.

I catch some of Au Magazine’s editorial team for lunch to talk REACT magazine launch (much more on this later) and general festival excitement, before heading to the Xchange for a round up of the day’s best events. Somehow we manage to end up only metres away from the presenters table, with quite a lovely view of a certain Professor Cox. Lunch is spent marvelling over maths stand up and being confounded by quantum theory from Brian Cox and Jeff Foreshaw. Yet another glorious group photo is achieved.

Afternoon session Titanic Engineering was an intriguing insight in to the making of Channel 4 series ‘We Built the Titanic’ as two of the presenters / engineers took us through the challenges they faced in making replica components from the Titanic.

John Krebs Presidential Address ‘Doing the right thing’ was an intriguing discussion of the challenges surrounding the need for behavioural change to help solve global problems including sustainable development and obesity. Krebs summarised the political, economic and psychological perspectives which surround these issues, highlighting the need for a deeper understanding to enable people to ‘do the right thing’ in the real world. A great insight in to evidence-based policy making, and a interdisciplinary call to arms!