This festival has vital role for children

WITH the Cheltenham Science Festival in full swing there’s an extra buzz in the town. This year the theme is ‘Wellness’ which gives plenty of scope for the imagination.

The Town Hall and tented village behind provides the base for most of the activity. If you don’t fancy a specific event you can always just wander around and take in the many free zones on offer.

Things are also happening elsewhere including the Urban Astronaut who will be providing thought provoking entertainment in High Street on Friday and Saturday.

This is part of a package of street entertainment funded by the Cheltenham Business Improvement District in support of festivals.

Science in all its forms is important to all of us particularly if we are going to successfully tackle many of the big problems facing the world today such as climate change. In recent decades there has been increasing suspicion of science partly fueled by high profile cases where things have gone wrong but also I suspect by lack of understanding of what is actually involved leading to fear of the unknown.

The Science Festival started in 2002 and every year since then has been doing its bit to plug that gap in our collective understanding and show people what it’s really about.

In parallel with this we have had too few young people opting to study science subjects at school and then go on into scientific careers.

So it is good to know that there is a large programme of events for schools that form part of the Festival and that families are very much welcome.

I notice that Professor Brian Cox has a new series about the planets.

As he says, “I’m an avid fan of Cheltenham Science Festival. It is, without doubt, the premier science festival in the country because it is supported by pretty much everyone who cares about promoting science in Britain.”

Who am I to disagree?