If you were in Sidmouth on Saturday, October 9, you may have seen a huge dinosaur, sponsored by Jurassic Fibre, walking slowly around town. This was part of Sidmouth Science Festival’s Super Science Saturday. Kennaway House lawn was inundated with young visitors having a go at making everything from aeroplanes to kites and getting up close to some wonderful owls. Inside was the Schools’ Art exhibition on the theme of Astronomy, whilst hands-on activities were very popular too. All Saints’ Church and Hall were dedicated to Geology whilst other venues hosted Physics, Medicine, Biodiversity, Photonics and more.

Liz Bramley from the organising team said: “We are so pleased with the turnout. It has made all our efforts worthwhile.”

Unfortunately the attempt at the world's longest tin can telephone did not succeed. The aim was for an amazing 375 metres, which would have smashed the existing record by over 100 metres. But the message, transmitted from Connaught Gardens to Bedford Steps, could not be successfully interpreted word-for-word as required. Earlier in the year there had already been a successful unofficial attempt, but as one of the organisers explained: ”The application of science in the real world is very complex: on this occasion we hadn't taken into account just how noisy the sea and the enthusiastic crowd would be. That background noise drowned out the message. Modifications will be made and another attempt tried."

The Science Festival plays host to a week of talks on various topics. Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter is talking at the Parish Church tonight (Friday) on “Can we believe all the Covid numbers in the news?”.

On Saturday 16 the Parish Church hosts a Climate Day with Dr Alice Bell, Peter Stott, Dame Julia Slingo and Doug Eltham amongst others. There is also a free robot workshop at Kennaway House and activities at the Youth Club including a very loud presentation, Rock Guitar in 11 Dimensions.

The Festival finishes on Sunday 17 with a Zoom presentation of the Fossil Detectives featuring the Electric Voice Theatre and children from Sidmouth CE Primary school.

Check out the website www.sidmouthsciencefestival.org or Facebook page for further details.