2012 Festival dates: 12 - 17 June

This summer, over 300 of the world's greatest thinkers, comedians, writers and scientists will come together to celebrate and explore all things scientific.

 

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Science in the Square

Experience all that the Festival has to offer in Cheltenham’s Town Hall and Imperial Gardens. From FREE interactive science in Discover Zone and Area 42 to informal scientific chat in The Times Café and The Talking Point and book buying in the on-site Waterstones tent.

Discover Science in the Square

'Question Everything' Magazine

Click below to view our 2012 Science Festival newspaper, Question Everything.

Exclusive Articles

Click the links below to read exclusive articles written by a selection of our 2012 speakers.

Quentin Cooper - Is Monopoly Dead?

BBC Radio 4 presenter and science journalist Quentin Cooper on the new generation of board games, where maths and strategy are negating the luck of the roll... Read it here

Vivienne Westwood - Deforestation: A fashion disaster?

Dame Vivienne Westwood spoke to Hannah Devlin, science editor at The Times, about her personal crusade to help save the planet. Read it here

Tali Sharot - Is optimism the key to survival?

Neuroscientist Tali Sharot has a Ph.D. in psychology from New York University. She is currently a research fellow at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London. Read the article here

Alan Winfield - Can Robots Think?

By Alan Winfield, Hewlett-Packard Professor of Electronic Engineering and Associate Dean of UWE. Read the article here

Dr Adam Rutherford - Where does life come from?

Science journalist Dr Adam Rutherford is a self-confessed ‘professional geek’. Editor of Nature magazine and regular contributor to the Guardian, as well as BBC television and radio programmes, Adam will be speaking at Cheltenham about perhaps the most significant event in human history- the creation of synthetic life. Read the article here

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Cheltenham Editions

Want a taste of the Festival? Want to hear some mind-blowing ideas? We've challenged some of the most inspiring speakers the Festival has to offer to stir your curiosity in just 15 minutes.  Hear a variety of subjects that will get you thinking and leave you wanting more.

Visit the Cheltenham Editions page

How well do you sleep?

Join the 65,000 people who have already taken part in the online survey looking at sleep patterns including work schedule, differing sleep habits during the week and at the weekend, consumption of alcoholic and caffeinated drinks, exposure to cigarettes and the time taken to fall asleep each night...

Find out more

Watch our exclusive Festival preview Video

Preview The Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2012, with topics ranging from medicine to technology, economic recovery to energy and the role of science in our ever regenerating society. The programme will feature a mix of cutting edge discoveries, cabaret, comedy, family fun, hands on experiments and workshops. It will also welcome the Famelab International final, which is on a quest to find the world's next big scientific stars.

Book early and receive ticket discounts with Cheltenham Festivals Membership.

FameLab - Talking Science

FameLab is an exciting competition to find the new voices of science and engineering across the world. To date, over 700 scientists and engineers have taken part in the UK competition. Globally more than 3,600 competitors have taken part in the FameLab International programme. Open to anyone working in or studying science, technology, engineering, medicine or maths in the UK, contestants have just 3 minutes to prove themselves to a panel of expert judges, with only the best going forward to the next round.

Find out more about FameLab

Education: Science for Schools

Take a sneak peak at our Science for Schools 2012 programme with a wide range of events, workshops and day packages suitable for Key Stages 1-4. With topics including magic, electricity, code-cracking, why cheesy feet smell bad and how to stop a zombie outbreak, should one ever occur, your class definitely won't want to miss it...

Check out our Science for Schools programme

Brochure Archives

2011 marked the tenth anniversary of The Times Cheltenham Science Festival and you can relive the highlights and line ups of recent Festivals in our brochure archive. Here you'll also find brochures from our other Festivals, Music, Science and Literature.

Browse our brochure archive