BLAST!

BLAST! is taking over The Barn on Tuesday 27 October, from 11:00 to 17:00. It's one of the interactive zones of IF Oxford, the science and ideas festival run by The Oxfordshire Science Festival, a small independent charity with no institutional parent. The zone brings together scientists and engineers working on some of the biggest challenges on Earth and beyond, with hands-on activities for the whole family to get stuck into. It's the kind of thing you can wander through with kids in tow, rather than a sit-down talk.

The line-up covers a fair bit of ground. You can see the universe through images from the James Webb Space Telescope, get a look at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, and try your hand at quantum computing. There's The Tamarind Galaxy with Natty Mark Samuels, The Future is Fusion, and AstroFun with 17th-century sky-watchers Johannes and Elisabeth Hevelius. It's a mix of the cutting edge and the historical, and the hands-on side means you're doing things rather than just reading about them.

This year is a bit of a milestone: the festival as a whole is celebrating its 35th year, built by hundreds of people across academic research groups, local businesses and cultural communities. It runs right up to Halloween, when it closes with Modelling the Undead: Zombies and Health.

Practical side: you're asked to book an approximate one-hour arrival slot, and a typical visit takes about an hour and a half to two hours. It's Pay What You Decide, with a free ticket option and a suggested donation of £7.50. The Barn is on Nightingale Avenue, Oxford OX4 7BU, and the zone runs from 11:00 to 17:00, with the last entry at 16:00.