PhD students contribute to Orkney International Science Festival

Centre for Nordic Studies PhD students Rebecca Ford and Andrea Blendl both featured in the Orkney International Science Festival this year. Becky and Andrea each had a stall at the open Family Day on Saturday 9th September, in which the public is invited to a pop-up science museum to engage with researchers and discover science, new knowledge and technology.

At Becky's stall, people were invited to write a "Postcard from the Anthropocene", engaging with how we humans have now reached the era where we are making permanent changes to the Earth as a planet and ecosystem.

Andrea's stall was about a different kind of writing: runic writing, where the public could learn about how this script was used in Orkney in the Viking Age and Medieval periods, and learn to write in runes themselves. This activity was popular, and many pieces of Oasis foam were taken home bearing runic inscriptions that day.