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Last time we looked at a curious fire-powered organ invented by Strasbourg’s Fréderic Kastner in 1873. The instrument wasn’t a great success, but Kastner’s family connections brought it a certain amount of acknowledgement. While he “was not a distinguished physicist …he had a rich and influential mother who, it has been said, encouraged him in the development of the pyrophone in order to provide him with an occupation that would keep him out of mischief”. Amongst Mme Kastner’s acquaintances was […]

There’s more to the relationship between fire and music than simply bad metaphors and innuendos, as I learnt this week at Blythe House. In a dark corner of the Science Museum’s storage facility sits a small, awkward-looking wooden box with intriguing glass pipes sprouting out of it. However, this unassuming little object just so happens to be one of the world’s last remaining pyrophones, an instrument which, as the name suggests, combines fire and sound! Patented by the Strasbourg-born musician and scientist Fréderic […]

A group of students aged 8 to 17 have spent the past three months working through the same set of tasks. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but when you’re asking real, new science questions, no-one knows what the answer will be.

Alan Winfield is Professor of Electronic Engineering and Director of the Science Communication Unit at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Alan will be on hand to discuss the cultural relevance and impact of swarm robotics at Robotville.

Meet roboticist Peter McOwan, Professor of Computer Science in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary, University of London. At Robotville Peter will be showcasing software he has built that helps robots understands our emotions

Meet roboticist Nick Hawes, a lecturer in the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham. He is bringing his robot, Dora the Explorer, to our Robotville festival.