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‘Excellent,’ enthused the boy from Leicester as he withdrew the control
rods from the reactor. Egged on by a friend, he was attempting to blow up
British Nuclear Fuels’ model of a power plant. The pair of 12-year-olds
were trying out one of dozens of exhibits set up in a giant tent outside
the Science Museum in London for SET7, Britain’s first national science
week.

Minutes earlier, science minister William Waldegrave had been there
to start off the celebration. ‘If we can spark in younger people a greater
interest in science, convince frontline teachers of the importance of what
they do, or interest further the long tail of industry,’ he said, ‘then
we will have done something useful.’

For the past week, more than 1200 events have been on offer to people
throughout Britain, from Orkney to Plymouth. It took a small group within
the British Association for the Advancement of Science six months to put
the programme together, backed by £100 000 of government money. The
intention, says Brian Gamble, who led the group, was to ‘try and say to
the public that science isn’t frightening, it is exciting and it can be
´Ú³Ü²Ô’.

So, in York you could get your granny barcoded. In a demonstration of
how the omnipresent black and white stripes work, an electronic sign in
the city centre welcomed people by name according to the barcode they had
been given.

In Norwich, Anglian Water laid on a ‘flight simulator’ which whizzed
14 people at a time down the toilet and into the waste pipe. They passed
down the sewer and through flocculation and aeration tanks before being
discharged into a quiet river. ‘This gives you an inside look at something
that is quite important in our lives, but which everyone tends to ignore,’
says John Nicholson of the Centre for Science Education at the University
of East Anglia.

In Dagenham, east London, the Valence House Museum organised experiments
for young children to learn about science. The place was hardly packed,
but a steady trickle of families did pass through. ‘There isn’t exactly
a lot of cultural activity in Dagenham,’ observed one of the staff. ‘We’ve
about cornered the market.’

Radio and television have put on special series of programmes, and there
is even a ‘helpline’ for people who want to ask questions on science.

The possibility of another SET7 will depend on how well the past week’s
activities have been received. Judged by numbers alone, it already seems
to have been a success. Eric Wharton of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory,
who organised an ambitious programme for the Oxford and Reading areas, reckons
the final tally for his events will be 5000.

But has anyone learnt anything? ‘I know that nuclear power stations
are dangerous but they produce a lot of electricity,’ said one of the would-be
saboteurs from Leicester. Did they like science? Yes, they agreed, but
their favourite subject was still drama.