Press Releases

Have you got the science X Factor ?

The search is on for the new face of science and Swansea’s National Waterfront Museum could be your launching pad.

The £33.5 million attraction is hosting one of the five regional heats of the FameLab competition which attracted hundreds of hopefuls last year.

FameLab is a national competition to discover the new public faces of UK science and is an initiative of the Cheltenham Science Festival and Nesta. The competition is supported by Channel 4 and the Daily Telegraph.

Last year’s competition saw Dr Mark Lewney from Cardiff pick up first prize with his dramatic rock guitar presentation and former physics graduate from Swansea, 28-year-old Dr Andrew Bebb as one of the runners-up.

Now living in Brighton and working for the University of Sussex, Andrew, whose parents live in Morriston, is encouraging others to enter FameLab 2006.

He said: “I spent a lot of time watching others communicating science, thinking ‘I’m sure I could do that’, but the opportunity never arose until the FameLab competition.”

“As for FameLab itself: well there’s nothing quite like it out there. It has a sense of glamour, credibility and excitement to it, and many would say those are three things that we’d like to have associated with engineering and science.”

To reach FameLab Andrew gave two presentations, one on Invar, an alloy, using balloons, a giant toy magnet, and some carefully edited pop music as well as a pot of giant edible ants to explain complex systems.

If you want to capture the imagination of all the non-scientists out there and follow in the footsteps of David Attenborough and Robert Winston, find out more by visiting www.famelab.org.

To enter, you need to be working in science and able to present a scientific topic of your choice at the National Waterfront Museum on March 19. You could also be the first to see the science presenters of the future by joining the audience. The event is between 10am and 5pm.

Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales is the new name for the National Museums & Galleries of Wales, which operates seven museums across Wales - National Museum Cardiff, St Fagans: National History Museum, National Roman Legion Museum, Caerleon, Big Pit: National Coal Museum, Blaenafon, National Wool Museum, Dre-fach Felindre, National Slate Museum, Llanberis and the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea.

Entry to all Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales sites is free, thanks to the support of the Welsh Assembly Government.

Notes to Editors:

FameLab is an initiative of Cheltenham Science Fesitval and NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and supported by Pfizer, The Daily Telegraph, Research Councils UK and Channel 4.

Picture caption: Dr Andrew Bebb from Swansea who was a FameLab finalist last year.

For more info contact:
Fay Harris
Press and Marketing
National Waterfront Museum
Email:fay.harris@museumwales.ac.uk
Tel: 01792 638970