Scientific finds (From York Press)

Scientific finds

8:50am Saturday 13th March 2010 in

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THERE are plenty of walking tours of York – taking in everything from the city’s Roman and Viking history, to Henry VIII, ghosts and even chocolate.

Now there is a new one, launched as part of the 13th York Festival of Science and Technology. The Secret Science walk aims to introduce you to a different side of York’s history – the contribution we have made to science.

Strictly speaking it’s not a guided walk, admits Matthew Greenwood, the man who designed it. It is more of a treasure hunt. You pick up a map and quiz sheet, and follow a one-mile trail around the city centre, searching for clues and answering questions as you go. “And hopefully you’ll start to see the city through fresh eyes,” Matthew says.

He certainly did. He’s not a scientist admits the boss of Exploring York, which organises walking tours of the city. But designing this latest trail to specifications drawn up by Science City York opened his eyes. “I learned quite a lot.”

The trail starts at the National Railway Museum (NRM). Matthew is a mine of fascinating, if rather useless, information – such as the fact that it was the lack of domestic horses during the Napoleonic war that helped drive the search for alternative power sources for transport, and ultimately led to Stephenson’s Rocket, a replica of which is kept at the NRM.

And why weren’t there enough horses around for domestic use? “They were all being diverted for use in the war effort,” Matthew says. Obvious, really. So thank you, Boney – you indirectly helped drive the transport revolution.

There are a couple of “treasure hunt” questions for you to answer based on exhibits at the NRM, before the trail takes you out on to Leeman Road. After a diversion to Scarborough Bridge, built by George Hudson to carry the railway line to Scarborough, you return to the city centre along the riverside walk. Next stop: Lendal Tower. The tower actually dates back to about 1300 – but in 1677 was leased to the York Waterworks Company for 500 years. It became the city’s first waterworks in 1682, pumping water into pipes that ran throughout the city. A pretty impressive feat of engineering.

There is a question about the tower, before you move on again, this time to Museum Street. Your destination here is a large Victorian building set back from the road, that was once the home of a wealthy York physician, Dr Winteringham. He worked at York County Hospital in the 18th century, Matthew says. Doctors, apparently, were even wealthier back then than they are today. “Only wealthy people had doctors!”

There is a question about the house – one that may require you to go inside and ask around. Don’t worry, though – the place is now known as The Judges’ Lodgings, and is quite used to visitors.

On to St Helen’s Square and a church dedicated to the mother of Constantine The Great, where you will learn a little about the craft (and science) of glass painting. The trail then leads to Stonegate, and the home of the York Medical Society, founded by eight “medical men” in 1832, for the purposes of “promoting and diffusing medical knowledge.” Further along Stonegate, there is a stop at the shop once owned by Thomas Cooke: the great telescope maker, that is, not the travel agent. Born in 1807, Cooke designed the Newall Telescope, which was for a while the world’s largest. One of his telescopes is still in use in the York Observatory, in Museum Gardens.

Continuing on an astronomical theme, the trail takes you to Treasurer’s House. It was from a window in this house that the young astronomer John Goodricke, left deaf and mute by a childhood illness, made the observations that earned him immortality. Observing that the star Algol varied in brightness, he suggested it might in fact be two stars, and that as they circled around each other they were each eclipsing the other. He was the first scientist to suggest such an idea.

The Secret Science trail is aimed at families – and so is suitable for all ages. Those who complete it during the ten days of the science festival and send their quiz answers to Science City will receive a special certificate.

Route details and quiz sheets for the Secret Science walk and treasure hunt will be available from the York Visitor Information Centre at the De Grey Rooms or by visiting sciencecityyork.org.uk

Festival highlights

Other science festival highlights between now and Sunday March 21 include: *Discovery Days – Family Day. Today, 10am-4pm, National Railway Museum. Hands-on science workshops to bring science to life. Free *Explore the History of Astronomy. Today, Thursday March 18 and Saturday March 20, 11.30am-2.30pm, York Observatory, Museum Gardens. Free *A Passion For Penguins. Public lecture. Today, 7pm, St Peter’s School, free.

*The Internal Workings Of A Cinema Projection Room. Monday March 15 and Tuesday March 16, 10.15am, City Screen, Coney Street. Free but booking required.

*York Neuroimaging Centre open evening. A fascinating insight into brain scanning. Tuesday March 16, 5.30pm and 6.30pm, York Neuroimaging Centre, York Science Park. Free, but booking required *Bettys & Taylors Yorkshire Rainforest Project. Join ethical trading manager Cristina Talens to find out about plans to save an area of rainforest the size of Yorkshire. Thursday March 18, 3pm, Bettys tea rooms. £10 (includes a Yorkshire cream tea).

*Experiments That Changed History. Travel through the history of science with Dr Marty Jopson, the BBC One Show’s resident scientist. Friday March 19, 7.30pm, Bootham School. £4 adults, £2 children and OAPs.

For full festival details, visit sciencecityyork.org.uk