BS: You said people get dragged by their kids so are you trying to reach parents through their children?
TS: Oh yes. I'm sorry I have not made that absolutely crystal clear. From a business point of view this place has got to be full every minute. If it isn't we go under. So that we have got to attract audiences. We attract them not for cynical motives of profit and things like that but because this place has been set up because if you like, the ideal that - it presents science in an interesting and amusing and attractive way to whoever comes here.
We do it for schools I suppose it was done first of all in order to fill the building during the week. But it became apparent - you always have umpteen motives for doing anything. You never do anything for one motive. I'm sure no one ever does. We do - we do it because we've got to keep this place full. But we do it basically, because it is worth doing. Why is it worth doing? Because we want to present science to as many audiences as we can. For what we reasons do we want to do that. For a host of reasons. We think we can do it for schools because we add something to the thing that schools that do that they can't provide. They do things in a school setting so the kids think of it as entirely a schools kind of thing. We take it out of the school. We show them also that it isn't something which is - boring, stuck in a lab and so on. We put it in an environment like this where you are - it is free and easy and you can amuse yourself with it.
It would be better if I tried to write this sort of thing down but those are, if you like, the germs of the ideas.
And we do it for the general public as well. And the way in which people come here - is generally speaking because their kids bring them or because they are looking for something as a diversion when it's wet.
And I'm pretty certain that it opens lots of peoples' eyes. I mean it doesn't turn them on absolutely to science they don't - you know all sort of clamour - they come again generally speaking. There's a lot of return visits.