BS: Interactivity is the obvious example but can you think of any other ways in which Techniquest seeks to engage the public or visitors with science?
TS: We don't have a strong - interest in outreach. I'm sure some of my colleagues would blench when I said that but I - we - do it in various aspects. That is we have a travelling planetarium, that schools can book. We have mini-exhibits in little themes in big boxes that schools can borrow. They have to pay for it now, we used to do it free but we haven't got the funding to allow it to be free any more. But there is, say a box of mini-exhibits on electricity and magnetism. And on light, and on things like that and if schools want them then they look a bit like Techniquest exhibits but they can be taken out there, they can keep them for a fortnight or however long and there is a booklet and whatever in order to guide ways in which they can be used as a sort of fun activity for the kids to use in parallel with whatever they're doing in their science.
We used to be - the local base for the British Association for the Advancement of Science local lecture service. But I think that has more or less fallen by the wayside now. It was never a strong activity - but it is something that I feel we could pick up and promote. But it needs funding it needs people to do these things - and I don't think they're doing it very much at the moment.