KATHERINE MACALISTER ezxplores the wealth of fascinating events on offer at Oxford Science Festival Making slime, getting up close and personal with wildlife, creating your own fossils, concocting ice cream using liquid nitrogen and extracting DNA from fruit are just some of the things you can do at Oxford Science Festival.

And this year will see more than 110 science events taking place over three weeks, securing OSF’s place as one of the biggest and fastest growing science festivals in the country.

Prof Marcus du Sautoy, festival patron and advisor says: “Oxfordshire is world famous for outstanding scientific discoveries and we have some of the greatest minds working on our doorstep. The Oxfordshire Science Festival gives you the opportunity to meet and talk to world-class scientists and have a go at science yourself.”

From Banbury to Burford and beyond, people will have the opportunity to stretch their minds at seminars or as festival manager Renee Watson puts it: “Even the biggest science-phobe can enjoy the festival. With events in pubs, hospitals and shopping centres, OSF is as much about science in everyday life as it is about cutting edge inventions and what happens in labs. There are no barriers so people can talk about and question things that intrigue them about the world of science.”

And here’s some suggestions from us at The Guide on where to get started: 1Science in the Kitchen, tomorrow 10am-3pm – Try some real science using everyday household equipment. Explore the psychology of food, extract DNA from strawberries and investigate the ink in pens.

Learn just how much science you can do in your own kitchen. The event is being run by Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford and takes place at Oxford’s Museum of Natural History. Entry is free.

2Day Out With Thomas The Tank Engine at Didcot Railway Centre. This weekend Thomas will be welcomed by his friends the Great Western engines.

During the day there will be magic shows, Punch & Judy and a circus workshop and children can take part in activities in the Imagination Station.

At 11.30am and at 2.30pm poor ‘Diesel’ will be trying to sort out the ‘Troublesome Trucks’ and you can see ‘Ducks Dilemma’ by the turntable at 1pm.

3 Be a Farmer for a Day at Farmer Gow’s in Faringdon. Livestock farming is one of the oldest human occupations. Join this hands-on, action packed day in the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside for children aged 10+ on Saturday, March 5.

4 The making of an Urban Nature Park. Twenty years ago the city council gave Oxford Urban Wildlife Group the lease to some derelict allotments in the heart of East Oxford. On Thursday, March 17, Janet Keene will explain how the site has developed into a thriving nature park with a variety of peaceful habitats, each with a rich assortment of resident and visiting wildlife.

5Charismatic physicist Brian Greene, author of bestseller The Elegant Universe, returns to enrich our view of life in The Hidden Reality: Parallel Worlds and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos. He shows how key theories about the true nature of reality arrive unbidden from mathematical descriptions of what we can measure and observe.

The event takes place on Monday, March 14, at Said Business School, Oxford.

* For a full list of events taking place during the Oxfordshire Science Festival, visit oxfordshirescience festival.co.uk