ANNABEL COOK heralds Oxfordshire Science Week which aims to broaden the subject's appeal

Holograms, prosthetic limbs, honey bees and onion DNA have one thing in common - they are all part of Oxfordshire Science Week, which runs from March 7-16. The celebrations bring together Oxford University, museums, science centres and researchers from around the county for ten days of events at 11 different venues around Oxfordshire.

The week kicks off on Friday, March 7, with a debate entitled How would you spend £2bn to transform British science?

Science broadcaster Sue Nelson joins leading researchers from Oxford University, including the Campaign for Science and Engineering at the Department of Physics, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory to discuss what they would fund and how they justify their choices.

On March 8 is one of the week's largest events, Wow! How?, held at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

This family science fair attracts thousands of visitors to stalls run by volunteers showing off their favourite experiments. If you ever wanted to know how to make slime or what happens to a marshmallow in a vacuum, this is the event for you.

Later in the week, on March 13, the festival takes a step into the arts with a play at the Burton Taylor Studio about Robert Hooke - England's Leonardo - called Hanging Hooke. Hooke was a natural philosopher whose scientific talents led him to a variety of areas, including attempting to measure the distance to a star and, most famously, coining the word 'cell' to describe the basic unit of life.

The week concludes with a two-day event at Science Oxford.

Science in the Kitchen explores scientific phenomenon using household materials and equipment. Find out how to investigate ink using jelly and batteries, make paint from eggs, or explore the chemistry of polymers using custard powder.

This is just a small selection of the events taking place during the week, and there are several others which run for the whole ten days.

A full brochure is available at venues across the county or can be downloaded from www.oxtrust.org.uk/scienceweek. The team behind the Oxfordshire Science Week events hope you enjoy the celebrations as much as they will.

Annabel Cook is from the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics. The Science Matters page is co-ordinated by Science Oxford, cultural centre for science in St Clements, Oxford. For more information, visit www.scienceoxford.com.