British Science Festival comes to Birmingham.

Subjects as diverse as The Simpsons and Star Wars to fracking and floods all go under the microscope at this year’s British Science Festival, which opens at the University of Birmingham this week.

Science of Star Wars (September 7th) and Simon Singh: The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets (September 9th) are just two of the free talks and events in a wide-ranging programme which takes place at the University of Birmingham campus and other venues including the Library of Birmingham and Thinktank,

Other festival events include a look at the latest news from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, how dinosaurs rose to prominence and an examination of the role of geology and mining on the Western Front in World War I.

The British Science Festival (www.britishsciencefestival.org), which runs from September 6th-11th at the University of Birmingham, is the spotlight event of Birmingham Year of Science 2014 (www.birminghamyearofscience2014.com), a Birmingham City Council initiative aimed at showcasing the city’s celebrated successes in the fields of science, technology and learning.

Guest speakers include Professor Alice Roberts, British Science Association President Sir Paul Nurse and David Willetts, UK Minister for Universities and Science.

Sir Albert Bore, Leader of Birmingham City Council, said: “The British Science Festival and Birmingham Year of Science 2014 are all about the people – from our local scientists and engineers sharing their discoveries and passion to visiting experts and personalities bringing science to life. Birmingham has both a proud scientific heritage and an exciting future, which make it the ideal host city for a year of science and the British Science Festival.”