Is a scientist someone who wears a white coat, big glasses, and looks, well, frankly, a bit of a geek? Or is a scientist someone who says ‘Hmm. What’s going on here?’

Quite honestly, if Robert Boyle hadn’t asked himself that question all those years ago in the 1650s in Magdeburg, he wouldn’t be revered today as the father of modern chemistry. The 19 year old, confident that air pressure creates a vacuum, stood firm against the powerful Catholic Church critics and travelled the world to make his case until everyone came round to his way of thinking.  The wonderfully enthusiastic Gareth and John, presenters of ‘The Air Show’, part of JAGS Science Week, demonstrated how air pressure holds two spheres together and delivered a few other scientific home truths to Year 10 with great panache. A skilled double-act of comedians, they had their audience utterly absorbed as they explained different principles using unsuspecting volunteers. Hairdryers and bin bags spring to mind (think very large vacuum-packing), and you’ll have to ask a Year 10 about the hairspray and the cucumber. The Lecture Theatre became a missile launch pad; explosions, screams and laughter in equal measures. Finally we submitted; we had learned loads and had loads reinforced in dazzlingly quick succession:  air is a conductor of sound and movement, and oxygen supports combustion. That’s quite enough for a Monday morning.