York Science and Innovation Grand Tour 2012
May, June & July 2012
Celebrating and promoting York’s global contribution to science and innovation, this Grand Tour will see up to 100 large-scale stunning, educational and compelling images exhibited in the open air around the city.
This visually stunning celebration and promotion of the City of York’s phenomenal achievements in science and innovation will be on display in May, June and July 2012.
Themed images and messages are to be displayed in outdoor prime locations around the city highlighting York as a leading international centre for science and innovation.
York is now a leading international centre for science and technology.
With more than 500 technology companies in and around York, there are real jobs for thousands of local people. York can be proud of many global and ground-breaking achievements, including those below amongst many others;
- A teenage astronomer from York was the first to measure the brightness of stars, the foundations for the modern measurement of the universe. He was deaf and dumb and died at the age of 21 in 1786. He was called John Goodricke.
Goodricke carried out his astronomical work in the Treasurer’s House behind York Minster. A story of achievement over adversity, he was awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society for his work on variable stars but died the same year at the age of only 21.
- William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, born in York in 1800, was the first to identify ‘spiral galaxies’. During the 1840s he built, a 72-inch (1.83 m) telescope called the ‘Leviathan’.
It was the world's largest telescope until the early 20th century and was considered a marvelous technical and architectural achievement.
- John Snow, born in York in 1813, pioneer in anaesthesia, was recently voted ‘greatest doctor ever’