BRADFORD is set to become the centre of the country's scientific community as the National Science Festival returns to the city.

The event, hosted by the University of Bradford, will see hundreds of scientists descend on the city to discuss their latest discoveries at scores of public events with themes as varied as the lives of dinosaurs to sexual taboos in different cultures across the world.

And there will be family events, dramatic performances and even a science themed bar crawl event as well as the more academic sessions.

The festival is organised by the British Science Association, and runs from September 7 to 10, will feature almost 120 different events, as well as ground breaking annoucements.

Although many of the lectures and workshops will be about global studies or research, some will be specific to Bradford. A study by Born In Bradford, titled Pollution and Play, looks at the influence of exercise and the environment on the health of children in Bradford.

And The Air in Saltaire will reveal findings of recent air quality surveys in the model village.

On the Monday evening, there will be hands on activities and demonstrations in Bombay Stores during a celebration of Asian Fashion called From Bombay to Bradford. There will be a fashion show, sari demonstrations and a look at how dyes are used to create the vibrant colours so important to Asian fashion.

Hassan Ugail Professor of visual computing, has been part of the science festival before - when it last come to Bradford in 2011 he presented his work on how facial recognition technology can be used to detect if a person is lying.

This year he will be presenting his ground breaking work into how computer programmes can be used to use facial readings of two parents to determine what their children will look like at different stages of life. At the festival he will show visitors how he has used images of Prince William and Kate Middleton to determine what their children will look like when they are adults.

The work is part of a PHD project, and Prof Ugail hopes that when the research is complete it could revolutionise the way police look for missing people. Currently images used to age missing children use the image of the child and predict how they will age.

He said: "I've been fascinated by the human face for a long, long time and I've done a lot of work with human faces.

"With this programme we use the faces of the parents to guess what the child is going to look like. It is in its early stages, but this could be very important. It could be used by police to look for lost children.

"It can also be used to de-age people, you could use it to see what I would look like as a baby.

"Last time we did a presentation at the festival it went all over the world, it was on the BBC and CNN."

His presentation, titled "What will my baby look like?" takes place on Thursday September 10 from 10am to 11am.

The Deep Sea Biology Group from the Challenger Society for Marine Science will give a presentation on deep sea biology on Monday September 7 from 11.30 am to 1pm. They will discuss unusual creatures such as hairy-chested crabs and bone-eating worms recently discovered at the bottom of the sea.

Professor Desmond Tobin, from the Bradford Burns Unit, will discuss the latest research into human hair, and how it could hold the key to treating wounds and healing damaged skin.

He said: "The talk will guide the audience through some of the remarkable things through hair growth, and the fact it is one of only two mammalian features that we have, alongside the mammary gland, and that everything else can be found in other animals but not those two, suggests that there is something quite special for mammal biology invested in the hair.

"The event is for the curious adult who may not have had a scientific background and will be pitched at a level which won’t go into a huge amount of detail and go over the heads of the audience."

His talk will take place on Tuesday, September 8 from 12.30pm to 13.30pm.

Professor Friedel Weinert has taught philosophy at Bradford University for 20 years, and will be giving a lecture on his research into "demons" in science. The talk looks at how, throughout history, scientists have used superhuman characters to test scientific theories that couldn't be tested by mortals.

He has written a book - The Demons of Science, that will be released later this year.

He said: "Scientists have used demons to test potential theories. The ancient Greeks believes the universe was finite, and there was a fixed ending, there was no way of testing if this was true. A Greek philosopher called Archytas thought 'what if a demon could travel to the edge of the universe and poke his finger through the edge of space?' That would have meant there was space beyond the space.

"Throughout history scientists have used demons in these thought experiments. Even Einstein used demons. If you want to investigate the limit of your knowledge, the answer is to invent a demon."

His talk takes place on Tuesday 8 from 2pm to 3pm in the Richmond Building.

Anarchist Cook George Egg, fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe, will give demonstration about the science behind his absurd but resourceful cooking methods on Thursday September 10.

Engineering for Speed will look at how engineers developed the vehicles that helped Guy Martin break two world speed records. That event takes place on the Tuesday from 5pm to 6pm.

One of the cultural events during the festival will see the bars and cafes of Bradford's North Parade transformed into mini labs for the North Parade After Dark event. On the evening of Tuesday 8 from 6pm to 11pm there will be demonstrations, art performances and interactive science events spread over the numerous venues.

The night before the new Bier Keller bar will host a Algorave - an event that mixes computer algorithms with dance music.

The events are free, but many will require booking beforehand. To book a place on one of the events, or to see the full list of what is on, visit https://thelittleboxoffice.com/bsa

There will also be a box for the festival in the Atrium of the Richmond Building, at the University of Bradford, during the Festival.