[2] The 2014 Orkney International Science Festival was opened by documentary film-maker Alan Ereira, and featured over 50 events on topics of astronomy, archaeology, the Arctic, the science of a lost city, Vikings, the search for a lost undersea world, ancient catastrophes on Earth, and supermassive black holes.
[3] The 2014 festival was opened by the former chief scientist of the Discovery Channel, Professor Steve ‘Jake’ Jacobs.
[4] Topics of the festival ranged from the origin of life in space, to clues from genetics to the people of the Viking Age.
In 2015, the "International Year of Light" will be a theme of the festival, featuring a conversation with Nobel Prizewinner Peter Higgs, and with highlights including the Higgs boson, Einstein's universe, Maxwell's waves, exploring Mars and Venus, our changing weather, and cracking the cancer code.
It covered hydrogen fuel technology for transport, the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of Antarctic's seas and topics such as particle physics and black holes.