Festival: National Science and Engineering Week, various venues, until March 24 2013

Returning with a 2013 theme of Invention and Discovery, the British Science Association’s annual mass outbreak of ingenuity features more than 4,000 events.

Highlights include a tour around Newcastle’s Discovery Museum to meet five of the finest Victorian inventors – William Armstrong, Charles Parsons, Joseph Swan and George and Robert Stephenson – and food-themed, often-edible experiments at the Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum.

The National Railway Museum, in York, sent robots onto the streets this week, flyering for the Robots Live show which will conclude a week of kinetic demonstrations in a specially-built arena, shadowed by a rope-climbing skeleton and a full-size Dalek.

“We are really proud to have been involved in the festival for more than a decade,” says Noel Hartley, the museum’s Rail Events organiser.

“This is an incredible event, full of excitement for people of all ages.

“Hopefully we will get a new generation of people talking about the wonders of science.”

The programme is notable for its online resources and ideas, proving particularly popular with schools.

• Visit NSEW online for full details. Follow the festival on Twitter @ScienceWeekUK.