Biology Week 2013 was kick started by the Society of Biology East Anglia branch's Big Biology Day held at Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge on the 12th October. This was the second year that Ian Harvey and Amanda Burton have run the Big Biology Day, and following on from the success of last year, this year was double the size, with an estimated 1000 people attending.

The event was family friendly and aimed to increase public engagement with biology by providing lots of different hands-on activities for people to learn from. There were 17 stands around the hall, which varied widely from the Linnean Society, where they offered quizzes on creature identification, to a stand put together by Stamford High School presenting their student projects, including a design of the ideal woodlouse house.

The British Science Association of Cambridgeshire offered many exciting activities involving microscopes and DNA extraction, while The Physiological Society partnered with Addenbrooke's Hospital to test the size of you lungs and compare your heart rate and oxygen levels, both proving entertaining and informative.

One of the main attractions at the Big Biology Day was Dr Mike Leahy and the ZooBus, where he invited people on for a close up view of the exotic animals on board, which included rescued tarantulas, a boa constrictor and a bearded dragon!

Altogether the event proved to be a huge success, with many people commenting on how impressed they were with all the activities on offer and how engaging and accessible they were for the younger participants.