Now is really not the time to start picking on the Brits, but we'll just slip this one in quietly. Around 30% of surveyed Poms incorrectly believed that time travel was possible, while only 7.2% of Australians fell for it. That said, 71.6% of surveyed Australians incorrectly believe scientists have found life on other planets. And 42.6% belief in reverse cryonics. Ha! Dummies. (I don't even know what that means.)

It's National Science Week, boys and girls, and the annual Ultimo Science Festival is blasting off. There will be two weeks of atoms-colliding and sheep-cloning and rocket-launching going down across the Powerhouse Museum, Ultimo TAFE and University of Technology Sydney. There are fun facts for your brain tanks and plenty of opportunity to get your hands dirty in all sorts of chemicals.

Wilson da Silva, editor of COSMOS Magazine, will take to the stage to bust myths such as those perpetrated above in the Fact or Fiction forum presented by ANSTO. There will also be crash courses on chocolate alchemy and a curator's tour of the Museum's science and technology storage collection.

Take your little brother or your date and have some geeky fun. Go, listen, learn how the world works.