Opened in 1997, the City of Arts & Science in Valencia has become one of Spain's biggest tourist attractions. So what's the science like? Science File goes to find out...

They call Valencia the city of light. It is said that the light there is stronger, brighter, clearer than elsewhere. Certainly, when we visited Valencia the sun beat down mercilessly and the colours of everything were rich and vibrant, but whether the light has its own particular qualities is difficult to say.  Whether unique or not,  the almost-painfully bright Valencian sunlight is the perfect illumination for the City of Arts and Science. Situated to the east of the city, at the end of the river Turia (or rather, where the river Turia used to be - what's known as the "great flood" of 1957 altered the course of the river to flow south of Valencia: its old course is now a splendid park which cuts right through the heart of the city), the complex has become a major tourist attraction.

Designed by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela, and opened in 1997, construction was both expensive - an estimated 120 million Euros - and controversial, being seen by many as merely a vanity project being pushed by the socialists behind the plan. The City is home to a science museum, IMAX / Planetarium, arts palace and Europe's largest aquarium, the Oceanographic. A huge conference centre, the Ágora, is also currently under construction, as is a central square where sporting events, concerts and other outdoor activities are planned. The architecture of the City of Arts and Sciences is stunning and futuristic, and it makes one wonder why no sci-fi movies have ever, as far as I know, been filmed there.  The whole site screams science fiction - it's like an SF Brigadoon, a city whisked back in time from the far future. For me, it would be the perfect setting for a World Government to have its headquarters: one can almost see groups of men and women in white robes walking among the buildings, calmly discussing global legislation for peace and prosperity. But perhaps the most striking thing about the City of Arts and Science is that one can walk to it from the beautiful mediaeval centre of Valencia, along the park, and suddenly be transported forward hundreds of years to a space-age vista which looks like it belongs on another planet.

But what is the City of Arts and Science for? Why was it built? What were its architects and designers trying to achieve? What goes on there? And, of most relevance here, what is the science like? On a glorious summer's day, in temperatures of 35 degrees, my wife and I went to find answers to these questions.

Ah yes, the "why". According to the official blurb, the purpose of the City is "science, nature and art in a complex devoted to scientific and cultural dissemination in Europe".This phrase does not, in all honesty, tell you a lot. If this were the opening line in a glossy corporate brochure, one would expect the paragraph to be enititled Mission Statement and the following lines to contain words like synergy and paradigm. One goal of our visit to the City of Arts and Science would clearly have to be finding out what this dissemination means in practice.