#YuleTubeCalendar
To celebrate our love of both science and music we’ve created an online advent calendar
Check back each day in the approach to Christmas to reveal a new YouTube video which alludes to a science story from 2011. Can you guess which story we’re referring to? Leave your answers in the comments, or tweet using the hashtag #yuletubecalendar.
We have also created some simple instructions if you would like to join the fun by creating your own calendar to share. You can add videos, images or even link to other blog posts to create your own round-up of 2011.
AIDS day
World AIDS Day took place yesterday and provides an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV. In order to mark World AIDS Day, Boston blogger, Tinker Ready, has been updating her readers on local events. Do keep an eye on her blog as she also plans to be reporting from AIDS @ 30 International Symposium. To find out about other science-related events in the area, check out her calendar of events.
Don’t forget that we’ve also created Google Calendars for some of the other major science cities: London and Cambridge in the UK and DC, NYC and San Francisco in the US as well as our latest addition, Paris.
SONYC!
Make sure you join us this Thursday 8th December either in person at Rockefeller University from 7pm EST, or online via our Livestream channel for the seventh SONYC! The theme is, matching medium and messengers to meet the masses.
Attracting and maintaining an audience outside the core of science enthusiasts requires a carefully crafted match of the medium and messenger. Reaching an audience that’s already interested in science is relatively straightforward; however, reaching a broader audience can be challenging. This week’s SONYC will deliberate when and how scientists and science communicators should highlight science issues to the general public. Should we be ready to respond and correct public misunderstandings or attempt to influence science policy?
The Panelists include:
• Darlene Cavalier, the woman behind the Science Cheerleaders.
• Jamie Vernon, a science policy analyst and co-organiser of a recent video on teaching evolution in schools.
• Molly Webster, lead producer for live programming at the World Science Festival.
• Kevin Zelnio, Assistant Editor and Webmaster for Deep Sea News and a freelance writer.
The event is free to attend and includes the opportunity to meet the panellists and other attendees afterwards. If you’d like to follow the online discussion, keep an eye on the #sonyc hashtag or check back here for our write-up and storify of the online conversations. There’s also a SoNYC Twitter account and Facebook page where you can find information.
FameLab
FameLab, set up in 2005 by Cheltenham Science Festival, is an international competition for science communicators and the last heats took place this week at Kings College London. A winner and a wildcard from each heat made the final on Wednesday. Nature Network London has been featuring interviews with the winners and wildcards. First up was wildcard and Imperial PhD student, Ned Yoxall. Next we heard from Babraham Institute PhD student, Harry Armstrongand. Finally a few thoughts from Harry Cliff of the High Energy Physics group at the University of Cambridge:
Hello, Harry, congratulations on making the FameLab final! Tell us a bit about what you presented and why you picked it.
I talked about bottoms and how they hold the secret to the existence of the Universe. Bottom quarks that is, tiny particles which are produced in huge numbers at the Large Hadron Collider. Particle physicists are interested in them because they can teach as a great deal about the differences between matter and antimatter. One of the great unsolved problems of particle physics and cosmology is why matter and antimatter weren’t made in equal quantities at the Big Bang. If that had happened we wouldn’t be here today as the two should have annihilated each other leaving a cold, dark and empty Universe. Bottom quarks offer an exciting opportunity to study the phenomenon known as “charge-parity symmetry violation”, which is needed to explain why matter was created in greater abundance than antimatter.
Stay tuned on the London blog for more posts on FameLab.
Tweetups
If you’re based in or around London, there are plans afoot on Twitter for a pre-Xmas #ukscitweetup. If you’d like to meet other people interested in science and science communication for an evening of chat and making new friends, follow the hashtag and complete the doodle poll to indicate your preferred date.
The trend for science tweetups has now also spread to Chicago, where the first #ChiSciTweetup will take place on Sunday January 15th. More info on their Facebook page.
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