Last week saw the 2008 SciFoo, the annual ‘unconference’ organized by Nature, Tim O’Reilly and Google. Topics ranged from the Large Hadron Collider to the neuroscience of the brain–machine interface and a new social contract for science. For a collection of blog and other internet articles about the conference, please see here. “Editors’ choice” articles can be found here. And for those whose interest extends even further, a collection of photos can be accessed here. Background information about SciFoo 2008 can be found at this Nature Network group.