Tuesday, December 20, 2011

FAQs about the Call for Entries

In this tumultuous time of finals, crazed shoppers, end-of-the-year frenzy, schizophrenic weather, and, of course, the Call for Entries for Cambridge Science Festival 2012, we at the Festival office get a lot of questions, some of which I will answer en masse here today.

Q: I am John Doe and have a great idea for a CSF event, but am not affiliated with a University, company, etc.  Can I still put in an event entry?
A: Absolutely! We love to see all the different ideas out there for the Festival.  Keep in mind - whether or not your entry will be chosen depends on where your event lands on the awesomeometer.

Q: It is after December 6th, are you still taking Entries for CSF?
A: Yes!  But pretty please, get them in as soon as possible!  (For the sake of our sanity, we'll put our foot down for a hard stop in January.)

Q: I am part of XxxxxX Group and want to be part of the Festival, but don't know what to do!
A: Technically not a question, but we've still got an answer (or several):
  • Do a fun booth activity at the Science Carnival (past examples: liquid nitrogen ice cream, lego DNA, robotics demonstrations).  Also, the Carnival this year is a Circus!  Can you do something in the circus theme?
  • Create an engaging event highlighting science and technology (one such off-the-wall idea: a Science Crawl).  
  • Many organizations are already doing cool events for the community, we'd love to highlight them at the Festival!
  • There's still time to be highlighted as a Cambridge Science Festival Sponsor for 2012!  Check it out.
  • Contact us, and we can chat.

Q: I am ____@___.uk and have this great idea for the Festival...
A: ...Pretty sure you're looking for the Cambridge UK Science Festival... but we'd love to have you!

Q: Who are you, and what exactly do you do? [People are generally more polite than that though.]
A: Keep tuned in!  We'll have Festival staff profiles going up on the blog into the New Year!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Link Salad, bon appetit

Tips to hack together a 3-course meal with a coffeemaker and much more… particularly enjoying the how to brew beer with a coffeemaker!
 
Everyone is wrong about how people die when they fall into lava

Mother and child’s hearts beat together…

Teeth are evolved fish scales?

This Whale Song project invites citizen scientists to help marine researchers understand what whales are saying.

An interesting exercise:
How to picture the size of the universe

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Links of the Week

Miscellanea of cool science linkage:

The uncertainty of memory, Courts are catching on...

Gender-typed science learning kits and why they won't help further Science
…and the speedy response to the blog

Explore interesting science in some of this year’s best science books!

Gene identified for needing less sleep. Now when will we get to modify that gene?

Flexible robots!
 
Ravens point using beak and wings!
http://www.livescience.com/17213-ravens-gestures-animal-communication.html

edit:
Not a recent blog post, but the first time I've run across it - some interesting claims!
"Botox may diminish the experience of emotions" 
http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2010/04/botox_may_diminish_the_experience_of_emotions.php