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Every year, Science Magazine teams up with the National Science Foundation to host the International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. Participants are asked to enter photographs, illustrations, informational graphics, videos, and even interactive games to be judged on their visual impact and ability to communicate a scientific idea. More »
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The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a pretty serious organization, and every year they have a very serious conference devoted to things like helping people in the developing world, saving the environment, curing cancer, and solving the global energy crisis. We at io9, however, are not quite as serious. In fact, we're the kind of people who shouldn't be allowed off leashes, especially in places where science is being done. Here's what we did at AAAS after we escaped from the security guards who tried to stop us from stealing skulls from the evolution exhibit and replacing them with little models of the monolith from 2001.* More »
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Definitely one of the coolest symposia at AAAS was the one this afternoon devoted to the Martian rovers — past, present, and future. On the panel were NASA's Richard Cook, who helped design Spirit and Opportunity as well as the next Martian rover; Steven Squyres, a Cornell geologist who has been working with Spirit and Opportunity to get as many geological samples as he can while the rovers survive; and Andrew Knoll, a Harvard planetologist who has studied the evidence for Martian water extensively (including whether it could support life as we know it). I've got highlights from the panel below, plus a giant gallery of pictures of a life-sized model of the new rover, the Mars Science Lab Rover (MSL), which will be blasting off late next year and landing on the red planet in 2010. More »
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As you read this, I'm on a plane zooming to Boston where I will meet up with a zillion other science geeks at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. I'm speaking on a panel about science blogging on Saturday afternoon, along with several other distinguished panelists including Patricia Campbell, one of the authors of the famous study How Schools Shortchange Girls. I'll spend the rest of the conference hunting down cool ideas and bringing them to you. Expect reports on everything from climate change to biotech and federal funding for science. And if you're at AAAS, drop me a line and say hello! AAAS Annual Meeting [official site with schedule] More »
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