In this bulletin:
- Networking with science communicators tonight at the Three Degrees Bar, Melbourne
- Brunch with the Naked Scientist at the Clare Café, Carlton
- UN conference – public events, a call for volunteers and information
- Upcoming media training courses in Melbourne and Sydney
- Thirty stories for thirty years
- An online calendar for physics events
- Register your biodiversity events
- The Stupid Species: Why everyone (except you) is an idiot
- Where’s Tim?
Science Centric 2010 – Australian Science Communicators Vic branch
This evening there’s a great opportunity for some face to face networking with fellow science communicators.
The Victorian branch of the Australian Science Communicators invite you to bring along your colleagues and friends for a social evening and a chance to meet other science communicators. Also you’ll find out about future ASC activities and plans in Victoria.
The event kicks off at 6:30pm at Three Degrees Bar at the QV, corner of Lonsdale & Swanston Streets.
The event is free for ASC members and $10 for non-members. The first drink is free and free canapés and nibbles are included.
For more details visit www.asc.asn.au/2010/07/science-centric-2010
Brunch with the Naked Scientist and Vic ASC
On Saturday you can join Chris Smith, aka The Naked Scientist, for brunch at the Clare Café, in Carlton from 10am – 12pm.
Chris regularly appears on Radio National Breakfast and many other radio shows around the world.
He is a medical doctor and clinical lecturer in Virology at Cambridge University, who in 2001 founded The Naked Scientists, an award-winning radio program that aims to strip science down to its bare essentials. I’ll be chairing the conversation with Chris.
The brunch costs $10 for ASC members and $30 for non-members.
The venue is the Clare Café on 421 Rathdowne Street, Carlton
Bookings are essential, for more details please visit http://nakedbrunch.eventbrite.com
This event is made possible through the Victorian Government Department of Innovation, Industry & Regional Development’s support of the National Science Week Victorian Committee’s “Invite a scientist to dinner’ program.
UN conference: public events, call for volunteers, who’s involved in global health
Melbourne is hosting a UN conference at the end of August.
The conference, entitled Advance Global Health – Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, brings together hundreds of non-governmental organisation (NGO) representatives from around the world to focus on a topic of interest related to the work of civil society and NGOs in collaboration with the United Nations.
Officially it’s the 63rd Annual UN Department of Public Information Non Governmental Organizations Conference or 63rd UN DPI NGO. It runs from Monday 30 August to Wednesday 1 September.
The conference comes at a critical time for the Millennium Development Goals which have been set back by the global financial crisis and for the The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria which will be seeking a further $20 billion in October.
Access to the conference is limited to accredited delegates and media only. However you can get involved:
- Through a range of public events – details soon
- By volunteering for the conference
- By helping us compile a list of global health research in Australia.
Volunteers
The conference is looking for volunteers to help in several areas.
I’m chief of staff in the media room and we are also looking for volunteers, skilled and unskilled.
Volunteer roles at the conference include:
- Ushering and general logistics
- Information and registration
- Event and Exhibits
- Media centre
- Rapporteurs for workshops
For more details or to apply to volunteer, visit http://lucidcreations.wufoo.com/forms/volunteer-application
If you want to help with the media centre then also contact me – niall@scienceinpublic.com.au
Upcoming media training courses
We have a series of media training courses coming up in Melbourne and Sydney
These courses are for scientists and anyone who needs to communicate complex and technical ideas via the media. Three working journalists join us over the course of the day to talk about what they are seeking in a news story. They will also conduct practice interviews. Previous participants tell us that after the course they feel more prepared not just for media interviews, but also for presentations to stakeholders, customers and the public.
Our next courses are:
- Thursday 19 August at the Clare Café, Carlton, MELBOURNE
- Wednesday 15 September, SYDNEY
- Friday 24 September at the Clare Café, Carlton, MELBOURNE
- Wednesday 13 October at the Clare Café, Carlton, MELBOURNE
- Wednesday 17 November at the Clare Café, Carlton, MELBOURNE
Each course runs from 9.30am to 5pm.
The cost is $650 + GST per person and includes morning tea, coffee and lunch.
More information at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/blog/training
Thirty stories for thirty years
A special event at the Shanghai World Expo has marked the 30th anniversary of the official partnership in science between Australia and China.
During the past three decades Australian and Chinese researchers have worked together on projects such as reducing child mortality rates, treating eye and skin disease using lasers and capturing solar energy.
We produced a commemorative book for DIISR highlighting some of these collaborations.
The book is available at: http://www.innovation.gov.au/Section/science/Documents/Aust-ChinaBook.pdf
And there’s a copy of Kim Carr’s media release at http://www.scienceinpublic.com/blog/other/china
Physics news and events
The Australian Institute of Physics now has an online calendar for all physics events in the country.
You can browse online, add events to your personal calendar, and submit your own events. More details at
http://www.scienceinpublic.com/blog/events/aip-events
We also produce a monthly bulletin for the AIP. You can subscribe by dropping me an email. If you would like a similar calendar for your organisation please call me.
Biodiversity news
The Council of Australasian Museum Directors is coordinating a national celebration of the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity. They’re keen to hear from anyone who is running events with a biodiversity theme.
You can register your events at http://www.biodiversity2010.org.au
We’re also producing a monthly newsletter for them. If you’d like to receive a copy just email me or rss the feed on our web. Past issues are at http://www.scienceinpublic.com/blog/category/bulletins/biodiversity-bulletin where you can read about digging up worms, making whales, Mr Blobby and much more.
The Stupid Species: Why everyone (except you) is an idiot.
Daniel Keogh, reporter for ABC’s Hungry Beast and Radio National’s Science Show, is on tour for National Science Week to show why human stupidity is unavoidable.
The Stupid Species is an over -18s science show involving hilarious experiments, films, animations and stories that show the science and psychology of why everyone is capable of incredible stupidity.
The show is touring through August as part of National Science Week and will be visiting Perth, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane.
“We all like to think we’re special. In fact on average everyone thinks they’re above-average. Although we think we’re pretty smart our tendency towards irrational behaviour is what unites us all as humans – the stupid species,” says Daniel Keogh.
He’s in Melbourne giving a free show with free drinks on 8 pm on Wednesday 18 August at the Kaleide Theatre, 360 Swanston St, Melbourne.
Full tour dates online at www.scienceinpublic.com/blog/other/stupid
Where’s Tim?
You can listen to Tim Thwaites, our resident science writer and broadcaster, every second Tuesday after the 11 pm news talking with Tony Delroy on the ABC’s local radio network, and talking with Luke Grant on Melbourne Talk Radio every Wednesday after 10.