The Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) and participants in the US based COPUS Network as well as colleagues from around the world are celebrating 2009 as the Year of Science, a national year-long celebration of science to engage the public in science and improve public understanding about how science works, why it matters, and who scientists are.
There are many reasons to celebrate science. With the many seminal anniversaries that are on the horizon in 2009, it seemed only logical that we should celebrate them as a community! From astronomy to zoology we are all here—ready to support public understanding of the process and nature of science in an exploration of “how we know what we know.”
• Darwin Day - This annual international celebration will have added value in 2009 as we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th Anniversary of the publication of On the Origins of Species.
• The 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln (whose contributions to science include founding the National Academy of Science, as well as creating the Land grant system of agricultural colleges through signing the Morrill Act, which was very important to the development of applied biological sciences).
• The 400th anniversary of the publication of Johannes Kepler’s first two Laws of Planetary Motion.
• The 100th anniversary of the discovery of the Burgess Shale by the paleontologist Charles D. Walcott.
• The 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of a telescope to study the skies.
• The 100th anniversary of the establishment of USDA Forest Service Experimental Forest and Ranges, the largest system of dedicated experimental sites in the US.
http://www.yearofscience2009.org
http://www.copusproject.org
March celebrates physics and technology and is a great month to celebrate Physics because March 14th (3/14) = Pi day and Albert Einstein’s birthday!
Year of Science Launch Event
The Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel
425 Summer Street
Boston, MA 02210
The Year of Science 2009 official launch event will take place in Boston on January 3, 2009, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology and the Boston regional hub. Ira Flatow, host of Science Friday, opens the meeting with a presentation at 6:30 p.m.
January 5, 2009 the launch celebration continues with:
12:00 noon
Launch of the Understanding Science Web site with Ken Miller and Natalie Kuldell
1:00 PM-3:00 PM
“Communicating Science in Year of Science 2009: Science Blogging, Science Cafés, and Science Festivals”
“Off the Page: Blogging About Science” with Carl Zimmer
“A Scientist Walks Into a Bar: Reaching New Audiences With Science Cafes” with Ben Wiehe
“Celebrating Science and Technology in the Community: The Cambridge Science Festival” with John Durant
http://www.yearofscience2009.org/calendar/events/
