Happy Science Week

Helen Gardiner, Chair of the National Science Week Committee in Victoria, encourages you to participate in an array of inspiring activities as Australia celebrates science and innovation from 13-21 August.

Under Brazil’s new ‘Science Without Frontiers’ program, 100 000 students are being given scholarships to attend the world’s best universities. Why? According to Brazil’s science and technology minister Aloizio Mercadante, Brazil lags behind in innovation because it is not up to date with world trends in science, engineering and technology. Like all such policy-makers, the minister knows that such an investment enriches the investors in many ways.

I am looking forward to the launch of National Science Week on Saturday 13 August because it kicks off Australia’s largest national festival, which is all about innovation.

Like our friends in Brazil, the science policy-makers who support Science Week know that the solutions to Australian and worldwide environmental and health problems are going to come from having educated brains working quietly and systematically to find new ways for us all to live and work, informed by discussions about options with all our communities.

So we set about to support and create over 100 events across Victoria which are designed to inspire parents, enthuse future scientists, take researchers out into our communities and, along the way, even put on some theatre!

I was at the May preview of a delightful piece of theatre called ‘Faraday’s Candle’ at St Paul’s Cathedral in the heart of Melbourne.  The fundamental science of carbon is a sweet conclusion to this very entertaining adult theatre piece.  Set to be in the Fringe Festival in September, its run in Geelong during National Science Week will surely be a success and I know that I will never look at a candle the same way again.

Happy Science Week! I hope you will join me in our celebration of the role that science plays in continually pushing us out of our comfort zones to stimulate and challenge us into thinking differently about how we have come to view the world and the way it works.

Helen Gardiner is the Communications Manager for the Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative and Chair of the National Science Week Committee in Victoria. Her committee is made up of her peers working in science communication across a range of institutions. With a significant five year funding agreement with the Victorian Government (now the Department of Business and Innovation), and ongoing support from CSIRO and the Federal Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, the committee drove the employment of program officers who work directly with community and school groups to ‘craft inspiring science experiences for all Victorians’.

Helen was snapped with Charles Darwin at ‘Hypothesis’ during Science Week 2009.

Life size cut-outs of Charles Darwin and Marie Curie are available for loan – contact Carly at admin@re-science.org.au