Dear friend of Wonderfest,

Would you like to make that salutation, above, a little more meaningful?  Just capitalize the F in “friend”!  Please become a formal Friend of Wonderfest.  No blood oath is required, and “Friendship” costs nothing.  Becoming a Friend just indicates that you support the cause of informal, provocative science education, and that you might want to get involved in helping to produce Wonderfest events.  Please do consider making this small commitment to America’s oldest science festival.

Introducing! The WonderOutpost Science Forum

Should the U.S. send astronauts on a one-way mission to Mars?! The savings in time and expense would be dramatic.  It might be tantamount to a death sentence, but there’d be no shortage of qualified volunteers.  And if the U.S. doesn’t do it, won’t the Russians or the Chinese?  Discuss this fascinating topic in the brand new WonderOutpost Science Forum at wonderfest.org.

Priestley Medal winner Dick Zare

Huzzah! Wonderfest advisor Richard Zare has been honored with the very highest award of the American Chemical Society.  Professor Zare, who chairs the Stanford Chemistry Department, will receive the 2010 Priestley Medal for his distinguished service to the entire field of chemistry.  Congratulations, Dick!

Speaking of Wonderfest Advisors, Board president Dan Werthimer is waxing scientific about the search for ET at an upcoming meeting of the Bay Area Skeptics.  Dan is chief scientist for SETI@home at UC Berkeley.  Join him for good talk about little green men at La Peña’s Café Valparaíso in Berkeley on July 15 at 7:00 PM.

Reminder: If you believe that the world is better off when people are engaged with science, then please formalize your relationship with Wonderfest: Become a Friend of Wonderfest today.

Wondrously,
Tucker Hiatt, director

P.S.  Each year’s festival is quite expensive to produce.  If you know of a public-spirited company or foundation that values top-notch informal science education, kindly drop me a line: tucker@wonderfest.org