Dear friend of Wonderfest,
Among the developing nations, particularly of Asia, “There is a hunger for knowledge, an insistence on excellence, a reverence for science and math and technology and learning. That used to be what we were about. That’s what we’re going to be about again.”
President Obama spoke these words on Monday during a nationally televised address describing a new initiative in science and math education. The entire text of the president’s inspiring “Educate to Innovate” speech is available here.
The President also called for “an informed citizenry, in an era where many of the problems we face as a nation are, at root, scientific problems.” I wish someone had told Mr. Obama about our little Bay Area tool for building a scientifically informed citizenry: Wonderfest!
What a great weekend we had! The peninsula and the east bay sparkled with the excitement of science as Wonderfest 2009 took place at Stanford, on Nov. 7, and UC Berkeley, on Nov. 8.
We participated in expert discussions on energy technology, media violence, modern Darwinism, space robots, emotion & spirituality, and the creation of brand new lifeforms. We laughed with science comedians; we heard 20,000-volt “modulated thunder;” and we marveled at our own fallibility made plain by a neuroscientist magician. But perhaps best of all, we taught each other at the Amateur Science Forum and the Bay Area Science Expo.
To relive some of these experiences, you can watch high-quality Wonderfest videos and then let the world know your thoughts: Wonderfest 2009 videos and blogs are now accessible from Wonderfest.org!
Happy Thanksgiving,
Tucker Hiatt
Director
P.S. Thanks to Robin Farmanfarmaian and Herb Masters, lots of nice images from Wonderfest 2009 are available in our new Facebook photo gallery.
