I recently returned from a rather EPIC trip to Australia, where I was grateful to be a part of one of the coolest new trends in the world: partying for SCIENCE. The "I Fu*king Love Science Live" show in Sydney was hosted by Elise Andrew, founder and creator of the 'I Fu*king Love Science' Facebook phenomenon and Derek Muller of 'Veritasium'. The entire event was the brainchild of Chris Cassella, who is the administrator of Science Alert, Australia's most popular science news outlet. Cassella's idea was simple: to throw a fantastic party that would showcase many of the greatest talents in the world of science communication. The event kicked off Australia's national science week, and was a massive success. Over 700 tickets sold out in less than 40 minutes. The standing-room-only crowd was jam-packed with young, self-proclaimed 'science nerds' and a great time was had by all. Cassella was able to bask in the overwhelming success of hosting one of the most massive, international science parties around.
The show itself included a cast of characters like Henry Reich of Minute Physics, Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy, Myself of Wild Sex, Mitch Moffit and Greg Medlock of ASAP Science, and Destin Sandlin of Smarter Every Day. Local Australian celebrities Robin Williams, Dr. Karl and Adam Spencer were also in full performance mode, and many local scientists participated in a 'meet and greet' area to chat with attendees about any aspect of science.
Here's a great little synopsis video put together by the University of New South Wales:
In addition to the Sydney event, our crew was flown up to Townsville to take part in some activities hosted by James Cook University. Many of the faculty members presented to us on their research, and in the evening we all took part in a panel discussion to another sold out crowd of (mostly) students. It was so gratifying to see the huge turnout! The wonderful hospitality of James Cook University continued with a visit to Orpheus Island Research Station for a weekend of hiking and snorkeling.
You'd think we might be done at this point. We weren't. ScienceAlert had organized some more adventures for us in Northern Queensland on the Great Barrier Reef. It's never been better to be in the field of science communication - thanks to 'out of the box' thinkers like Chris Cassella.
