More than 2,000 science center professionals from across the globe are gathering in Los Angeles, California, October 13-16 for the 2007 ASTC Annual Conference. ASTC 2007, “Lights, Camera, Action: From Vision to Reality,” is being hosted by the California Science Center.

Highlights include over 150 conference sessions on topics like inquiry learning, working with youth, and communicating with the public about nanoscale science. Keynotes will be given by Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, and Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, co-hosts of “MythBusters,” the Discovery Channel’s award-winning science show. In addition, celebrated author and National Medal of Arts winner Ray Bradbury will join Martin Sklar, former vice chairman and principal creative executive of Walt Disney Imagineering, for an interview with film critic Leonard Maltin about the science of fiction, and Lesley Chilcott and Davis Guggenheim—the co-producer and director, respectively, behind An Inconvenient Truth, the Academy Award-winning film about global warming featuring former U.S. Vice President Al Gore—will share the strategies that went into designing an illustrated science lecture compelling enough for theatrical release.

The California Science Center stimulates curiosity and inspires science learning through interactive exhibits, live demonstrations, and innovative programs. The science center’s main Howard F. Ahmanson Building encompasses three levels in 245,000 square feet, including Creative World, exploring the inventions and environments humans create to meet their needs for communication, transportation and structures; World of Life, examining how people, plants, animals and the tiniest living cells all perform the same life processes to survive; Weingart Special Exhibits Gallery, featuring the new traveling exhibition Goose Bumps! The Science of Fear; an IMAX theater; and, in adjacent buildings, the SKETCH Foundation Gallery, with more than 16,000 square feet of historic and interactive air and space exhibits, and the Wallis Annenberg Building for Science Learning and Innovation, featuring the K–5 Science Center School and the giant experimentation platforms of The Big Lab.

If you’ll be in LA for the conference, join the Flickr photo pool. Just search for “ASTC 2007″ and add your photos.

See you in LA!

An Inconvenient Truth, the Academy Award-winning film about global warming featuring former U.S. vice president Al Gore, was seen by many as a triumph of science communication. On October 15, Lawrence Bender, producer of the film, and Davis Guggenheim, the director, will speak at a special session during the 2007 ASTC Annual Conference about the strategies that went into designing an illustrated science lecture compelling enough for theatrical release. Carol Lynn Alpert, director of strategic projects at the Museum of Science, Boston, Massachusetts, will serve as moderator.

Bender’s career spans more than 20 years in the entertainment industry. In television, he has produced films for all major broadcast and cable networks, including Dr. Vegas for CBS and The Legend of Earthsea for the Sci-Fi Channel. The lastest philanthropic effort of this passionate social and political activist is “18 Seconds,” a public campaign organized in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.

Guggenheim’s television director credits include the pilot of the CBS television show “The Unit,” episodes of “Numbers,” “The Shield,” “Alias,” and “Deadwood.” Film credits include Training Day, Gossip, and Gracie in addition to An Inconvenient Truth.

For more information about the session and the conference, please visit our Annual Conference page.

Can ninjas really run on water? Why did the Hindenburg explode? Would those high-tech heists you see in the movies really work? In every episode of “MythBusters,” the Discovery Channel’s award-winning weekly science show, co-hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman and their team design creative experiments to debunk, decode, and demystify the stuff of popular legend. We’re thrilled that at ASTC 2007, Adam and Jamie will take us behind the scenes, share some favorite MythBusting stories, and talk about the scientific process and the art of making science fun. Join us for this exciting keynote session on Sunday, October 14 at 9:00 a.m.

About the MythBusters:

Adam Savage has been an animator, graphic designer, carpenter, set designer, toy designer, and rigger. For the past 10 years, he has been working in the special effects field, creating anything from puppets to rifles. In his spare time, he teaches advanced model making for several schools, including the San Francisco Academy of Art. Adam has honed his skills through more than 100 television commercials and 12 feature films. Always interested in creating things, he enjoys exploding and destroying things just as much.

Jamie Hyneman is a multifaceted man: wilderness survival expert, boat captain, diver, linguist, animal wrangler, machinist, and chef, to name a few. After earning a degree in Russian languages and literature, he ran a sailing/diving charter business in the Caribbean for several years before he moved over to the visual-effects industry. Jamie’s special-effects company, M5 Industries, is a leader in creating unusual props, especially those that involve animatronics or robotics.

More about the Mythbusters

How do science centers engage the public in science they can’t see? The Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net) will share their stories during the ASTC Annual Conference, October 13–16, Los Angeles. The challenges are tough, network members report. As one member reflects, “The scale is unfamiliar, the science is hairy, and many people think we’re talking about iPods!”

A growing network of science centers working with funding from the National Science Foundation, NISE Net has been interviewing visitors, prototyping exhibits, planning programs, and developing web resources over the past two years. They’ll share some of the results of their work so far in showcase-style sessions set for Sunday afternoon and Tuesday morning.

On Monday morning, Jeffrey C. Grossman, head of the NSF Nanoscience and Engineering Center at the University of California at Berkeley, will speak about nanotechnology research and future applications. Dr. Grossman’s research focuses on development of simulation tools to understand, predict, and design novel nanoscale materials. Applications range from predicting new materials for efficient photovoltaics to examining the microscopic properties of water.

Conference-goers are encouraged to check out exhibit prototypes in the Exhibit Hall, drop by one of the nano sessions, offer comments, and learn how these exhibits and programs could end up on the floor of their museums.

Photo by Erin Wilson © Exploratorium: An official Nanoscape Assembler with his gold nanoparticle at the Exploratorium’s summer 2006 Nanoscape event.

About NISE Net
Conference Planner

During the International Polar Year, running through March 2009, more than 50,000 researchers from 60+ nations will be working in some of the most remote locations on Earth, observing at firsthand developments at the Poles that will shape our planet for decades to come. On Saturday evening, October 13, during the ASTC Annual Conference, some of them will tell their stories in a high-energy presentation illustrated with evocative soundscapes, high-definition video clips, and authentic artifacts, including a thousand-year-old ice core from Antarctica. The evening is introduced by Andy Revkin, award-winning environment reporter at the New York Times since 1995. Revkin is the author of Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast, the companion volume to a 1992 American Museum of Natural History exhibition on climate change, and, most recently, The North Pole Was Here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World.

Our distinguished presenters are part of the NSF- and NASA-supported POLAR-PALOOZA education and outreach tour that is scheduled to launch October 18 at the San Diego Museum of Natural History, Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, and Birch Aquarium at Scripps. They include Waleed Abdalati, head of the Cryospheric Sciences Branch at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and former program scientist for NASA’s Ice Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat); Alberto Behar, NASA/JPL engineer on the Antarctic Ice Borehole Probe Project and developer of robots that record the working of “ice streams” in
Antarctica and “moulins” in Greenland; Richard Glenn (appearing on tape, along with stories from coastal and interior Alaskan Elders), geologist, whaling captain, Inupiat community leader, and board member of the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, Barrow, Alaska; Darlene Lim, Arctic and Antarctic diver and exobiologist at the SETI Institute, Mountain View, California; and Stephanie Pfirman, oceanographer and professor at Barnard College and Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, member of the Polar Research Board, and co-developer of the Global Warming and Shackleton exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History, New York.

During a follow-up session on Sunday at noon, some of the presenters from will discuss how to use POLAR-PALOOZA and International Polar Year events to address the widespread and growing public interest in climate change.