Celebrate Year of Science with us!

Celebration of 2009 as the Year of Science starts today, although the first formal launch events actually kickoff this weekend.

Did you know that Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were both born 200 years ago, on Feb 12, 1809? Darwin published "Origin of Species" 150 years ago. Lincoln created the National Academy of Science. The two men never met but reportedly admired each others accomplishments.

The Year of Science is a grass roots effort among the 475 participating organizations representing over one million scientists and science educators, in the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science - COPUS, rather than some centralized national event. The idea is to build on the thousands of science outreach and education activities that go on all over the country all year long, and link them with a set of monthly themes and common goals. Many groups have developed special programs to capture the spirit of celebrating science this year.

The Year of Science website continues to build catalogs of activities and invites you to add your events. Take a look too to see what you can do in your community, to see profiles of scientists, and find out how others are celebrating 2009. Download the YoS logos to add to your website or blog.

The new Understanding Science website and tools is being formally launched next week, but you can start exploring this revolutionary approach to see how the scientific process works now. Whether you've never had a science class in your life or you've spent your life in a laboratory, the tools you find here will change the way you view science and scientists.

We're launching YoS with January's theme of Nature and Process of Science. In October the theme will be Geosciences and Planet Earth, tying in with Earth Sciences Week nationwide. We're searching for geoscientists to showcase during October.