This past weekend was the 4th annual Science Online conference. It was a marvelous experience and I met so many amazing people, all of whom want to share science with the world!

I wish I could recount all of the people I met, so no one feels left out, but I fear it is nearly impossible. One of the most startling things that happened repeatedly was people coming up to me and saying either "Joanne!" or more tentatively "Joanne?" :) I suppose I'm recognizable by my videos. I was left trying not to look too quizzical when trying to figure out who was addressing me, but always pleased when they would say "I'm "so and so" on twitter" and I had the flash of recognition.

I met and also saw from afar several authors of popular science books. I think I will just list them for simplicity sake:

• Rebecca Skloot, Author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks , due out February 1 with my review right around that time, too!
• Carl Zimmer, author of Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life (Vintage) and other very amazing books on biological topics. I must've told him three times I wanted him to sign my book, but never got around to it. Yes, I reviewed it!
• Tom Levenson, author of Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist , which I have on my kindle (which he signed, right alongside David Sedaris!)
• Michael Specter, author of Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives (Hardcover) and keynote speaker for the conference. I DID remember to get the book signed by him!
• David Dobbs, author of Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral whom I saw but didn't have chance to be introduced.
• Scott Huler, author of the upcoming book  On the Grid: A Plot of Land, An Average Neighborhood, and the Systems that Make Our World Work due out May 11.  I had lunch with him on Saturday (and a lovely bass playing student named Princess) I was thrilled to receive a galley copy of this book!
• Eric Roston, author of The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat who apparently has some inside connection with Michael Faraday and offered to introduce us!
  
• Felice Frankel, whose book, No Small Matter: Science on the Nanoscale, I purchased while there, already pre-signed. 
• Sheril Kirshenbaum and Chris Mooney, authors of  Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future
• Sheril has a book coming up next year called The Science of Kissing. I think that one might do ok! Again, completely missed opportunities for signatures.
• Henry Gee, author of Jacob's Ladder: The History of the Human Genome
• Jennifer Ouelette, author of several books including The Physics of the Buffyverse By the way, her husband Sean M Carroll, has a book From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time which just came out a few weeks ago and is sitting in my pile to read!
• Vanessa Woods, author of the upcoming release Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo
• An author who was supposed to be there but could not make it was Maryn McKenna, whose book Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA is due out in March.
• We also got a book in our gift bags called This Will Change Everything: Ideas That Will Shape the Future edited by John Brockman
  

I hope I didn't miss anyone, but surely I did!

Before I go further, let me first point out a great mash-up photo/vid collage done by teacher Stacey Baker who brought several of her high school students who use many new technologies and programs in their science work to share with us at the conference! Their presentation was just fabulous! I love to see articulate, intelligent teens who can teach me something! I will try to post vids of their talks as I find them. You will be as impressed as I was.

You might look at this picture and wonder, who is that incredibly fortunate fellow to be surrounded by all of us ladies? This smart man is Russ Cambell, communications officer for Burroughs Wellcome Fund in North Carolina (did you know that NC has a very high number of science bloggers? I learned that this weekend!) He knew a good opportunity when he saw it. Surrounding him, from left to right are Darlene Cavalier (science cheerleader), Kirsten Stanford (Dr. Kiki), Rebecca Skloot (author mentioned above) and myself. Make no mistake, the four of us gals are out to tell anyone about science if they are willing to listen!

My Ignite Talk on Saturday night went well, although I was trapped behind a podium and the lighting was not optimal for a video, so I recorded my talk and placed it on youtube. You can watch that HERE It starts off sounding a bit syrupy, but improves as you go along. You are missing the legs and the great red shoes, but maybe in your future is a photo for full effect.

I will work on getting my reminiscence of science popularizers in a format that can be loaded on youtube or on this site. I have a lot to say, so I believe it deserves its own blog post.

I left the conference with plans to return with longer and more involved sessions that will probably be done in collaboration with some of the people I met this year. I have some ideas on a session about creating science videos and one expanding on my "Characteristics of Science Popularizers", possibly discussing international portrayals of science on TV as well.

Hope you found something to your liking to read on this list! I will talk more about my visit to Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in a few days.

Until then,

Kindly, Joanne