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Weekend Science Fun: Science Festivals

Have you heard about any science festivals in your area yet? Community-wide celebrations of science are springing up all over the country. Check out the Science Festival Alliance website and the links at the bottom of the post for locations of festivals near you.

We are excited that Arizona is participating in a big way this year. The Arizona SciTech Festival will showcase science, technology and innovation through a series of over 150 free events taking place between Jan. 25 and Mar. 14, 2012 statewide.

According to their news release, over 250 organizations have partnered together to promote Arizona’s participation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) through a series of hands-on activities, workshops, conversations, debates, exhibitions, concerts, guided walks and tours.

Featured Events Include:

• Jan. 25 – 26 Aerospace and Defense Requirements Conference (Not free)
• Feb. 3-5 Glendale Chocolate Affaire-The Science of Chocolate
• Feb. 4 Arizona Science Center’s Innovations in Bioscience
• Feb. 10–12 Mesa’s Take Flight Celebration
• Feb. 14, 16 AZ Renaissance Festival’s Discovery Days
• Feb. 16 Chandler’s Tech Crawl
• Feb. 16 Tempe’s The Science of Fun
• Feb. 18 Tucson’s Science in the City
• Feb. 19–20 Challenger Space Center’s John Glenn Anniversary Event
• Feb. 21 A Day of Dean Kamen
• Feb. 25 Arizona State University’s EX-STATIC at New College
• Feb. 25–26 Scottsdale’s Science of Baseball
• Mar. 3 Arizona State University’s Night of the Open Door
• Mar. 6 University of Arizona’s Innovation Day

Wander through the Arizona SciTech Festival website to find many more fantastic activities. (There are almost too many to choose from.)

If you aren’t going to be in Arizona in time to take part, try these related festivals:

If you go to any science festival events, please drop us a comment and tell us about it.

Bug of the Week: A New Milkweed Bug

You never know when you are going to find a new insect here in Arizona.

Glancing quickly, I thought the read and black bug below feeding on a desert milkweed flower was a large milkweed bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus.

But looking again, I realized it had two black bars across the center of the body, rather than one wide one.

This is an adult Oncopeltus cayensis. I don’t think it has a common name. Check out the sucking mouthparts it is using to feed on the flower.

Have you ever found something new when you took a second look?

Mystery Seed of the Week 99

Our mystery seeds this week are actually the cones that hold the seeds.

These are from the Northeast, rather than from the Southwest. The tree has some unique characteristics, as you might guess from these photographs. Do you know what kind of tree these are found on?

Note:  We are quickly approaching our 100th Seed of the Week. To celebrate, I’d like to feature your favorite seed. Please send me the name of your favorite plant or seed and your first name to growingwithscience (at) gmail. com by January 19, 2012 and I’ll create a list. If it is an unusual plant, please let me know a little about it, too.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Edit:  The answer is now posted.

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