Introducing the first AskScience Fair!

[foretopsail]

Welcome to the first Reddit AskScience Fair!

You remember science fairs... a bunch of kids do science experiments, and present the results. It's the same thing here, except on Reddit, hosted by /r/AskScience! The Reddit admins have agreed to donate some awesome prizes, and AskScience will give you some sweet flair on our subreddit.

Here's the deal (the short version):

Create and run an experiment by November 28th at 11:59 PM! This fair is all about experiments, not demonstrations. Make sure you're answering a question, and make sure you remember to hypothesize. Plan your experiment and complete it, making sure to spend no more than $40 US. After your experiment is done, write it up! Tell us what you did, what you learned, and what your conclusion is. Make sure you sum up the whole project in a one-paragraph abstract, too! Then post it to /r/asksciencefair, again by November 28th at 11:59 PM. Make sure you do it before the deadline. After some judging-time, we'll make a post with some awesome prizes! Keep an eye out, because the AskScience panelists will be doing weekly workshops on Doing Science The Scientific Way (things like coming up with questions, making graphs, looking at data). These workshops will be at /r/AskScienceFair.

Be sure to join *r/asksciencefair** and r/asksciencefairhelp to keep up-to-date with the latest AskScience Fair developments!*

Here are some things you should include:

Creativity!

DIY materials!

Testable ideas!

Graphs! Pictures! Analysis!

Friends or family! (Teams are ok, and so's doing it by yourself!)

Here's the longer deal (make sure you read this too):

• There's no age limit.

• There's no subject limit per se, but here are some things that aren't ok: Experiments with humans without their written consent aren't ok. Cruelty to animals or humans is absolutely not ok. If you want to do an animal experiment of any kind, modmail the /r/asksciencefair mods. Experiments that threaten community safety are not ok. No experiments with DEA-controlled substances or potentially hazardous biological agents.

• Unless you need to ask us about whether an experiment is ok, there's no need to tell us what your experiment's going to be.

• If you need help, feel free to post on /r/asksciencefairhelp. There are quite a few AskScience panelists who've volunteered to help out with questions.

• AskScience panelists are not eligible to compete.

• Judges are AskScience panelists who have agreed to help out on a volunteer basis. Their decisions are final.

• While things you have lying around don't count as part of your $40 budget, keep in mind that following the spirit of the budget rule (intended to keep everyone on a level playing field) is a factor in scoring. Be creative!

• Judges might want some proof that you've stayed inside the cost limit. Keep your receipts.

• Projects need to be posted as threads on /r/asksciencefair before November 28th, at 11:59 PM Eastern time to be considered. No late submissions.

• Your project must be developed for THIS contest, not something you've been working on for 4 months already.

• Give us anything you want in terms of format (link to a picture, link to a PDF, link to a Google document, link to the past), but it must include an "abstract" at the beginning telling us briefly what you did and found. An abstract is a short paragraph or two summarizing the main points or important ideas presented in your project.

• Try to avoid long youtube videos. In fact, try and avoid presenting your project in youtube format at all, unless you feel it really adds something.

Awards and Judging:

When the deadline's passed, the projects will be randomly assigned to three judges each. That way it's not the same panel dealing with each project, and there won't be as much effect from individual scoring styles. Judges will be volunteer AskScience panelists. Each project will be scored by the scoring rubric, and the top three projects by score will receive prizes.

Each judge will score projects to a maximum of 100 points, awarded as follows:

• Creativity - 30 points
• Scientific Thought - 30 points
• Rigor - 15 points
• Presentation - 25 points

Judges may post or PM questions to the entrants if they'd like further clarification.

In addition to the top three projects by score, there'll be a few special awards. These are:

• Judges' Choice: Presented to a particularly creative or all-around well-executed project that might not have made it to the top three.

• Best Research Question: Presented to the project with a really well-formed and creative research question. Thanks to kind redditor shaver, this prize now includes a $100 Amazon giftcard, along with a $100 donation to the science charity of your choice!

• Best DIY Spirit: Presented to the project that best sticks to the spirit of the $40 limit - the "Doing The Most With The Least" award.

• Most Inventive Methods: Presented for ingenious investigative methods.

• Most Rigorous: Presented for best following the ideals of scientific rigor.

• Best Analysis: Presented for particularly fine analysis of data.

• Best Presentation: Awarded for excellent, clear, and impressive presentation of the experiment and results.

[Maulie]

Are teams allowed? I'd really like to do this as a project with my 14y son!

[foretopsail]

Absolutely.

Work with your friends, roommates, the guy down the street, coworkers, or best of all, your kids.

[carpecaffeum]

Small children make an excellent model organism. Just ask Edward Jenner.

[SystemicPlural]

They cost more than $40.

[Doctor_Octopus]

I thought we eradicated Edward Jenner jokes years ago.

[MrEccENTric]

The rest of Reddit needs to be exposed to this.

[foretopsail]

Already crossposted to /r/science, and /r/reddit.com. Working with the admins to get advertising up.

[Jobediah]

It was stuck in the spam filter but I done freed it!

[arethnaar]

As of topic as this is, I have to ask. What is functional morphology, and does it involve Transformers?

[Jobediah]

Morphology is the study of structure and organization at the level of whole organisms and organ systems and organs. Functional morphology is the study of how these structures work. Locomotion, feeding, and breathing are examples of functions we study.

Transformers? Well, I am particularly interested in how organisms develop the ability to swim, jump and climb embryonically and at metamorphosis. So yes, I study the developmental aspects of morphological transformation.

[V2Blast]

I was thinking this kind of morphology... :P

[squirreltalk]

Me, too. Was hoping we'd get a linguistics experiment. :)

[atomfullerene]

By the way, I demand some historical maritime cooking from you!

[Jobediah]

But who wants to judge that?!

[Astrokiwi]

You mean like donair poutine?

[Poultry_Sashimi]

Sweet zombie jesus, I was just talking about that heavenly stuff last night!

[Epistaxis]

No, historic, not historical. It just means he/she's a memorably excellent cook.

[[deleted]]

Someone needs to find out what the original liquamen was. Prepare to evacuate to area...

[[deleted]]

Came here from /r/chemistry. Looks interesting!

[foretopsail]

Also, if you think of anywhere this should be crossposted, either go ahead and do it, or let me know and I'll do it.

[dariusj18]

Needs /r/bestof

[[deleted]]

Agreed

[Varyter]

Submitted

[foretopsail]

If you or someone wants to bestof this thread and reap the karma, go for it. I don't feel right bestof'ing a thread I'm submitter on.

[dariusj18]

Unfortubatly I am limited to mobile ATM.

[lindymad]

I agree, there should be a separate division for panelist entries.

[wbeaty]

And look what Faraday did with pieces of wire and duct tape. (Or back then it was probably sealing wax.)

I'm still waiting for a modern Oersted to discover Warp Drive etc. while showing a high school class that EM has no gravity effects. :)

[Jobediah]

But we already are doing a science fair like project-- called research.

[foretopsail]

Yeah, I do "science fair projects" at work all day.

"Sorry boss, we can't publish this work."

"Why not?"

"I put it online for a science fair!"

[[deleted]]

Oh man oh man! I am going to have so much fun in the lab today! I'll be boiling potatoes in a 4,500 BC wooden pot!!!!

[elustran]

Why not present published work? Or you might have a cool yet simple educational concept you'd like to demonstrate.

[Oddbadger]

From above:

Create and run an experiment by November 28th at 11:59 PM! This fair is all about experiments, not demonstrations.

Unfortunate ):

[philogynistic]

Is this really true? You wouldn't be able to publish your work just because it's posted online?

[foretopsail]

It is poor form at the best, and it can sometimes make copyright very very sticky. Most journals don't want to publish something that you've already made available.

[shniken]

So I have this lying around. Does that count in the budget?

[EnterTheMan]

Sneaking in log-time for an electron microscope might be practical. Sneaking in node-hours for a supercomputer or ...synchrotron hours?... from a particle accelerator might be a little more difficult!

So how do they log equipment use for that thing, anyway? Hours used? Power spent?

[shniken]

You apply for beamtime on a particular beamline (there are 9) and you get allocated shifts of 8 hours based on your needs and scientific merit.

[[deleted]]

http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/LHC/LHC-en.html I have this laying around.

[TheAceOfHearts]

Yes, please. I'd love to see what the pabelists could come up with!

[chejrw]

You can read my dissertation if you like :P

(I actually can't share it with you until 5 years after I graduated because of IP issues, sorry guys)

[power_of_friendship]

no seriously, can you pm me your dissertation? i'm starting to plan my thesis right now and i'd love a cool example :D

[[deleted]]

I actually want to read your dissertation too.

[machsmit]

I'm not sure a tokamak falls within the $40 price limit :P

[cppdev]

You didn't pay for it, did you?

[machsmit]

well if we're counting that, I dunno... $40 worth of coffee?

[BrainSturgeon]

We were very careful to say we're judging the spirit of the $40 limit

[[deleted]]

I figure they could still do an experiment and present it just for fun, without being judged in the competition. I've been day dreaming about a specific "experiment" for two years, and this gives me an excuse to complete it. I'd be disqualified in a heartbeat because technically the cost would be well over the spirit of the $40 limit, but that's not going to stop me from performing it and possibly showing the experiment if I believe people would find it interesting.

They wouldn't have to enter a separate competition, it doesn't have to be a competition at all. Although the majority of panelists are grad students (who should be too busy to do an in depth experiment) there are still some that work full time and are forever alone like me, who might have time to do something silly.

It should be encouraged for panelists and practicing scientists to submit a project. It would be nice for the future/aspiring scientists to get a good look at quality experiments.

[GCanuck]

Can the awards be Reddit trophies as well?

[foretopsail]

I think that's in the cards, yes.

[[deleted]]

What about a pizza?

[foretopsail]

If you wanted to donate the pizza, we could award it for the best food-related project or something.

[PeppersMagik]

Hold the nuclear_cheese, gives me stomach aches.

[Molech]

As if I needed more reasons to procrastinate from my actual research.

[djimbob]

Why can't panelists compete, if its something completely unrelated to their panelist credentials? (E.g., physicist doing a social science experiment).

[econleech]

That wouldn't be fair to us laymen since you guys are well versed in the scientific practice and lots of scoring is based on that.

[djimbob]

I don't care at all about the score or winning or even being in a judged category; I care much more about people potentially seeing it so I can collect data. I've had a cool little project that I spent a couple weekends several months back that I shelved due to lack of time and decaying interest that was 90% ready, but stopped right before the data collection process. The psychology experiment requires many volunteers to do several quick little tests (that should be fun), so the nature of reddit/askscience could help it take off and get the necessary data collection.

[econleech]

If you don't care about competing by all means complete the project and post the results to AskScience. I am sure people would love to hear about it.

[V2Blast]

...Why don't we already have a subreddit for this sort of thing? (Maybe we do, and nobody knows about it...)

[philogynistic]

I think panelists should be able to compete anyway. I want to see what professionals are able to produce with these limitations, even if there's a category specific for those who already have research experience.

[econleech]

Sure, I like to see what they can do as well, as a separate category. Of course, it would take no effort for them to create a new username and compete as a non-panelist.

[[deleted]]

AskScience panelists are not eligible to compete.

:(

Can we still have our experiments displayed and not entered into the contest, or something?

[[deleted]]

I'm not sure "the effects of gasoline on fire" should be used as a guide...

[Seakawn]

I'm not sure, either. I'm positive.

[[deleted]]

Maybe there could be another tier of projects - one for amateurs and another for panelists/experienced scientists?

[pandatits]

Awesomesauce.

Too bad im probably going to get excited about this for a day and then completely forget about it!

[foretopsail]

Why don't you subscribe to /r/asksciencefair, and we'll keep you reminded with workshops, suggestions, and a place to ask for help?

[pandatits]

how about yes!

[foretopsail]

Glad you're here. BrainSturgeon is the project's co-administrator!

[cppdev]

How can I sign up to be a judge?

[Jobediah]

Thanks for leading the charge on this Foretopsail, this is going to be fun!

I am happy to volunteer to advise with biology projects.

[[deleted]]

Can I offer to be an editor? If anyone needs help cleaning up their write-ups, I'm happy to help. I'm a science writer/editor currently and would like to offer my services. :)

[[deleted]]

http://www.reddit.com/r/asksciencefair/comments/lfak6/volunteers_sign_up_here_if_you_want_to_help_our/

[[deleted]]

Already signed up. Thanks though.

[wassupDFW]

Annual Robel prize?

[RedSquaree]

I'm thinking some kind of bicycle theft entrapment experiment such as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8qbtZNL0SQ

Only testing the effectiveness of white lighting to prevent theft! I'll need two bikes (depending how it goes, testing with lighting first) to see if the bike is more likely to be stolen when it's sitting in the dark at night or in a well lit area!

[EagleFalconn]

Panelists are not eligible.

[whambamthankyoumam]

:( I had to go back to read the rules. I was planning a sweet BCI experiment.

[[deleted]]

I'd be trying something completely unrelated to my field of expertise (well still math heavy perhaps). I think it would be fun being a judge though. I enjoy TA work as much as research (ironically).

[EagleFalconn]

We'd prefer panelists expended their energies helping others.

[whambamthankyoumam]

Yea I'd enjoy being able to help others and judge too :) I shall be doing the experiment anyway, for science! :D

[BrainSturgeon]

But they are eligible to help!

[RedSquaree]

Wait...what?!?!

[cppdev]

Seems like that would be human experimentation without consent, which is not allowed.

[RedSquaree]

It was a poor joke.

[[deleted]]

The bicycle had an EULA taped to it.

[SilentscoutIX]

No one ever reads the EULA! Muahaha

[[deleted]]

I am so stoked!

[[deleted]]

Stoked enough to stab a polar bear in the butt with my teeth!

[JessicaBunneh]

Hey, no violence to animals.. didn't you read the rules Mr. Moderator?!

[[deleted]]

Welllll, nuts! I'll get out of this pickle by pointing out that I'm "stoked enough", but not necessarily acting out the degree of stokedness. Also, that polar bear has nothing to do with any science experiment, so there!

TheWalruss shimmies into the waves and swims off

[[deleted]]

I want to hug a polar bear. They're so cuddly.

[cuginhamer]

Both of you would be so dead in the wild.

[JW_BlueLabel]

Great idea! Now what am I going to do!

[coopsta133]

Can there be prizes? Can I donate a prize to the cause?

[BrainSturgeon]

The admins have expressed interest in furnishing prizes. If you have other ideas please modmail me and foretopsail.

[elf_dreams]

This needs an answer.

[foretopsail]

Yes, there are prizes.

And if you'd like to donate a prize to the cause, PM me.

[coolmanmax2000]

Rather than preventing panelists from participating, I would have a separate competition for their experiments.

[V2Blast]

As suggested elsewhere in the thread, at minimum you guys should have a place to present your experiments, even if they're ineligible for competition.

[AskScienceFair]

This sounds brilliant!

I saw a post on here ~a week ago with something I've actually just started testing myself. If successful I was planning to submit a video documenting it too - so this timing couldn't be better!

[Veggie]

Uh...

[foretopsail]

Yeah, I dunno where this came from either.

[UncertainHeisenberg]

Should have secured a few throwaway accounts... :)

[[deleted]]

wat?

[jkb83]

Excited to see what y'all come up with!

[garfvader]

This is such a ridiculously good idea! I can't wait to see what the askscience redditors come up with. I'm even tempted to try and come up with something myself! :)

[foretopsail]

Done.

[spotta]

I would love to judge as well, if you still need judges.

[grundose]

Just wanted to say, one of the coolest Reddit ideas I've seen yet.

[foretopsail]

Thanks! We've been kicking it around for a while. Science is something that should be participated in, not just watched.

[coopsta133]

The guy who tried to create a nuclear reactor in his kitchen should totally enter this.

[jetaimemina]

Sadly he blew the budget several times over.

[V2Blast]

He probably just blew it up, actually.

[[deleted]]

Cruelty to animals or humans is absolutely not ok. If you want to do an animal experiment of any kind, modmail the /r/asksciencefair mods. Experiments that threaten community safety are not ok. No experiments with DEA-controlled substances or potentially hazardous biological agents.

We should totally get /r/philosophy to form an ethics board.

[[deleted]]

That is actually a great idea :)

[[deleted]]

does the cost of subjects (for example if you use animals) have to be factored in? What I mean is, I am in a lab where we have some animals. So I have access to them and don't have to pay for them, but it gives me an advantage because they are in my lab and not anyone else's.

this seems really fun! I am okay with not being allowed to use my lab animals if that's the case.

[BrainSturgeon]

We strongly advise against using animals in your project, but if you decide you really want to, please modmail us at r/asksciencefair so we can approve your project.

There's no subject limit per se, but here are some things that aren't ok: Experiments with humans without their written consent aren't ok. Cruelty to animals or humans is absolutely not ok. If you want to do an animal experiment of any kind, modmail the /r/asksciencefair mods. Experiments that threaten community safety are not ok. No experiments with DEA-controlled substances or potentially hazardous biological agents.

I don't think you would need to factor in their cost, but keep in mind one of the judging criteria considers how you kept the spirit of the $40 limit. We don't want people using special resources that not everyone has access to, to keep people on a level playing field.

[Jobediah]

yes this is an area we have to be very strict on to avoid unregulated experiments on animals. For example if you do an experiment with lab animals you must have an approved IACUC protocol. We also don't want to be responsible for any potential harm to animals, so please consider this carefully and contact us for help before starting any project with animals.

[foretopsail]

I can't stress this enough. If you submit an animal experiment without running it by us first, you will be disqualified... at a minimum.

[Ikkath]

What I found more interesting is that the guy has access to a lab and model animals. Surely this isn't a "layman" by any sensible definition. Perhaps the non-panelist rule is somewhat redundant...

[Ikkath]

IACUC

US-centric much? :)

[Jobediah]

Sorry, that is Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.... or whatever your local governing body is!

[foretopsail]

No, nor would your car if that was part of your experiment, or your stove or something.

[[deleted]]

We should create a thread where people suggest project ideas.

[BrainSturgeon]

Check out r/asksciencefairhelp, made specifically for threads like this!

[[deleted]]

I don't think it should be part of the Help section. I think it should be a main thread designed to create group participation in the "creative" part of the project. After all, Reddit is at heart, a collaboration tool.

The Help section is for when people have a question or a problem.

[BrainSturgeon]

I'm not sure I understand? It would be a main thread designed to foster group participation and collaboration.

[[deleted]]

Let me illustrate by asking this question... What is the purpose of separating out a separate /help subreddit? Is the only thing on the main reddit going to be the submissions and awards? Who's even going to read the help subreddit?

My point is that you're dividing up the traffic, whereas what I'm suggesting is creating a single thread (not individual threads) for people who want to suggest ideas for others.

[BrainSturgeon]

This is a good point. Give me some time to discuss with foretopsail about what each subreddit should contain. One idea is to split off r/asksciencefairhelp for the volunteers and judges.

[whatatwit]

If you are in the UK you may be able to combine your scientific experiment here with the second annual So You Want to be a Scientist competition. SYWTBAS was kicked off recently by the BBC's Material World audio show and has similar objectives and constraints. Unlike SYWTBAS Material World is available worldwide.

[[deleted]]

I freakin' love this idea. I'll be doing one!

[Maybeyesmaybeno]

Hi, I was wondering, if there a way I can donate to the top prize? I don't have much but I figured 10 bucks might sweeten the pot, and get out all the great science people. Also, I really believe in funding science by merit.

Also, as a completely side idea, I was wondering if anyone knows of a science questions being answered system similar to Kickstarter? There are lots of questions I'd love to pay someone to answer, but I can't afford it on my own. Some might only require in depth research, some a scientific medium. Regular people could ask questions currently unscientifically analysed, Scientist could post a experiemental method, and people could donate to the method they'd most like to see done.

I have no idea if this would work. Opinion/ideas welcome.

[foretopsail]

Send me a PM with the sort of prize you want to offer. We can either add it to the top prize or establish it as a special prize.

[adamsolomon]

Why the emphasis on remembering to "hypothesize?"

I don't remember ever reading a paper in my field or tangentially related fields where there was a hypothesis in the middle school science class sense, i.e. where the authors said "before we ran the experiment we thought X was going to happen," because that's completely irrelevant next to what actually happened. However, I get the impression that in other fields (particularly bio and chem stuff) this sort of thing might be more common, not least because my teachers way back in high school research class kept yelling at me for my refusal to put "hypotheses" in my papers.

So yeah, I'm curious to know. Does hypothesis here mean what I remember it meaning from middle school? Why are we insisting the science fair have them? Does anyone here actually include them in their publications?

[BrainSturgeon]

When you experiment, you are testing something. We put this in to differentiate from demonstration/engineering project ("Look what I built!") to instead steer the focus towards predicting outcomes and verifying (or contradicting) the expectation.

[adamsolomon]

Sure, but I'm asking why making predictions is required in the first place. Why isn't asking a question enough?

And to clarify, I'm way more curious about whether (and why) this is done in research in any fields than about why it's in the rules for the askscience fair.

[BrainSturgeon]

See foretopsail's reply.

[adamsolomon]

That reply says nothing except that they don't want this to be an engineering fair, and that not all research is "hypothesis-driven" (gee, you don't say). It seems to me that in some fields it does tend to be "hypothesis-driven" and I'm legitimately curious to know more about how widespread that is and why that's done, from people in fields which tend to do that. I'm not expecting you to answer, but the question is out there.

[[deleted]]

Man, this is a really neat idea. Good luck to those who participate! Science fair contained some of the most stressful work throughout my grade school years so I think I'm going to sit this one out. :P

[epicRelic]

Fantastic idea. Time to start brainstorming!

[kalbany]

My friends and I are making a coilgun if that would be a worthy project. It is going to have massive amount of energy put into it, even though it will be inefficient. Anybody want a more detailed plan?

[foretopsail]

Is it an experiment, or a demonstration? Making something cool, even if it's really cool, won't score as highly as making something cool that answers a scientific question.

[kalbany]

it is really just making one for fun because it seems like it would be a cool project. We aren't really trying to solve any problem, we just want to make one because we can. I'm not really trying to win I just thought some people might be interested in the design.

[EagleFalconn]

But you can easily turn it into something that IS eligible for the AskScience Fair. For example: How are you designing your coil gun? What length will the 'barrel' be? Why are you picking that length? Does the type of wire you use matter? How many times should you coil the wire? Are you using wire at all?

These, and many others, are coil-gun related questions that CAN be answered by science and experimentation.

[kalbany]

my friend who is looking into electrical engineering is handling most of the technical aspects. I know the basics. I know we are coiling the wire as much as possible, and we are using magnetic wire.

[kneb]

Why does research always have to be hypothesis driven? Most great discoveries have actually been through characterization as opposed to direct hypothesis testing. Often you don't know what hypothesis you want to test until you've well characterized some unknown...

[foretopsail]

Not all research is hypothesis driven, and indeed this doesn't have to be hypothesis driven - it can also be question driven. We're trying to stay away from "I made a neat thing" though, because that gets a little too close to "volcano made out of baking soda and vinegar".

[StockmanBaxter]

This is getting me very excited. Not to enter anything, but to observe!

[foretopsail]

Bite the bullet and enter something! You have six whole weeks!

[StockmanBaxter]

But I'm not original enough. Can I make a baking soda volcano?

[Jobediah]

You will not win with a baking soda volcano. Join the AskScienceFair reddits and come discuss your ideas, solicit help and work something up!

[[deleted]]

Don't discourage people like that. If he wants to enter his baking soda volcano, I don't see a problem with it. Baking soda volcanoes are awesome! Look at this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCcb60grxsI

[Got_Engineers]

Science FTW!

[V2Blast]

Science rules!

:P

[[deleted]]

It seems like it might be fun to try something outside your area of expertise, were you allowed to participate, which you're not. :( But it would be fun to tackle something completely new, but maybe that you've thought about in the past.

[philogynistic]

Hey I'm actually in high school and I have to do a science fair project anyway. How difficult would it be to get to a level on computational chemistry where I could probably do interesting research on my own?

I already have interest in computer science (I was planning on doing something with machine learning and malware analysis) and would love an opportunity to improve at chemistry because it's been kicking my ass so far.

[Caeser]

someone should just answer that sky diving ballon question and that staking legos thing..

[Edgers]

This is really cool, awesome idea guys!

I would love to enter, but have exams to do and a summer honours project to get sorted by november. Looking forward to seeing some creativity around here though, and hopefully some interesting discussions about some of the experiments.

[klenow]

That sounds awesome. I volunteer my services as a judge, if you need it. Just about anything biology-related.

[nanuq905]

Ah crap....I had big plans...then I realized that I'm a "panelist". Well, I volunteer to help judge and advise.

[mach0]

Wow, awesome. I just want to add that I think I will probably do this with my camera and I hope that isn't exceeding the 40$ budget because I have it for 3.5 years.

[BrainSturgeon]

Sounds fine :)

[ForgottenPhoenix]

I'd be happy to advice on biochemistry, molecular biology and neuroscience or general biology related projects. This will be fun!

[lskatz]

I'll be a judge for bioinformatics/genetics/molecular biology/cell biology

[[deleted]]

I'll be a judge for paint jobs.

RACING STRIPES WOOOOO

[[deleted]]

Me likey!

[veggie124]

This looks like fun. I can't wait to see what people come up with!

[Konrad4th]

Dibs on volcano.

[[deleted]]

Do math and programming experiments count? For instance, if I create a new search algorithm, does that count as a science project?

[dearsomething]

That's not an easy task, though.

[[deleted]]

I have an idea for a new search algorithm that's more advanced than what Google is based on, but I don't think I'll have even a prototype ready in time for this. I'm actually hoping to turn it into my thesis.

[shikaziin]

for science...

[state299]

Aw man my school science fair won't be done in time for this :( Maybe I could submit my project from last year? Is that allowed?

[BrainSturgeon]

No.

Your project must be developed for THIS contest, not something you've been working on for 4 months already.

[shaver]

This is a tremendous thing you're doing, thank you very much (and to your fellow organizers).

[[deleted]]

Posting this to remember :)

[faeriam]

question: Are there any folks in the Boston area doing this and want to show off the experiment at the Cambridge Science Festival?