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Earth, Water, Sky
Sudbury, Ontario
Keynotes, panels, events, tours
May 23-26 2009
  PRESIDENT'S
MESSAGE: "Memories of Miriah" -- Sudbury's most dramatic moment came just over two billion years ago, when a meteor the size of a small mountain slammed into the region at high speed and left a crater hundreds of kilometres across.
Astronomers named this massive rock Miriah, and its impact opened up a huge portion of the earth's crust, releasing heavy metals that eventually turned the region into a miner's paradise.
2009 conference highlights:
- A hands-on tour through Sudbury's world-renowned bio-remediation
- Science North's IMAX team on large format film production
- International Year of Astronomy sub-theme: First Nations star tour
- Mining technology deep under Earth and bound for other planets
- CSWA awards gala/entertainment in Science North's dazzling Inco Cavern
- Progressive networking dinner: Eat your way through Science North!
- Panels, workshops, tours for writers, research communicators, others
- CIHR Cafe Scientifique with regional cancer research experts
- Keynote speakers Lawrence Krauss, Robert Sawyer and more...
Today, you can still make out the remnants of this event using aerial radar imaging, but what visitors to Sudbury now find is the brooding landscape of the Canadian Shield...A landscape that so haunted the Group of Seven painters.
World-class science, world class science communication
Our hosts for our latest annual conference, May 23-26, 2009, are Science North and Laurentian University, two institutions that capture much of the character of the city and the region. Together they will be offering us a showcase of the research and development that has transformed Sudbury literally from the ground up.
This year's conference will offer insights into the robotic technology that has taken over many of the often grueling and dangerous tasks carried out by human miners, as well as providing the inspiration for mechanized explorers on Mars.
An environmental success story
And while the smokestack output from the mining industry laid waste to local forests a generation ago, today those trees are back in abundance. Conference co-chair David Pearson and his colleagues will relate their experiences in this ambitious re-greening process, which serves as a model for communities seeking a sense of environmental stability.
Other presenters will also discuss aspects of the vast boreal forest that dominates Northern Ontario, including some of its more mysterious features, such as huge treeless rings that emerge in some places.
Science in one of Canada's largest outdoor labs
In Sudbury, you will also encounter a thriving metropolis highlighting a part of Ontario that accounts for some two thirds of the province's area, but just a fraction of its population.
This is one of Canada's biggest backyards, and we're inviting members of the Canadian Science Writers' Association and others with an interest in science communication to see it for themselves this spring. |
