SciBarCamp topics and some participants

There is some discussion about SciBarCamp topics at different places on the web that I want to draw your attention to, but first I should point out that Google Blog Search seems to be the most reliable way to track blog entries about SciBarCamp.

Several people picked up my “Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Science” idea. Does this mean I should suggest a slot for that? I’m actually thinking of bringing a huge sheet of paper and sharpies for people to leave their (brief) “Thing Everyone Should Know About Science” and then maybe summarize it on Sunday or pick the most popular one and have a panel discussion about it with some people.
-My first post about it
-Michael Nielsen’s response
-Chad Orzel’s response with discussion in the comments
-Larry Moran’s response with discussion in the comments

I’ll collect a few suggested things-everyone-should-know (especially of the various unattending commenters) to bring along to SciBarCamp.

Originally I posted this idea on the Topics page on the wiki, and there are several other ideas there as well, mostly related to science and art:
Robert Linsley wants to talk about the mathematical symbol “=” as a type of trope. I understand what he means: we tend to think of “=” as meaning “is”, but the values left and right of = are not really the same thing. “2 + 2 = 4″ does not mean “two and two is four” (that’s not even grammatically correct) but it means “if you have two units of something and another two units of the same, those can be considered four units altogether.”

On the same page, Sally McKay recounts a conversation with Sachiko Hirosue (also attending SciBarCamp) about the limitations in collaborations between science and art. That should be a very interesting thing to talk about now that we have several scientists and artists together.
(By the way: look at this “experiment” about mirror neurons that Sally submitted to local art magazine Kiss Machine. Kids, seriously, do ask for adult supervision before hooking electrodes to your brain!)

Several weeks ago, someone added another sci/art topic suggestion to the topics page with a link to this SEED article, but it was left unsigned and I am wiki-challenged so I can’t find out who left that suggestion.

And finally, the two Alexanders from UTIAS are bringing one or two Mars Rovers for demonstration. Their institute is part of UofT, doing research on Mars Rovers. They have a big dome with Mars-like soil where the rovers are tested.