If the word "scientist" conjures a near-sighted nerd in a lab coat, you may be spending too many late nights watching the SyFy channel. A recent movement on Twitter using the hashtag #iamscience is enabling scientists from all over the world to share their pictures, tell their stories, and show off their particular science to the world at large.

Inspired by a post by science writer and marine biologist Kevin Zelnio written after he attended the Science Online Conference, the hashtag has been a fascinating way to learn the varied backgrounds of people who now make their careers in the sciences; people who were homeless as teens, became interested in science when a friend got sick and are now working on a cure, or as kids who performed stress-tests with tarantulas on their arachnophobic dads.

In its short existence, the movement has already grown beyond a hashtag: there's now a Storify page, a music video and Tumblr logs of both archived tweets and stories and pictures of cool scientists doing cool things.   

In the often self-serving and solipsistic world of social media, it's refreshing to see real stories being told and real connections being made through sharing experiences. Student neuroscientist and self-described science geek @katiesci tweeted "We are a bunch of misfits who found what we love." As #iamscience demonstrates, sometimes when you whisper into an echo chamber, a thousand voices answer back. 

Image via This is What a Scientist Looks Like

Looking for a friendly robot to add some sci-fi flare to your website or blog? RoboHash is a cool little script that will turn any snippet of text, username, file name, etc. into a cute custom robot (or monster, or alien!) that you can use as you see fit. You can change the size and file type to further meet your needs.

And speaking of robots and text, January is the birth month of Czech writer Karel Čapek  (b. Jan. 9, 1890), who was the first person to use the word "robot" in written form. The word robot originally comes from the word Czech word "robota" meaning literally serf labor, and figuratively "drudgery" or "hard work". Čapek's 1921 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) introduced the word to a world that quickly became robot-crazy. 

Wondering what "PopTech" looks like as a robot? Wonder no more - we're big-eyed, quite possibly surprised, neck extended, antenna engaged and looking forward to what's next.

What if brain size, the yardstick by which intelligence has primarily been measured, actually had little to do with how "smart" one is? What if animals, long thought humans' intellectual inferiors, actually have their own systems for communicating, problem-solving, and navigating their respective worlds -- systems we may only be beginning to understand or even recognize?

In a recently published article in Orion magazine about an octopus named Athena, writer Sy Montgomery posits that octopuses and other creatures are actually much more clever than we give them credit for. Like us, they enjoy solving puzzles, playing with toys, and even have distinct personalities (from aggressive to methodical and even impetuous). The observed intelligence in these cephalods has inspired at least one blog: The Octopus Chronicles. 

Animal communication expert Katy Payne spoke at PopTech 2009 on her work with elephants. Careful observation of captive elephants lead her to realize that they were communicating with each other at sub-sonic levels: below the level at which humans can hear. This breakthrough enabled her to found the Elephant Listening Project, which "seeks to learn about [elephants'] lives and the unique threats they face, and to directly aid in their conservation." Read more...

There was an interesting post on Treehugger earlier this week, highlighting a movement calling itself "Craftivism". The folks involved define themselves as doing "projects to make people think about global injustice, poverty and human rights through the seeds planted by public [craftivism] art."

In 2009, crafter Sarah Corbett started a blog looking to combine her activism and crafting to forge a new way to raise awareness of social issues. That blog eventually became the London-based Craftivist Collective, with members now all over the world helping each other complete projects, providing crafting kits, connecting and running events and installations. In the collective spirit of the craft community, Corbett credits knitter, writer and activist Betsy Greer with originally coining the term craftivism and lending a guiding hand as the movement has gained momentum. 

Projects have ranged from making and handing out hand-stitched handkerchiefs with the message "Don't blow it" to local politicians, to hacking Barbie dolls to promote awareness for maternal health issues. 

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The term "social entrepreneur" has seen a lot of usage in recent years. Wikipedia defines a social entrepreneur as someone who "recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change". Many of PopTech's Social Innovation Fellows fall into this category.

A new, similar term has recently come into play: cultural entrepreneur. In a recent article by Courtney E. Martin and Lisa Witter published on Standford Social Innovation Review blog, the authors propose that cultural entrepreneurship be regarded as "social entrepreneurship's little sister."

From the article:

[W]e argue that cultural entrepreneurship is different than social entrepreneurship, because it is focused primarily on reimagining social roles and motivating new behaviors—often working with and in popular culture to reach the widest possible audience. Social entrepreneurs solve problems by disrupting existing systems, as microfinance has, or through breakthrough product design, like the solar powered lights from d.light design or Barefoot Power.

Cultural entrepreneurs, on the other hand, solve problems by disrupting belief systems—using television shows like Glee to initiate viewers into the disability or GLBTQ rights frameworks or the Twitter campaign #mensaythingstome, designed to expose anonymous misogyny online.

While it's true there are a plethora of new tools that enable a movement to bring its message to an intended audience, cultural entrepreneurship reads a bit like good old-fashioned activism.

What do you think? Has social entrepreneurship matured to the point where it's branching out its family tree, as the authors suggest? Or is cultural entrepreneurship just activism in a Tweet's clothing?   

Image: no

We love kids and we love science and we really, really love kids who love science. With all the sturm und drang about the dangers of the Internet and technology in general on young, impressionable minds, it's great to see technologies being developed that are teaching kids to be better observers of the natural world.

Presented at last year's PopTech was Yasser Ansari's Project Noah (Networked Organisms and Habitats). Project Noah allows you to record your sightings of plants, birds, insects and animals using your mobile device. You can make field notes, add pictures, and geo-locate where your sighting took place, giving other users and researchers important information while you're out enjoying a Sunday morning family hike. With new features launched earlier this year, the app allows you to earn retro-styled girl/boy scout-esque badges, lending it a nice gaming component while creating an army of young citizen scientists.

Another cool app for little nature lovers is Leaf Snap, which does something similar but specifically for trees and plants. And a new app called KidScience is being developed by Liz Heineke, who runs the kid-friendly site Kitchen Pantry Scientist. This app will allow you to search for age- and materials-appropriate science experiments that you can perform using common household products. 

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Imagine you get an email from a long-lost relative and the sweet smell of roses permeates the air. Or that cute grad student you met at the bookstore tweets about you and for a second you smell cinnamon and leather - swoon. That electronics-meets-olfactory moment is just what a little white robot named Olly is out to create.

A simple white cube that connects to your computer, the USB-powered Olly has a removable compartment that holds your favorite scent, whether it be whiskey or lemondrops. Designed as a short-term project by Mint Digital's research team Foundry, the cubes are stackable and customizable. And the services Olly integrates with are potentially endless (he comes ready to program) so you're really only limited by how many scents you can tolerate at a sitting. Ready to Olly up? You can pre-order the finished model or use a 3-D printer and step-by-step instructions to build one yourself.     

The Foundry team was originally tasked to explore making something connected to the Internet that didn't live on the screen. Olly and his integration of scent and social networking is one giant sniff forward for the Internet of Things.

Image via Olly's website

You may have heard about a movement called "Movember", which inspires men around the globe to grow out their facial hair in order to raise awareness about prostate cancer and money for related charities. Last year's Movember efforts raised $80.7 million US dollars for cancer research; now in its ninth year, the Movember team has made exciting progress.

The folks at Movember announced that, "thanks to the incredible fundraising efforts of the Movember community, scientists, for the first time, have constructed a complete genetic map of prostate cancer. This historic development will expand the understanding of how the disease works, leading to improved and more personalized treatment for every man diagnosed."

Watch the video above to hear prostate cancer genome researcher Levi Alexander Garraway describe how fundraising projects like Movember contribute to dramatic diagnosis and treament benefits.

This year's Movember efforts have been expanded to include the mustache's hairy brother beard as part of "Novembeard". So if the men in your life are suddenly getting more hirsute, help them out with a hug and maybe a donation.

The Movember team believes that no upper lip should go unadorned, and that no man should die of prostate cancer. Hats off (and wax on!) to the thousands of men across the globe who will once again be getting furry for charity. 

Today we met an eleven-year old boy wonder, heard from Botswana's first female high court judge, listened to the Earth through its auroras and earthquakes, and got the lowdown from the White House's new head of the Office of Social Innovation. The "original Batman" taught the crowd echolocation, a man drew circles with his body and two Pakastani friends harmonized about their homeland.

Here’s what was most tweeted, what seemed awesome in the Opera House, and what had our staffers IMing each other from the rafters. Is your favorite moment missing? Add it to the mix!

"Art can help us explore and make tangible instincts we can't yet put into words."
— artist Daisy Ginsberg

Monetary expert Bernard Lietaer took 20 minutes to reframe the entire world economy for the audience at PopTech. He describes a possible flowering of complementary, business-to-business or inter-communal currencies that will create a more diverse, resilient economy. “Resilience requires more than one medium of exchange.”

The future is brown, the future is gendered, the future is fair.
-- Human rights activist Unity Dow

Co-founder of Ushahidi, and senior PopTech fellow Erik Hersman talked about the explosion of technology in Africa, where now a majority of people have traded and transferred bank funds using their mobile phones. “Five out of the world's top ten fastest growing economies are in Africa. If you’re an entrepreneur, why would you be anywhere else?”

With a good hand clap, I can hear a building from hundreds of yards away.
— Daniel Kish, blind since infancy, who has perfected the art of human echolocation

Tony Orrico subjects himself to hours of endless repetition of gestures to produce beautiful drawings that trace the whole history of his efforts: “You can think of me as a print-making machine, but I keep the master copy.”

Molecular structure ain't nothing but a thang.
-- Reggie Watts

It's been quite a ride these past four days. We're just glad the pink monster managed to stay on his Vespa.

Images by Kris Krug and Thatcher Cook for PopTech

Vaishali Sinha's documentary film "Made in India" casts an unbiased eye toward a complex subject: that of Western couples' outsourcing surrogacy to Indian women.

PopTech: What inspired you make this film and to tell this story?
Vaishali Sinha: My co-director Rebecca Haimowitz came across an article in the LA Times in late 2006 about couples going to India to hire surrogate mothers, and she had been interested in surrogacy-related issues. I was also working on issues of personal choice and body politics. We met over a cup of coffee and found there were lots of intersections in our interests. So we decided to pick up the camera and find those who were involved in this process. We figured it had to be a documentary film because it was something that was happening right then.

How did you find the subjects of your film?
Back in 2007 when we started, it was hard to find couples who were speaking out about their experiences. Since then, things have drastically changed — there are blogs where couples connect and share. Back then, who we found to be most visible online was a marketing medical tourism company called Planet Hospital, which is featured in the film. Much like our American couple Lisa and Brian [the couple featured in the film], we found them online. They first connected us to Lisa and Brian and it pretty much happened chronologically as it happened in the film. 

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