Competition: Best Tweet to Explain Origins of the Universe

University of Otago ScienceTeller Festival, November 15th to 19th 2011:

Competition for Best Tweet to Explain the Origins of the Universe

As part of the new ScienceTeller Festival, a competition will give participants the chance to win an Apple iPad simply by demonstrating their scientific knowledge using the social networking phenomenon Twitter.

In order to enter the contest, participants will be required to do the following in a single "tweet" of less than 140 characters:

"Explain the origins of the universe"

Tweeted entries must include the hashtag #scitell in order to be eligible for the prize. The best entries will be displayed on the ScienceTeller website - www.scienceteller.com/tweet. There, viewers will have the opportunity to vote on the tweets. The winning tweet will be selected by Professor Lawrence Krauss from the five tweets garnering the most votes. The winner will get an Apple iPad2 supplied by Cyclone Computers Ltd.

Professor Krauss is one of the world's leading theoretical physicists and will be giving a public talk about his new book, A Universe from Nothing, at the ScienceTeller Festival.

Tweeting is a hugely popular method of social communication using short messages of less than 140 characters sent from computers or mobile devices. Professor Lloyd Spencer Davis, Director of the Centre for Science Communication at the University of Otago, which is putting on this first-ever ScienceTeller Festival says, "The competition is a unique and novel way to test participants' abilities to be both concise and inventive. It encourages "tweeters" to use their language skills to convey big concepts in short form, something that science communicators must be adept at."

The competition is also an opportunity for the wider public to be involved in the ScienceTeller Festival, a coming-together of the best international storytellers about science for five days of performances, films, talks, exhibitions, readings in pubs, and other fun-filled events.

What: ScienceTeller Festival
Where: Dunedin: Otago University, Otago Museum, The Regent Theatre, The Bog Pub
When: November 15th to 19th 2011

For more information, visit www.scienceteller.com.

ENDS

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