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This here is Charles Darwin studying some stick insects. This vision greeted me in the entrance hall of Questacon, Australia’s national science and technology center. The insects were crawling all over this guy’s face. He’s one of the very talented Excited Particles who are, as their name suggests, particularly excited about science. Sometimes fire. But then, who isn’t excited by fire? They also do highly entertaining science shows.

This weekend, Questacon are holding an event for the International Year of Biodiversity. There’s critters from the zoo, aquarium and reptile sanctuary, and specialists on native Australian plants. If you’re in Canberra (or Sydney, it’s not that far) check out the program. If not, don’t die of FOMO.

It’s getting close to the end of the year, so make the most of the biodiversity while it’s still hot. Next year’s offerings are the International Year of Forests (snore) and the International Year of Chemistry (yippee!!!) In fact, they have also have a weird year that started in August and is running till August 2011 called the Year of Youth, which gets young people involved in making important decisions about the world. Sounds good, I think.

Man I’m excited about the Year of Chemistry. More excited than a particle, I’d wager. We should make us some old school explosions! I’ll start hoarding the gunpowder now.