Science is the process by which we know the things we know about the world, but it is also highly creative and even unpredictable. For the sake of simplicity, we often try to shoehorn science into a single methodology that does not do it justice. To bring a more accurate portrayal of science to light, one of our most celebrated activities was helping to launch the Understanding Science Web site, developed by the University of California Museum of Paleontology. The flowchart pictured below is a hint of the resources that the site reveals as it portrays the "real" process of science, the beautiful messiness of the scientific endeavor, and the connection of science and society.

How Science Works Flowchart © Understanding Science
University of California Museum of Paleontology

In support of the launch of this amazing resource, we had two special activities through the year:

Launch activities

• The Year of Science / Understanding Science launch
• Release for the Web site itself

Posters

The poster giveaway started with a $100 donation from our colleague Dejan Petrovic at Dejan SEO in Croatia. We decided to use that donation to distribute Understanding Science posters leftover from a conference. We posted a link on our newsletter never expecting the size of the response! Eventually we gave out 10,000 posters to people in 49 states plus India, Greece, Canada, Argentina, Portugal, UK, Colombia, Oman, Philippines, Germany, Ecuador, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, Pakistan, Barbados, and Switzerland!

Supplementary funds came predominately from Dejan who rallied 21 of his colleagues to give an additional $100 each (or more!). Encyclopedia of Life followed with a wonderful contribution, as did a philanthropist friend of COPUS in California. To see the list of organizations that contributed to this initiative, check out the supporting logos on the bottom of the YoS home page!