One week from today, on Wednesday 6th of June, we will have the last opportunity in our lifetime to witness the Transit of Venus.

To coincide with this historic event, next week the Royal Society of New Zealand, Victoria University and the MacDiarmid Institute are hosting a national forum on New Zealand’s future – which we are really looking forward to! Today they launched an online idea-generating game: Pounamu. It is set in 2022, in a New Zealand where everyone is smart about science and technology. Participants play by posting micro-forecasts (140 characters) of future possibilities and building on, or reshaping other players’ ideas.

You can register online now and then on the 7th and 8th of June people from all over New Zealand are invited answer the question: How do we treasure and build on what we already have  - land, people, knowledge and connections – with new tools, new capacities, new connections and new ways of thinking to generate prosperity for all?

Also: TONIGHT the Wellington City Library is hosting Emeritus Professor of Applied Mathematics John Harper who will be presenting a free talk on the Transit of Venus. Professor Harper will be talking about what transits are, why they happen, and also why they were considered important enough for expeditions to be sent all over the world to observe them, and New Zealand’s role in previous transits.

7pm on the 2nd (top) floor at Central Library, 65 Victoria Street. Free and all welcome!