Rather than giving something up, failing and then feeling bad… why don’t you learn something new as part of your New Year resolutions. Here are a few ideas for science enthusiasts!

Coursera.org

There are tons of exciting FREE courses from universities around the world. I’ll be catching up with a few people who are doing these towards the end of January. Here’s a taster of courses available this month:

• Introduction to Genetics and Evolution – Mohamed Noor, Duke University
• Galaxies and Cosmology – S. George Djorgovski, California Institute of Technology
• Scientific Computing – J. Nathan Kutz, University of Washington
• Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life – Charles Cockell, University of Edinburgh
• Want to see more? Click here for a full list!

Dublin Mini Maker Faire

If you want to learn how to build/hack amazing things and hang out with super cool people, you might want to head along to the ‘Meet Up and Make’ night where the Dublin Mini Maker Faire 2013 will be launched.

Check out last year’s makers – click here.

Gathering the Gathering

Be super geeky and take up recording messages for aliens. CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory, Cork will be sending messages through space using their powerful radio telescope. Their destination is Epsilon Eridani b, an extrasolar planet approximately 10 light years away.

Pseudoscience

Learn about pseudoscience! Dr Brian Hughes, a lecturer in Psychology at NUI Galway, has just uploaded his class ‘Psychology, Science, & Pseudoscience‘ onto his blog, The Science Bit.

Science Writing

Start writing about the topic you love!

To get started, you could write an article for Science Calling’s new series featuring new writers. This will take place in February/March 2013 and is aimed at anyone who hasn’t published before and would like to write about science. Let me know if you’d like to take part via email.

You can take a FREE online course in Science Journalism developed by the World Federation of Science Journalists. Click here for the course in English (also available in other languages).

Some Twitter Favourites

Happy New Year from ScienceCalling.com!

_{Top image: Celestial Fireworks / NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team via Wikimedia Commons}