Who here is GAME FOR SCIENCE’s best duellist? Participate in duels in GAME FOR SCIENCE during 24 heures de science and festival Eureka to find out! Plus, you have a shot at winning a Nintendo DS Lite! The best duelist of the 2 stages, 24 heures de science (from noon, Montréal time on May 7 to noon, Montréal time May 8, 2010) and festival Eureka (from noon, Montreal time to 5pm June 11, 2010 at 17:00 Montréal time June 13, 2010) will win the console, valued at 140$.

The winner will be the duellist with the most points following this scale :

Winning by KO 4 points,
Winning by TKO 3 points (whenever your opponent runs out of questions),
Losing 2 points,
Giving up 1 points.

The winner will be contacted by email on the week of June 14. Click here for the rules and standings!

Tons of fresh news for you, dear sciencenauts! You might notice upon logging into the world that you have suffered a mild case of amnesia. The neurons associated with the smart stars you had gathered up to now have been deducted from your totals, and the smart stars have been reset. How did this happen? You might have met a wicked, strange guy by the name of SCI-JACK before… He has taken a new form and he’s decided to reward your curiosity, but to do this he had to send you on a new hunt.

Look for hidden tidbits of knowledge with your detector, play some games at the arcade or elsewhere…You’ll earn neurons and he might show up with a little test for you!

Now, I know a test doesn’t sound like a very fun thing. But we have a feeling this is one you’ll want to take. Every time you answer a question correctly, you will earn the right to ask that question in a knowledge duel against other players. Why would you do that? To win talent$ so that you may customize your avatar. We already added a few different haircuts but more good stuff’s on its way.

Speaking of which, if you could pick any new accessory to upgrade your avatar’s look, what would it be? Some new clothes? Haircuts? Special equipment? We wish to improve your options and anything you can imagine is a good answer! Simply comment on this post to reach us.
You might remember Sonja, the snowboarder girl, who’d set camp on Aeronia island a while back. She left to hone her skills at sports and she’s back with a slew of sports-themed questions for you to ponder. Will you be up to her challenge?

If you are more of an explorer than a challenger, we invite you to take a stroll on a new island, ENVIRONIUM. Get acquainted with the froglike beings that inhabit the island and earn a few neurons! Keep your eyes opened, as their fragile ecosystem might be under the menace of yet unseen forces…

Such a wide world is best explored with friends! This is why we added friend lists and a personal messaging device called SCI-PHONE to your player interface. For now, you may use it to add friends and keep track of them. Give it a whirl! You will also notice a scrolling message at the bottom of your screen. We will use it to let everyone know of special events going on in the world, so be sure to give it a quick glance!

There’s a lot to discover in GAME FOR SCIENCE so don’t hesitate to write to us if you have any questions. Have fun discovering!

Flying to Mars seems like a natural objective after flying to the Moon. That makes it the object of dreams for scientists of many horizons. Why hasn’t mankind set foot on Mars yet? Some will say it is because the technology isn’t quite there yet, some will say the budgets given to space agencies such as NASA around the world are insufficient to accomplish that, while others will say that we would need more collaboration between states so that it would happen. At the moment, there exists no spacecraft capable of transporting a manned capsule to Mars and to brin git back. For example, the shuttles used by the NASA cannot operate beyond Earth’s orbit, at a few hundreds of kilometres of altitude. However, Mars is hundreds of millions of kilometres away…

You can’t wait for the day when we’ll set foot on Mars? On GAME FOR SCIENCE, we have you covered. First of all, step on Aeronia Island, where you’ll be able to learn more about space and aeronautics. Better yet, play M.A.R.S. Mars Academy of Research and Science, a game where you’ll learn about an array of careers related to space exploration. You will find the game on Aeronia, in the arcade and at http://www.gameforscience.com/mars/. Bon voyage!

Congratulations, Cynthia Coutu! You won an iPod Touch 16gb for your time spent solving the mystery on Genomia island.

To all those who didn’t win, better luck next time! There are no losers in contests on GAME FOR SCIENCE because we all learn a little something while roaming the different zones. Also, we’re hoping to bring you a slew of contests in the coming months. Keep your eyes peeled!

During vacation time, we enjoy all kinds of activities. Some of you might go camping, spend some time at a summer camp, on trips faraway or just enjoying some quality time at home. We’re sure you know someone who spends their whole vacation on some home improvement project. If you don’t, you do now, as the GAME FOR SCIENCE team is busy at work and just finished adding 2 new floors to the arcade. We needed the space as dozens of new games will be added during the summer. Check it out and let us know what you think!

By popular request, the chance to win a 16gb iPod touch is extended until august 14th. Good luck!

Enter to win an iPod Touch!

There’s a shiny new GAME FOR SCIENCE expansion for you to try! Genomia Island is now online. You’ll be able to discover the world of genomics through a brand new quest. Will you succeed in finding a cure to the terrible disease afflicting Genomia’s gnome citizens? Embark on a trip to Genomia from the port on the main island and find out!

Speaking of ports… If you’re anywhere close to the Old Port of Montreal in the coming days, you could meet the team behind GAME FOR SCIENCE. We will tend to a booth for Eureka Festival from June 12 to 14 on the Quays of the Old Port.

Not only will you be able to learn everything about Genomia, but try out the quest at Eureka Festival or complete it online and we’ll enter you in a draw to win an iPod Touch! Inviting your friends yields you more chances to win so pass it along!

Every time you eat cheese, stay healthy because of a vaccine or fight a disease with antibiotics, you owe it to biosciences. What do you know of biosciences?

Maybe you already know about bacteria but could you differentiate a spirochete from a coccus? Did you know that not all viruses prey on complex organisms? Some viruses prey on bacteria!

GAME FOR SCIENCE is a great place to hang out in if you want to learn more about biosciences. Starting this week, we’ll be adding 1 new game every week through collaboration with the Musée Armand-Frappier.

This week, we invite you to try out a memory game called Bacterium, virus and company. You will learn how different microorganisms look like. Once you get the hang of it, try it on intermediate level, where you will discover what those microorganisms do. What’s more, you’ll improve your short-term memory doing so. Have fun!

Science-fiction has always existed in the light of advances in science. In Grand Star’s post-apocalyptical epic story, after events that we won’t spoil for you, the Earth lies under a crust of the Moon’s dust. The dusty atmosphere blocks sunlight from reaching down where humans live. A new ice age forces the survivors to live in globe-covered cities linked together by all-powerful train companies.

Try to imagine a world where winter never stops.

There are two ways you can visit this universe impossible to imagine without science and based on Georges-Jean Arnaud’s books. First, you can catch the TV series Sunday at noon and Saturday at noon on Télé-Québec. You can also play the strategy game we showcase here on gameforscience. The game is a lot of fun whether you’re a fan of the series or not.

It is a strategy game, available both in single and multiplayer modes. You want to try it? Step into the arcade. It is loaded in a machine on the first floor.

A couple weeks ago, we invited you to try out to see if you’d make the cut as one of the first astronauts to set foot on Mars.

Did you? It might have sounded silly at the time : how can playing a game bring you closer to your dreams?

However, when astronaut Julie Payette told us that the dream of a career in science is often sparked by something grounded in our daily lives, and limited only by our ambition, we figured we’d extend a much larger invitation to M.A.R.S.

We dusted off the corners in our training facilities, saw that there are still a couple CD-ROMs that haven’t been found yet and fun things to undertake.

Our partners, Telefilm Canada, the Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM), École des métiers de l’aérospatiale de Montréal (EMAM) and la station de vulgarisation et de loisirs scientifiques du Bas-Saint-Laurent (ASTER), extend the challenge. You never know what you might find out about your future on Mars.

Get ready to blast off to M.A.R.S.! The official launch of the experience is this Thursday, April 9th. Visit http://www.gameforscience.com/mars to embark!