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Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy is a volunteer computing project that runs on the BOINC platform.
It is a joint effort of the French muscular dystrophy charity, L'Association française contre les myopathies; and L'Institut de biologie moléculaire et cellulaire (Molecular and Cellular Biology Institute).
== Project purpose ==
Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy studies the function of various proteins that are produced by the two hundred genes known to be involved in the production of neuromuscular proteins by modelling the protein-protein interactions of the forty thousand relevant proteins that are listed in the Protein Data Bank. More specifically, it models how a protein would be affected when another protein or a ligand docks with it.
== Scientific publications ==
Decrypting protein surfaces by combining evolution, geometry, and molecular docking. Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics (2019).
Hidden partners: Using cross-docking calculations to predict binding sites for proteins with multiple interactions. Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics (2018).
Protein social behavior makes a stronger signal for partner identification than surface geometry. Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics (2017).
Great interactions: How binding incorrect partners can teach us about protein recognition and function. Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics (2016).
Protein-Protein Interactions in a Crowded Environment: An Analysis via Cross-Docking Simulations and Evolutionary Information. PLOS Computational Biology (2013).
From Dedicated Grid to Volunteer Grid: Large Scale Execution of a Bioinformatics Application. Journal of Grid Computing (2009).
Joint Evolutionary Trees: A Large-Scale Method To Predict Protein Interfaces Based on Sequence Sampling. PLOS Computational Biology (2009).
Identification of Protein Interaction Partners and Protein–Protein Interaction Sites. Journal of Molecular Biology (2008).
== See also ==
BOINC
List of volunteer computing projects
Muscular dystrophy
World Community Grid
== References ==
== External links ==
Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy

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Helsinki Challenge is a science-based competition and idea accelerator which brings together the academic community and society at large to solve the world's grand challenges in cooperation. The competition goal is not only to create new scientific information, but to influence society.
Multidisciplinary teams consisting of experts from the academic and artistic communities, the business world, the public and third sectors, media and other actors of the society are welcome to take part in the competition. Participating teams are evaluated by the jury using the following criteria: originality, creativity, impact, focus on solutions and use of science-based methods. The competition prize is 375,000 euros and it is meant for the implementation of the solution.
Helsinki Challenge was held for the first time in 2015. In 2017, the competition is organised by the University of Helsinki in collaboration with Aalto University, Hanken School of Economics, University of Eastern Finland, University of Jyväskylä, University of Oulu, University of the Arts Helsinki, University of Turku, University of Vaasa and Åbo Akademi University.
== Helsinki Challenge 2014–2015 ==
The first ever Helsinki Challenge was organised by the University of Helsinki and celebrated the University's 375th anniversary in 2015. The first Helsinki Challenge competition themes were: environmental change, health and wellbeing, future learning, global Helsinki and new world view.
=== Semifinal 2014–2015 ===
Out of 80 proposals, a list of 20 semifinalists were announced in December 2014. Teams’ competition ideas ranged from developing tools to analyze big data on the Finnish discussion forum Suomi24 to studying our expectations of robot morality.
==== Semifinalist teams ====
Future Organization, team leader Veikko Eranti
Climate Whirl, team leader Eija Juurola
Sustainability tracker, team leader Kaisa Korhonen-Kurki
Play Learn Heal, team leader Kristiina Kumpulainen
Moralities of Intelligent Machines, team leader Michael Laakasuo
The Citizen Mindscapes, team leader Krista Lagus
Ground and Growth, team leader Kristina Lindström
Engaging Future Workplace, team leader Kirsti Lonka
Lab Impact Africa, team leader Christina Lyra
Higher Education Unbounded, team leader Katalin Miklossy
Urban Academy, team leader Jari Niemelä
Tell Us, team leader Maria Niemi
Biodiversity Now, team leader Markku Ollikainen
Helsinki Sleep Factory, team leader Anu-Katriina
Viewfinder, team leader Paavo Pylkkänen
SafePreg – Health into Next Generation, team leader Katri Räikkönen
NEMO - Natural Emotionality in Digital Interaction, team leader Katri Saarikivi
Generation Green, team leader Tiina Sikanen
The Happiness Project, team leader Laura Visapää
Genetic Correction of Inherited Hemoglobin Disease, team leader Kirmo Wartiovaara
=== Final 2014–2015 ===
In October 2015, the five finalist teams were chosen: Moralities of Intelligent Machines, Biodiversity Now, Helsinki Sleep Factory, SafePreg – Health into Next Generation and NEMO - Natural Emotionality in Digital Interaction. The jury for the final included Chancellor Thomas Wilhelmsson (chair), Pro-Vice Chancellor of Education Sally Mapstone from the University of Oxford, Professor of Practice Pasi Sahlberg from Harvard University’s Harvard Graduate School of Education, Director Ulrich Weinberg from the Hasso Plattner Institute School of Design Thinking and President Mikko Kosonen of the Finnish Innovation Fund SITRA.
==== Winner teams ====
The €375,000 prize for the science-based idea competition Helsinki Challenge was divided between two teams. The winner was NEMO – Natural Emotionality in Digital Interaction, which received €250,000, while the runner-up, Biodiversity Now, received €125,000. The prize money is intended for realising the team's idea.
NEMO is developing new ways to digitise and transmit emotion online. The team is planning small add-ons for digital interaction platforms that would consider emotions. This way participants in online discussions could see or even experience the emotions of others in a new way that would be equivalent to natural interaction. The team wants to create an open protocol for emotion transmission for any coder to use for building new empathy-enabling applications.
Biodiversity Now team wants to establish a Finnish habitat bank so that, for example, companies reducing biodiversity through a construction project could offset this by increasing biodiversity elsewhere.
== Helsinki Challenge 2016–2017 ==
The second Helsinki Challenge was kicked off in August 2016. The winner will be announced in conjunction with the centennial of Finland's independence in 2017. The new Helsinki Challenge themes: Sustainable Plant, Urban Future and People in Change are linked to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The intention is to create solutions for future wellbeing through cooperation with a range of different institutions.
== References ==
== External links ==
Helsinki Challenge's official website Archived 2015-06-27 at the Wayback Machine

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Ibercivis was a volunteer computing platform which allows internet users to participate in scientific research by donating unused computer cycles to run scientific simulations and other tasks. The original project, which became operational in 2008, was a scientific collaboration between the Portuguese and Spanish governments, but it is open to the general public and scientific community, both within and beyond the Iberian Peninsula. The project's name is a portmanteau of Iberia and the Latin word civis, meaning 'citizen'.
In April 2020, the volunteer computing platform was restarted by the Ibercivis Foundation and the Spanish National Research Council in order to screen existing drugs for antiviral activity against Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the causative agent of the COVID-19 pandemic.
== History ==
Ibercivis was developed in Spain with the cooperation of the Institute of Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems at the University of Zaragoza, CIEMAT, CETA-CIEMAT, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and RedIris. The project tasks are issued by different scientific and technological centers in Spain with the aim of creating a functional platform for volunteer-based scientific computing. The project is a European counterpart to the successful United States-based SETI@home and Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) volunteer computing projects.
Ibercivis' predecessor, the University of Zaragoza-based volunteer computing project Zivis, began operation in 2007, and Ibercivis itself started operating in June 2008. The Zivis project was a local volunteer computing application funded by the ayuntamiento (city council) of the city of Zaragoza. The larger-scale Ibercivis infrastructure has been used for a variety of calculating applications, including nuclear fusion research, protein folding and materials simulations. In July 2009, the Ibercivis platform was extended to Portugal following an agreement signed by the governments of both countries during the Luso-Spanish Summit held in Zamora, Spain, in January 2009. Several Portuguese institutions subsequently affiliated themselves with Ibercivis, including the Ministry of Science, the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology at the University of Coimbra, and the LIP experimental high-energy physics laboratory.
In April 2020, a new Ibercivis project was launched to support researchers efforts to fight Coronavirus disease 2019.
=== Number of participants ===
At its inception in June 2008, Ibercivis had 3,000 registered users hosting its various projects. By December 2012, this figure had risen to over 19,800, distributed across 124 countries. There were around 55,000 individual hosting devices registered with the project, of which over 3,600 were active on a weekly basis.
As of April 2020, there were 917 active users and 2375 active hosts in the new inception of Ibercivis.
== Projects ==
Ibercivis was intended to run indefinitely, and is designed to run several simultaneous applications belonging to different scientific disciplines in a manner similar to World Community Grid. Users can select which projects they wish to contribute to via the project's website. As of May 2020, Ibercivis encompassed eight different active projects:
=== Active Projects ===
COVID-Phym: Screen existing drugs for antiviral activity against Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the causative agent of the COVID-19 pandemic.
=== Completed projects ===
Ibercivis projects that have been completed or discontinued as of May 2020 include:

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Fusion: a star on your screen: this application helped scientists at the Research Center for Energy Environment and Technology (CIEMAT) and at the Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI) perform simulations of the plasmas that will be produced in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The ITER project, which will begin operation in 2018, seeks to make nuclear fusion power a reality, replicating on Earth conditions typically found inside stars.
Docking: looking for anti-cancer drugs: the Docking application assisted the search for new medicines through the simulation of protein docking. The Bioinformatics Unit of the Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CSIC-UAM) developed a platform to allow the automatic simulation of interactions of proteins and small molecules. Its purpose was to find effective drugs to treat serious illnesses, such as cancer.
Materials: simulation of magnetic systems: the Materials application aided physicists from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad de Extremadura and the Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems in discovering how non-magnetic impurities in magnetic materials modify the properties of their transition from a magnetic state to a non-magnetic one. The knowledge of these transitions is important not only from a theoretical point of view but also may help develop many fields of technology, such as magnetic hard disks and superconducting materials.
Nanoluz: light at a nanoscale: knowing how light reacts at a nanometer scale is a scientific challenge with important implications for the construction of new materials, development of new computing and communication systems and the improvement of technologies such as solar panels. Using the Nanoluz application, scientists at the Institute of Optics Daza Valdés CSIC investigated the behavior of light in metal nanoparticles, seeking to develop systems that could simplify medical and biological analysis.
IberNet: let's research inside Ibercivis: with this project, researchers sought to study and represent the structure of Ibercivis as a social network and try to export their conclusions to other social networks, to help with the study and prediction of the dynamics of a mass social environment.
Amiloide: searching for drugs against neurodegenerative amyloid diseases: the AMILOIDE project aims to search digital libraries of millions of compounds for potential drugs to interfere with the formation of aggregates and amyloid fibers, which can lead to neurodegenerative diseases. Currently, the main target diseases being studied are familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP) and Alzheimer's disease. This project is the responsibility of scientists of the Structural and Computational Biology Group at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC) of the University of Coimbra.
Neurosim: an immersion in the molecular structure of memory: scientists at the Institute of Matter Structure, CSIC use the results of the Neurosim application to analyze the structural properties of amino acids and small peptides (sequences of a few tens of amino acids) that act in the human brain and nervous system. By simulating the so-called energy landscape for each amino acid, key steps can be made in reconstructing the three-dimensional structure of proteins from the amino acid sequence, advancing the study of the structure and function of the human brain.
Adsorption: behaviour of confined fluids in limited spaces: the Adsorption application helps researchers from the Instituto de Química-Física Rocasolano from CSIC study the adsorption properties of the pillared clays that are widely used as industrial catalysers, materials for gas storage, and industrial separation agents. This kind of clay is used in industrial processes such as the production of biofuels from vegetable oils, the storage of natural gas at room temperature and the storage of greenhouse gases produced by industry.
Cuanticables: quantic wires simulations: scientists of the University of Buenos Aires use this application to study the degree to which the faults in the material of quantum wires has on their electric current. For this purpose, they develop a theoretical model which simulates the quantum wire, the impurities and the electrodes to which the quantum wire connects, and study the behaviour of the current that is generated across the wire when an external voltage is applied to it.
Sanidad: improved diagnostics: ionizing radiation is used in health applications ranging from basic diagnostic tests in a modern hospital (in radiology, nuclear medicine and laboratory tests) to the treatment of cancer by radiotherapy. For these purposes, both actual radioactive materials (in the form of seeds or injectable material) and complex equipment that generates photon beams and electrons can be utilised. Physicists from Andalucía use the Sanidad simulations to improve knowledge of the safe use of radiation in healthcare, and to explore potential new applications.
Criticalidad: electron transport in disordered systems with fractal properties: the Criticalidad project helps Mexican investigators understand the properties and effects of fractality in the transport of electrons through disordered systems in the Anderson transition.
Soluvel: researching solubility of toxic and pharmaceutical compounds: the aim of the Soluvel project is to calculate the solvation energies of certain soluble compounds, so as to identify through computation which compounds may prove toxic to humans, and which may serve as effective medical drugs. The project is being conducted by researchers from the Laboratory of Molecular Simulation of Separation and Reaction Engineering (LSRE), a division of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto.
Primalidad: search for Wilson primes: a "citizen science" project open to all mathematicians, the Primalidad application searches for the next Wilson prime – the first three having been 5, 13 and 563. It is conjectured that the fourth Wilson prime must be larger than 5 × 108.
== See also ==
Crowdsourcing
List of volunteer computing projects
Science and technology in Portugal
Supercomputing in Europe
== References ==
== External links ==

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Industry funding of academic research in the United States is one of the two major sources of research funding in academia along with government support. Currently, private funding of research accounts for the majority of all research and development funding in the United States as of 2007 overall. Overall, Federal and Industrial sources contribute similar amounts to research, while industry funds the vast majority of development work.
While the majority of industry research is performed in-house, a major portion of this private research funding is directed to research in non-profit academic centers. As of 1999, industrial sources accounted for an estimated $2.2 billion of academic research funding in the US. However, there is little governmental oversight or tracking of industry funding on academic science and figures of the scale of industry research are often estimated by self-reporting and surveys which can be somewhat unreliable.
Much of this industry funding of academic research is directed toward applied research. However, by some accounts, industry may even fund up to 40% of basic research in the United States, with Federal funding of basic research falling below 50%, although this figure does not consider where this research is conducted. The role for funding of academic research from industrial sources has received much attention both in a historical and contemporary perspective. The practice has received both extensive political praise and scholarly criticism.
== History ==
Research in the US prior to World War II, heavily relied on funding from private sources without major organized federal research programs or either the scientists’ or associates’ personal funds. During WWII, governmental investment in research was widely regarded as a major contributor to military success and support for research was politically favorable. Following WW2, federal research funding in both Europe and the US increased in terms of relative percent of funding for research and absolute amount. Overall, the growth of industrial research funding has greatly outpaced public research funding growth, with US governmental research funding increasing by an average of 3.4% annually, while industrial research funding increased by an average of 5.4% annually from 1950 to 2004.
Since WW2, industry funding of science has consistently represented the second largest source of funding for academic science. Industry funding of academic science did expand during the 1980s and 1990s following the passing of the Bayh–Dole Act and a variety of both State and Federal proposals to increase funding for joint industry academic partnerships. In the 2000s there has been a small retraction of industry funding for academic science while overall industry R&D funding has expanded. ). However, industry funding may be broadening its scope as industry funding of basic science increasing dramatically over that same period, but much of this funding remains in-house.
Culturally, attitudes towards the industrial funding of academic research have changed over time. Within universities, commercial activities and industry funding were often spurned in the 19th century. More recently, commercializing scientific activity is viewed more favorably with extensive political and university support of translating scientific discovery into economic output. However, within the research community and the public, industrial funding of research remains controversial. The universality of this tangled industry, academic, and governmental exchange of funding and research adventures has led researchers to term this model of R&D the Triple Helix.
== Types of industrially funded academic research ==
University-industry partnerships can take on a variety of forms. On the smallest scale, individual research labs or researchers can partner with industry sources for funding. The details of such partnerships can differ substantially with any number of motives ranging from the academic lab testing of previously developed products, to performing early stage basic research related to industry research objectives, or even to individual researchers supporting their salary by consulting on related research problems in industry. While many such partnerships exist, due to their informal nature and resulting lack of record, it is difficult to track how extensive and impactful such relationships are, with most relying on surveys and other self-reporting measures. By closest approximation, according to the Research Value Mapping Survey, 17% of academics at major US research universities report receive grants from industry sources supporting their research.
Far more extensively, in many fields and countries, a narrow majority of academic scientists report having some soft industry relationships, primarily through consulting. Such informal industry academic relationships have a long-standing tradition as they served as a major source of funding for individual labs prior to WW2. In many cases, it was expected that researchers would pursue such relationships as this was expected to be a major source of funding for researcher’s salaries. Despite greatly expanded post-WW2 federal support for research, so called soft money salary support from industry remains a large and growing aspect of academic research salaries.

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=== University Industry Research Centers (UIRCs) ===
On a larger scale, there have been numerous attempts to create collaborative University-Industry Research Centers (UIRCs) to jointly host academic and industry researchers to address industry problems with direct, large scale collaborative centers. Early forms of UIRCS started in the 1950s and 1960s with the formation of research parks with industry sponsors. In the 1970s, there were multiple proposals at the federal level in the US to help fund and expand early UIRCs. However, funding fell through at multiple points.
The first UIRCs experienced difficulties in bridging the differences between academic and industrial culture. One such attempt occurred at Caltech where Caltech researchers partnered with Xerox and IBM through the Silicon Structures Project. Both industry and academic partners were concerned about the cultures of the other and found the structure ineffective. With such frustrations, it was difficult to secure partners to continue expanding UIRCs.
In the late 1970s, RPI created two three new UIRCs: 1) the Center for Integrated Computer Graphics, which received both NSF and industry support 2) the Center for Manufacturing Productivity and Technology Transfer, which was funded entirely by industry support and 3) the Center for Integrated Electronics, which received unprecedented industry support. These centers were generally regarded as highly successful and made expansion of governmental support for joint industry and academic ventures more favorable. In the early 1980s, states began contributing funding to UIRCs and other industry-academic partnerships to encourage local economic growth from innovation. By the mid-1980s, the federal government expanded financial support for UIRCs.
With mixed governmental and industry support, the UIRCs were more likely to be successful. Over time successful governmentally funded UIRCs could become independent from government support once having demonstrable successes that could continue to incentivize industry to contribute funding more aggressively. UIRCs, coupled to early seeding from both state and federal government, continued to greatly expand during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually receiving nearly 70% of industry funding of academic research and incentivizing a tripling of industry funding of academic research during the 1980s.
=== Contract Research Organizations (CROs) ===
Contract research has also drawn increasing industry funding, particularly to Contract Research Organizations (CROs) from Biotech and Pharmaceutical corporations. Contract research is a popular form of outsourcing research in industry as industry has more influence over how the study is conducted than in either UIRCs or traditional academic grants. CROs, which are specifically designed for this function have drawn substantial industry clinical research funding away from academia and are growing rapidly.
== Influence and criticisms ==
Much discussion has been placed on the effects of industrial research funding on the behavior of academic research scientists. Concerns center on whether researchers can remain impartial when they are being funded by a for-profit and potentially motivated industrial source, if this funding gives private sources an oversized impact on which research directions are pursued, and the potential negative effects of industrial funding on the openness of science.
A multitude of studies have found that pharmaceutical studies funded by industry organizations are significantly more likely to publish results in favor of the product being supported. This could, in part, be due to the fact that usually when an academic accepts industry funding, particularly when working on an existing product, researchers have to sign non-disclosure agreements which often prevent the publication of negative results and inhibit the openness of science. This could serve to significantly bias scientific results and diminish public trust of science.
There are additionally many scholars who have considered advantages of industrially funded academic research. Generally, increased industry funding may increase academic and industry interaction, prompting greater efficiency in translating and commercializing of science research. This increased commercialization activity from academics could serve as an economic and societal boost as the economy could be bolstered by new products hitting the market, while society could benefit directly from having increased access to the fruits of scientific production. Supporting this, academic science funded by industry sources does result in more patents per dollar, increased licensing of these patents, and even more citations per published paper than research supported by other sources, including federal at the University of California Berkeley.
In Germany, it also appears that applied research funded by industry sources results in a significant increase in patent citations, which could correspond to a serious increase in translation of applied research. Such increase in commercialization and translation of research could provide social and economic benefits. However, it is difficult to determine whether this increase in apparent impact is due to the industry funding itself or is just a read out that industry funds target work that tends to produce more citations per publication as well as more patents.
== Disclosure ==
The Sunshine Act, part of the Affordable Care Act, requires healthcare providers to disclose financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers. This transparency initiative mandates that payments, including consulting fees, travel, research funding, and gifts, be publicly reported in the Open Payments database maintained by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services by companies. The goal is to prevent conflicts of interest and ensure that financial ties do not unduly influence medical decision-making. By making this information accessible, the Sunshine Act promotes accountability and allows patients to make informed choices about their healthcare providers.
Several initiatives have advocated for increased transparency in financial relationships and perceived conflict of interest between academic faculty and their industry partners within medical education. Anand Reddi has advocated that undisclosed conflicts of interest can compromise the objectivity of medical training and influence the content delivered to medical students and trainees. By advocating for voluntary disclosure policies, Reddi has contributed to efforts that aim to uphold integrity and trust in the education of future healthcare professionals both in resolutions at the American Medical Association but also in the peer-reviewed literature and op-eds.
== See also ==
Funding of science
Self-Organized Funding Allocation
Military research
Junk science
Public–private partnership
== References ==

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The Insect Fear Film Festival or IFFF is an annual free event held every spring since 1984, and is the first university-sponsored event of its kind in the U.S., typically taking place on a Saturday in February. Organized by the Entomology Graduate Students Association at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the festival blends education with entertainment. It showcases films, shorts, and TV episodes that highlight insect biology and celebrate the role of insects in popular culture.
The purpose of the event is to dispel fears of insects by providing relative knowledge while various insect-themed monster movies are shown. Before the films begin, May Berenbaum, the festival organizer, the UI Entomology department head and professor, typically introduces each film, providing scientific context, debunking inaccuracies, and exploring why we fear insects. She also points out "biological improbabilities" and filmmaking flaws, often noting that some films are "so bad they’re actually entertaining." (However, the organisers often have to watch the films several times in order to identify a theme and select the best films. "It’s really excruciating sometimes," Berenbaum said.)
The festival typically includes several animated shorts and two or three feature-length films. The evening usually starts with a family-friendly film, as parents and children make up a large portion of the audience. By the second movie, however, "all bets are off." In addition to the screenings, this event is held alongside an insect petting zoo, exotic insect displays, an insect art contest, insect face painting, balloon insect folding, the Bugscope, a raffle with arthropod-themed prizes and other activities.
The festival is typically organized around a different theme each year, with past themes including insect invasions (e.g., The Naked Jungle and The Swarm), metamorphosis, cockroaches, mosquitos, and entomologists themselves. The theme influences not only the film selections but also pre-show activities and the design of the festival T-shirts, created by graduate students. These festival T-shirts, featuring the year's theme, are sold during the event to support insect-related outreach programs. The tradition of festival T-shirts began with the second festival.
The festival is usually held at Foellinger Auditorium. Due to the pandemic, the 38th IFFF in 2021 was held online, marking the first of two consecutive years the event took place virtually. In 2023, the festival returned to Foellinger Auditorium at UIUC.
The festival had showcased over 100 insect-related films, videos, and shorts by 2010. By 2024, it is estimated to have featured between 175 and 200 films, videos, and shorts. The most popular offering at the festival, according to the National Wildlife Federation's magazine in 1995, has been Beginning of the End (1957), which features giant grasshoppers invading the city of Chicago after consuming radiation-treated vegetables.
Recognized as the first university-sponsored public outreach event of its kind in the U.S., the festival is described by Adam Langer in The Film Festival Guide for Filmmakers, Film Buffs, and Industry Professionals (2000) as "specialized" and hosted at a "great university." It has garnered media coverage from outlets such as National Geographic Magazine, Canadian Broadcasting Company, National Public Radio, the Washington Post, and The New York Times.
== Slogan and Aims ==
"Scaring the general public with horrific films and horrific filmmaking."
The IFFF aims to spark a sense of wonder about the insect and arthropod world. It highlights the importance of scientific research for adults, while fostering curiosity in younger generations and potentially inspiring future careers in science. The festival serves as a bridge between technical knowledge and its real-world significance, encouraging a deeper appreciation for the natural world and the vital role insects play in it.
== Founding and inspiration ==
The film festival's founder, entomology professor and department head May Berenbaum, conceived the idea as a graduate student at Cornell University. One day, she saw a poster for a Godzilla festival hosted by the Asian-American Student Association and thought, "if they can have a sense of humor about their identity, why couldn’t we entomologists do the same?" When she pitched the idea, however, her department head dismissed it as undignified. Berenbaum brought the Insect Fear Film Festival to life after joining the University of Illinois faculty in 1980. With the support of department head Stanley Friedman, the first festival was held in March 1984.
== Pre-film activities ==
Before the films begin, attendees of the Insect Fear Film Festival (IFFF) have the opportunity to participate in various educational and interactive activities.
=== Insect petting zoo ===
Guided by graduate students from the UIUC Entomology Department, attendees can handle and interact with live insects and arthropods, including tarantulas, large ants, beetles, and other fascinating species, while learning about their biology. The insects on display may change each year, depending on the festival's theme, e.g. a cockroach petting zoo in 2013 and a "maggot petting zoo" in 2005, offering a fresh experience for each IFFF. The petting zoo offers a unique opportunity for attendees to gain a firsthand understanding of these creatures, helping to dispel the fears and misconceptions many people have about insects.

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=== Insect art contest ===
Since 1993, the lFFF also features an Insect Art Contest for K–12 students, since 1993, inviting them to explore their creativity while learning about insects. Students (K–12) are encouraged to submit artwork that depicts insects and arthropods in any medium. The contest aims to inspire young minds to appreciate the beauty and complexity of these creatures, fostering a deeper understanding of the insect world. Winning entries are often displayed at the festival, providing an opportunity for students to showcase their work to the community. In 1990s, the contest was held with the Natural History Museum, where the winning drawings were displayed for two weeks. Due to the pandemic, the 2021 and 2022 Insect Art Contests were held online with a virtual art gallery to showcase students' artwork. In 2023, the contest returned to an in-person format.
The insect-themed artwork contest is usually due by mid-February annually. Please submit your artwork to the Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA), UIUC, or contact the IFFF coordinators, typically the EGSA presidents, for details.
=== Bugscope ===
At the Insect Fear Film Festival (IFFF), attendees will have the opportunity to experience a $600,000 high-resolution scanning electron microscope (SEM) firsthand, gaining a deeper understanding of the true nature of insects with Bugscope. This interactive experience allows participants to remotely control the SEM and explore insects and arthropods, such as bees, beetles, flies, mosquitoes, and spiders, at sizes as small as 0.5–4 nanometers. The Bugscope team provides expert guidance, answering questions and offering insights into insect biology. By examining these creatures in extraordinary detail, festival-goers can counter common misconceptions perpetuated by Hollywood's insect-themed horror films.
=== Insect collection exhibit ===
The exhibit showcased a diverse array of exotic insects, each thoughtfully curated to align with the festival's theme and the featured films of the year. The display typically included diverse collection of exotic insects and rare specimens from across the globe, spotlighting unique species that either tie into the festival's focus or appear in the annual feature films. Attendees had the opportunity to learn about the biology, behavior, and ecological roles of these insects from graduate students and experts, providing opportunities for up-close viewing and educational interaction. In 2021 and 2022, due to the pandemic, a virtual exhibit was held that provided a virtual tour of the Illinois Natural History Survey's insect collection.
=== Insect (or Honey) Tasting ===
In 1993, the IFFF served food made from insects for tasting. In 2000, the bee-themed year, the IFFF featured honey tasting.
== Themes and films ==
=== 43rd Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2026) ===
The 43rd Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (IFFF) was held on February 28, 2026. The 2026 theme is “Insect-Human Hybrids,” focusing on films featuring mutant human–insect characters. Such hybrids are a recurring motif in folklore and popular culture, including figures such as Anansi and Seth Brundle from The Fly (1986). An episode of Sectaurs, adapted from the 1980s toy line featuring insect–human “tele-bonded” characters, was screened prior to the feature presentation. The feature film, Infestation (2009), depicts a global outbreak in which giant insects cocoon and transform humans.
=== 42nd Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2025) ===
The 42nd Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (IFFF) took place on February 22, 2025. The year’s theme was “Tarantulas: Hairy, Scary Spiders.” Tarantulas, known for their multiple legs, rapid movements, and venomous fangs, were highlighted for the ways they evoke both fascination and fear. Hollywood bug wrangler Steven Kutcher presented clips from various horror films featuring tarantulas. The festival concluded with a screening of Arachnophobia (1990), a film in which a California town attempts to contain a deadly spider infestation..
=== 41st Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2024) ===
The theme of the 41st Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (IFFF) was "Ant-Men" providing attendees with a unique and entertaining way to explore the fascinating world of ants, a highly social insect. The event highlighted ants' complex behaviors and drew intriguing parallels to human life. The films featured included The Ant Bully (2006), in which a boy, Lucas, is shrunk to ant size by ants, makes friends with them, and helps defeat an evil exterminator; and Ant-Man (2015), which follows a superhero who uses size-changing technology to communicate with ants.
=== 40th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2023) ===
In 2023, the 40th annual Insect Fear Film Festival (IFFF) focused on "living fossil" arthropods - species that have remained largely unchanged for millions of years. Featured films included Joe's Apartment (1996), in which cockroaches help their roommate fight developers, and The Monster That Challenged the World (1957), in which giant velvet worms wreak havoc in California. The festival also screened trailers for other films about living fossils and three episodes of Pike's Lagoon (2018–19), an animated series about a horseshoe crab. May Berenbaum, the festival's founder and head of the Department of Entomology, introduced the films, presented the art awards, and explained the biology behind 'living fossils', highlighting where the films got the science right - and where they went wrong.

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=== 39th annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2022) ===
The 39th IFFF, themed "Venomous," took place online via Zoom on February 26, 2022. This year's festival featured a variety of engaging and educational activities, including a special presentation by Justin Schmidt, creator of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, which rates the pain caused by insect stings. Attendees could explore a virtual insect petting zoo, learn about venomous insects through the Bugscope, and take a virtual tour of the Illinois Natural History Survey's insect collection. The event also included fun and interactive elements such as bee ventriloquism, insect-themed crafts, and an art contest featuring insect-themed artwork created by local K-12 students. The film program consisted of a mix of animated and live short films divided into three segments: first, exaggerated comic depictions of insect stings; second, dramatic or humorous reactions to stings, including severe allergic reactions such as anaphylaxis; and third, scientific insights into the world of venomous arthropods, showcasing their various venom delivery methods and potential beneficial uses. A highlight was a live stinging demonstration to provide a first-hand look at the process of venom delivery. The festival highlighted the fascinating diversity of venomous insects, from honeybee stings used for self-defense to predatory wasps that paralyze prey for their larvae. The event successfully blended education and entertainment, providing an interactive and engaging experience for all participants.
=== 38th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2021) ===
The 38th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (IFFF), themed "Featuring Fleas," was held for the first time online via Zoom on February 27, 2021, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The festival focused on fleas, exploring their fascinating biology and behavior, including their role as blood-feeding parasites and their remarkable ability to jump up to 50 times their body length. Highlights of the festival included a flea circus featuring Dr. Tim Cockerill of Falmouth University in England, who demonstrated the acrobatic talents of live fleas. Other activities included a virtual insect petting zoo, a flea bugscope that allowed attendees to learn about fleas up close, and flea-themed crafts. A virtual tour of the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) insect collection provided a glimpse into the diversity of insects, including flea specimens. The film program featured a century of flea-related films, shorts, and documentaries that explored the cultural and scientific significance of fleas, as well as their role in transmitting diseases such as the bubonic plague. The festival also included a virtual art contest featuring insect-themed artwork created by local K-12 students. This event marked a unique shift to an online format that offered an engaging mix of education, entertainment, and interactive experiences.
=== 37th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2020) ===
The 37th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (IFFF) took place on Saturday, February 22, 2020, just before the COVID-19 lockdowns began in the U.S. in March 2020. This year's theme was "Crustacean Fear Films," highlighting the diverse group of arthropods, including crabs, lobsters, shrimp, and many others, with over 42,000 species in total.
The festival featured three crustacean-themed films, beginning with a kid-friendly short anthology showcasing crustaceans in TV and film. The first feature film, Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), follows scientists trapped on a shrinking island, where they face giant, intelligent, and murderous crabs. The second film, The Bay (2012), is presented in "found footage" style and depicts an ecological disaster in a small Maryland town, caused by the deadly tongue-eating fish louse.
=== 36th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2019) ===
This year's featured insect was the often-misunderstood termite, which, despite its reputation as a pest, is actually vital to the environment. Termites play a crucial role in breaking down dead wood, which helps recycle nutrients back into ecosystems. The festival also highlighted the positive impact termites can have on sustainability. For example, engineers have studied termite mounds, which naturally maintain a cool temperature, and used this knowledge to develop energy-efficient cooling systems for buildings. This innovative "bio-inspired" approach shows how termites contribute not only to nature but also to sustainable human technologies. The films featured at the 2019 Insect Fear Film Festival included Alien Apocalypse (2005), a sci-fi thriller where giant termites are the alien invaders threatening to strip the Earth of its wood resources. This film, starring Bruce Campbell, was the main feature of the evening, aligning with the festival's focus on termites. In addition, there were short films shown before the main feature, including Woody the Woodpecker cartoons. These were chosen because woodpeckers often feed on wood-boring insects, such as termites, creating a fun and educational lead-up to the festival's focus on the featured insect.
=== 35th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2018) ===
The 35th annual Insect Fear Film Festival was held on February 24, 2018. This year's event focused on ticks, chosen for their portrayal as terrifying antagonists in film, thanks to their blood-feeding nature and their ability to spread diseases like Lyme disease. The festival showcased several films, including The Big Tick (2006), an episode of Ben 10 featuring a giant, tick-like alien, Bite of the Ruby Red (1955), an episode of Soldiers of Fortune about a scientist searching for a cure to a tick-borne fever. The main feature was Ticks (1993), a horror film in which mutated, oversized ticks terrorize a group of teenagers on a wilderness retreat.
=== 34th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2017) ===
The theme of the 2017 IFFF was "Illinois Alumnus Paul Hertzberg Insect Fear Films," spotlighting films produced by Paul Hertzberg, a U of I graduate from 1971. Hertzberg has produced over 150 films, including 2 Lava 2 Lantula (2016) and Caved In (2006), which were featured in the festival. In addition to the screenings, Hertzberg also gave a talk during the event.

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=== 33rd Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2016) ===
The 33rd Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (IFFF) took place on Saturday, February 27, at 6 p.m. in Foellinger Auditorium, with the theme "Exploding Arthropods." The event, hosted by the Entomology Graduate Student Association, highlighted real-life explosive insects, such as bombardier beetles, which spray hot chemicals as a defense, and exploding carpenter ants, which sacrifice themselves to protect their colonies. Parasitoid wasps, whose larvae chew their way out of their hosts, also contributed to the theme. These natural "explosions" were mirrored in the festival's films, featuring mutant cockroaches and giant, lava-breathing tarantulas.
The evening featured three films: Palm Rot (2015; 7.5 minutes), Bug (1975), and Lavalantula (2015). The event began with Palm Rot (2015; 7.5 minutes), a short animated film introduced by the event special guest and its creator, Ryan Gillis. Following that, Bug (1975) told the story of a scientist who unintentionally created a breed of intelligent, combustible cockroaches. The evening concluded with Lavalantula (2015), in which giant, lava-spewing tarantulas wreaked havoc in Los Angeles after a volcanic eruption.
=== 32nd Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2015) ===
The 32nd IFFF was held on February 28, 2015, at 6 p.m. in Foellinger Auditorium. The theme for this year's festival was Female Entomologists in Fear Films. The event featured two family-friendly short episodes from the Discovery Kids show Growing Up Creepie. Following the shorts, the festival showcased the 2005 SyFy original Mansquito. In the film, Dr. Allen (Musetta Vander) is trying to find a cure for mosquito-borne Gillan's disease when an explosion in her lab exposes Ray Ericson (Matt Jordon) to high levels of radiation, gradually transforming him into a half-man, half-mosquito hybrid known as the Mansquito.
=== 31st Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2014) ===
The 31st Annual Insect Fear Film Festival was held on February 22, 2014, at 6 p.m. in Foellinger Auditorium, with a focus on pesticides and the evolving public perception of their use, particularly DDT—a chemical compound banned by the USDA due to its harmful environmental effects. One of the highlights of this year's festival was the Pesticide Petting Zoo, which featured a collection of old pesticide containers and applicators that Dr. May Berenbaum, head of the Entomology Department at UIUC, has been collecting for years. These historical items were thoroughly cleaned and emptied, allowing visitors to safely handle and examine them for a glimpse into the past.
The festival also showcased a selection of films that explored the role of pesticides in society, including Riders of the Whistling Pines (1949), in which DDT is used to save the day, and Locusts: The 8th Plague (2005). In addition, short films such as Mickey's Garden (1935) and Pink Pest Control (1969) were featured.
=== 30th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2013) ===
The 30th IFFF took place on February 23, 2013, at the University of Illinois, marking a major milestone for the event. The theme of this year's festival, "The Ins-X Files: The Truth (About Insects) Is Out There," was dedicated to The X-Files, the iconic science fiction series known for its numerous insect-themed episodes.
Over 2,000 attendees gathered for the event, which featured special guest appearances by The X-Files creator Chris Carter and screenwriter Darin Morgan. Carter and Morgan spoke to the audience and answered questions following the screenings. One of the featured films was "War of the Coprophages" (1996) from season 3 of The X-Files, which centers on killer cockroaches. Carter personally selected this episode due to its connection to the festival's founder, May Berenbaum, a prominent entomologist. Berenbaum's research inspired the episode, and her name was used for the character of Dr. Bambi Berenbaum, an entomologist played by Bobbie Phillips. Additionally, the festival also showcased Carter's first feature film, The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998).
=== 29th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2012) ===
The 29th Insect Fear Film Festival, held at 6 p.m. on February 25, 2012, centered around the theme of "International Ants". During the event, many live ants were on display, including Dinoponera, one of the largest ant species in the world. The evening featured a mix of trailers, short films, and screenings of two films: Glass Trap (2005) is a chaotic tale involving a swarm of gigantic radioactive ants trapped in a skyscraper, where a group of employees must band together to escape in Los Angeles. The film features clumsy early CGI, and cringe-worthy, middle-school-level romantic interactions. The Bone Snatcher (2003) depicts an African ant colony that unites like Voltron to sabotage a Namibian mining operation, driven by a disturbing fascination with human skeletons.
=== 28th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2011) ===
The 28th Insect Fear Film Festival, themed "Killer Wasps," took place on February 26, 2011, at 6:00 p.m. While many wasps are harmless, parasitic, or herbivorous, our primal fear and impression of stinging insects took precedence. The festival featured social wasps like hornets and yellowjackets, as well as the infamous velvet ant, known for its painful sting. The evening also included wasp-related animated shorts and featured the screening of Monster from Green Hell (1957), where truck-sized mutant wasps terrorize the African savannah, seeking revenge for a failed cosmic science experiment. Additionally, Swarmed (2005) depicted genetically altered, pesticide-resistant killer yellowjackets, drawn to the scent of grilling meat. An angry swarm descends on a hamburger cook-off in a small Kansas town, presenting Hollywood's take on the menace of killer wasps. Gordon Yang, the line producer of Swarmed, was invited as the special guest.

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=== 27th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2010) ===
The 27th IFFF, held on February 27, 2010, centered on the theme of prehistoric insects. The event offered an intriguing look into the origins of today's insects, with highlights including fossils like Meganeura, a dragonfly-like creature with a wingspan of nearly 30 inches that lived around 300 million years ago, and trilobites—ancient arthropods that once inhabited the seas.
The evening featured animated shorts The Deadly Mantis (1957), where a giant mantis is freed by nuclear testing, and Monster on the Campus (1958), in which a dragonfly's blood contamination turns a scientist into a Neanderthal. The evening also featured screenings of Black Scorpion (1957), in which volcanic activity unleashes giant scorpions in Mexico, followed by Deep Freeze (2001, also known as Ice Crawlers), which depicts the reappearance of grad-student-eating trilobites in the Antarctic.
=== 26th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2009) ===
The 26th IFFF, themed "Centipede Cinema," took place on February 28, 2009. The event focused on myriapods (centipedes and millipedes), which, despite their many legs, are arthropods, not insects. Centipedes, known for their predatory habits, and millipedes, which feed on decaying matter, were featured for their unique characteristics. The festival also included live displays of giant centipedes and safe-to-handle giant millipedes in a petting zoo. The film screenings began with family-friendly Disney shorts from the 1930s, followed by the feature films Centipede! (2004), in which a group of cave explorers is menaced by giant centipedes, and Centipede Horror (1982), where a powerful sorcerer casts a deadly centipede spell on the grandchildren of the man who destroyed his village 50 years earlier.
=== 25th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2008) ===
The 25th IFFF, held on February 23, 2008, focused on "social insects" such as ants, bees, wasps, and termites. Social insects were highlighted for their remarkable behaviors, such as farming fungus, ranching aphids, and building towering termite mounds. The festival featured live displays of bee colonies, termite workers, and giant tropical ants, as well as screenings of the family-friendly films Bee Movie (2007) and Antz (1998). Simon J. Smith, the director of Bee Movie, was a special guest speaker this year.
=== 24th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2007) ===
The 24th IFFF, held on February 24, 2007, featured "Japanese insect-themed films" curated by entomologist May Berenbaum. Known for its unique relationship with insects, Japan views them through a cultural lens that is often less fear-driven than in the West. The festival showcased heroic insect characters like Mothra (1961), the giant silkworm, who defends humanity despite causing destruction due to her enormous size, comparable to that of a Boeing 747. Other films included The Ultimate Teacher (1988), featuring a half-human, half-cockroach character (茶羽顔八, X-8), and Blue Gender (2002), an anime about monstrous insect-like creatures. The event also featured exhibits, including a silkworm display in honor of Mothra.
=== 23rd Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2006) ===
The 23rd IFFF, held on February 18, 2007, focused on "Mantis Movies." Despite Hollywood's exaggerations, such as the myth of sexual cannibalism, this year's festival aimed to correct misconceptions and showcase the true nature of these fascinating insects. Known for their predatory behavior and iconic "praying" posture, mantids have inspired both admiration and martial arts, including the creation of Tang Lang Ch'uan (Praying Mantis Kung Fu; 螳螂拳). The festival featured live mantid exhibits and a variety of films.
The festival featured several short films, including The Mantis Parable (2005), about a caterpillar and mantis; a Space Ghost Coast to Coast (1995) episode with Zorak, the alien mantis; and Mantis Stalks Its Prey (1995), a Chinese paper-cut animation about a mantid hunting its meal. In addition, the festival showcased The Deadly Mantis (1957), where a giant mantis is freed by nuclear testing and wreaks havoc in New York City, and "Teacher's Pet", an hour-long episode from the first season (1995) of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
=== 22nd Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2005) ===
The 22nd IFFF, held on February 19, 2025, focused on "forensic entomology"—the use of insects to solve crimes. While the practice has been recognized for over 700 years, it has only recently become a formal field. This year special featured activities such as a "maggot petting zoo" and "games to guess the post-mortem interval".
The festival's films included two cartoons featuring crime-solving insect superheroes: Creepy Crawlers (1985) and The Tick vs. Arthur (1994). It also showcased two feature films: Phenomena (1985), where Jennifer Connelly played a student who communicated with insects to help solve murders, and Flicks (1987), which featured a segment with Philip Alien, Space Detective, an alien cockroach solving crimes.
The festival culminated in the presentation of the IFFF's first "Image Award", given to William Petersen for his portrayal of forensic entomologist Gil Grissom on CSI. In CSI, Grissom uses maggots and other insect clues to solve murders, showcasing his deep knowledge of insects, which resonates with real-life entomologists. The festival organizers, EGSA at UIUC and the Entomology Department, also received a thank-you letter from Petersen for being honored with the award.

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=== 21st Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2004) ===
The 21st IFFF, held on February 28, 2004, focused on "genetically engineered insects." This year's theme traced the evolution of insect horror films, from radiation fears in the 1950s to insect mutations in the 1970s. With the rise of gene manipulation in the early 1980s, genetically modified insects became a new horror movie trope, reflecting public fears about the potential risks of emerging technologies.
The short films included Bus of the Undead (2001)from Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Insect Inside (1998) from The Powerpuff Girls. This year showcased three featured films: The Tuxedo (2002), in which Jackie Chan stars in a story where genetically engineered water striders grow to enormous size and threaten freshwater supplies. The film inaccurately suggests water striders have queens, which they do not. Mimic (1997), suggested by movie critic Roger Ebert, follows an entomologist who creates genetically modified "Judas Breed" cockroaches to combat a deadly disease, only for the bugs to evolve into human-like creatures that prey on people in New York City's subways. Despite the absurd use of litmus paper to identify the "Judas breed" of cockroaches, the film effectively highlights the dangers of genetic experimentation gone wrong. Tail Sting (2001), a cult film produced by University of Illinois alumni, features genetically altered scorpions escape during a flight and begin attacking passengers, turning an ordinary journey into a deadly ordeal.
=== 20th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2003) ===
The 20th Insect Fear Film Festival honored Bert I. Gordon, "Mr. BIG," a pioneer of the "big bug" genre, with a retrospective of his films featuring oversized creatures. With over 20 films, including at least ten focused on giant insects, Gordon was celebrated as the special guest for the festival's 20th anniversary and was presented with a plaque and certificate of appreciation for his lasting impact on the "big bug" genre.
Among the showcased films was Them! (1954), which depicted giant ants terrorizing Los Angeles and became Warner Brothers' biggest hit of the year. The festival also featured Beginning of the End (1957), set in Ludlow, Illinois, just 30 minutes north of UIUC, where giant grasshoppers cause destruction—though the crew never filmed in Ludlow, adding a fun trivia point. Another highlight was Earth vs. the Spider (1958), in which a giant spider, exposed to DDT, terrorizes a high school gymnasium. The film's depiction of cave-dwelling spiders was inspired by real species like the huntsman spider, though none are as large as the one on screen. Gordon's Empire of the Ants (1977), one of the few big bug films of the 1970s, followed a real estate developer selling land infested with giant, superintelligent ants and may have been the first to use the term “pheromone.”
=== 19th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2002) ===
The 19th annual Insect Fear Film Festival at the University of Illinois, held on February 9, 2002, centered on the theme "Alien Arthropods!" and explored the impact of non-native insects and arthropods invading the U.S. and causing economic damage. The festival featured three feature-length films and several short films, highlighting the concept of "alien" species. These included the 1970s sci-fi film Quatermass and the Pit (1967), the action-packed Starship Troopers (1997), and the horror film Spiders (2000). These films depicted humanity's struggle against insect-like extraterrestrials, tapping into public fears and misconceptions about arthropods.
=== 18th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2001) ===
The 18th IFFF, held on February 24, 2001, featured a focus on beetles. With over 250,000 species, beetles play crucial ecological roles, yet in films, they are often depicted as menacing, flesh-eating monsters. This year's screenings included beetle-related cartoons, short films, and three featured films: The Magic Voyage (1992), an animated adventure in which beetles accompany Christopher Columbus on his voyage; The Mummy (1999), a horror film featuring flesh-eating scarabs; and The Relic (1997), a science fiction thriller involving mutated, homicidal beetles.
=== 17th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (2000) ===
The 17st IFFF, held on Feb. 26, 2000 focused on "bees", highlighting their ecological importance—pollinating a third of the food humans eat and producing honey, royal jelly, and propolis—while also exploring how they are often depicted as sinister in films, particularly low-budget horror movies. The festival featured two feature-length films: Terror Out of the Sky (1978), in which African killer bees invade New Orleans and target a busload of children, and Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees (1991), a surreal cult film about a bee-keeping hobbyist whose mind is taken over by bees. Additionally, two sci-fi TV episodes were screened: ZZZZZ (1964), from The Outer Limits, where mutated, advanced bees create a female entomologist to mate with a researcher to destroy humanity, and Herrenfolk (1996), from The X-Files, which features an enormous bee colony supported by cloned children on a Canadian ginseng farm.
=== 16th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (1999) ===
The 16th IFFF, held on 20 February 1999, focused on "Mosquitoes in the Movies" and featured a blood drive that allowed the Champaign County Community Blood Services to collect 21 pints of blood in one night.
The festival featured a variety of short films, including Winsor McCay's How a Mosquito Works (1912), Betty Boop's There’s Something About a Soldier and Walt Disney's The Winged Scourge (1943). It also screened an Army training film on malaria prevention and the U.S. Public Health classic It Must Be The Neighbors. The evening's films included Mosquito (1994), where giant mosquitoes terrorize a town after feeding on the blood of a dying alien, and Popcorn (1991), about college students who host a film festival and encounter disaster as well as Yellow Jack (1938). Dr. Berenbaum, the organizer, highlighted that while mosquitoes are major disease vectors, most films fail to portray this aspect. A rare exception was Yellow Jack (1938), which depicted Dr. Walter Reed's work linking mosquitoes to yellow fever.

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=== 15th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (1998) ===
The 15th Insect Fear Film Festival (IFFF), held in February 1998, focused on "Roaches Redux." Dr. Berenbaum, the organizer, remarked on the irony that, in 1997, Americans spent approximately $250 million on cockroach poisons, only to spend nearly the same amount watching movies about them.
Short films of this year included animated Raid commercials from the 1960s, Warner Brothers' Bingo Crosbyana, episodes of Santa Bugito, and the trailer for Twilight of the Cockroaches. Feature-length highlights included War of the Coprophages (1996), an X-Files episode where Agent Mulder teams up with entomologist Dr. Bambi Berenbaum to battle possible alien cockroaches; Joe’s Apartment (1996), a comedy about a young man befriending singing, dancing cockroaches in New York, with special effects by UIUC alumnus Chris Trimble; and Men in Black (1997), featuring a cockroach-like alien.
=== 14th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (1997) ===
The 15th IFFF, held in February 1997, embraced an "all ants, all the time!" theme and marked the first year the festival was held in Foellinger Auditorium.
AN(T)imated shorts of this year included Dance of the Ants, Gay Anties, Ant Pasted, Ants in the Plants, One Less Ant, and Porky’s Ant. The feature films showcased Them! (1954), a sci-fi classic about giant radiation-mutated ants invading Los Angeles sewers, starring Edmund Gwenn; Phase IV (1974), a tale of super-ants challenging humanity for Earth's dominance, featuring Nigel Davenport and Lynne Frederick; and Angels and Insects (1995), a sensual drama exploring the Victorian social hierarchy through the lens of a myrmecologist.
=== 10th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (1993) ===
The tenth IFFF, held in 1993, featured a 12-hour insect movie marathon and, for the first time, served food created using insects. This was also the first year that a children's insect art competition was held, with the winning drawings displayed for two weeks at the Natural History Museum.
=== 4th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (1987) ===
The fourth IFFF, held in 1987, focused on "female" insect fear films. The lineup included Mothra, Empire of the Ants, and Invasion of the Bee Girls.
=== 1st Annual Insect Fear Film Festival (1984) ===
The first Insect Fear Film Festival was held in March 1984 and established a format that has endured over the years. The inaugural event showcased Them! (1954) and Bug(1975), interspersed with animated shorts, including the 1980 Academy Award-winning Hungarian short The Fly(1986).
== References ==

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title: "International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility"
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The International Network of Engineers and Scientists for global responsibility (INES) is an independent non-profit-organization concerned about the impact of science and technology on society.
INES efforts focus on disarmament and international peace, ethics in science, responsibilities of scientists and the responsible use of science and technology, just and sustainable development.
INES was founded in 1991 in Berlin at the international congress Challenges - Science and Peace in a Rapidly Changing Environment and has become a network of over 200 organisations and individual members.
== Challenges for Scientists and Engineers ==
Rapid changes in our environment and our societies are forcing us to become more conscious of our role in the world. Science and technology are employed in a worldwide competition for military and economic power. The impacts of this competition have global implications. We have entered a phase in which global developments are in conflict with basic requirements for human survival. Large stocks of weapons of mass destruction, the overexploitation of limited common resources, and a heavily unbalanced world economy provide fundamental challenges to human civilisation and may even threaten its existence.
Engineers and scientists play a key role, both in developing new knowledge that might threaten international security and in providing positive solutions for the future. They are as much a part of the problem as they can be a part of the solution.
== Activities ==
Lobbies for nuclear disarmament and sustainable science.
Works for the reduction of military spending.
Promotes the awareness of ethical principles and the specific responsibility of engineers and scientists.
Participates in whistleblowing campaigns, which support those who have been victimised for acting upon such principles.
Encourages and facilitates public discourse and international communication among concerned scientists.
Organises international conferences and regional workshops.
Raises public awareness.
Promotes environmentally sound technologies.
Supports publishing books, e.g., Einstein, Peace Now!; Joseph Rotblat: Visionary for Peace.
INES is a member of the International Peace Bureau (IPB) and closely cooperates with IPB as well as the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA).
INES actively participates in the Middle Powers Initiative (MPI) and has been present at the European Social Forums since 2000 and at the World Social Forums. INES participates in the World Social Forum on Sciences.
== Goals ==
Abolition of nuclear weapons
Promoting the responsible and sustainable use of science and technology
Implementing ethical principles in the education of scientists and engineers
== INES Bodies ==
=== Council ===
The INES Council elects an Executive Committee to implement the decisions of the Council and to manage the overall activities of the Network. Member organizations may designate one of its own members as a Council representative.
=== Executive committee ===
The INES Executive Committee Archived 2009-08-21 at the Wayback Machine implements the decisions of the Council and manages overall activities of the Network which cannot be taken care of by decentralized action within the Network. The Executive Committee shall serve as the official representative of the Network.
The Executive Committee appoints an Executive Secretary who shall implement its decisions and shall be responsible to the Executive Committee. It also determines the duties and responsibilities of all other staff employed by the Central Network Office.
=== Advisory Council ===
The INES Executive Committee may invite individuals to an [1] Archived 2009-08-21 at the Wayback Machine, which can be asked to give advice on specific issues related to the Networks activities.
== See also ==
Nuclear Weapons: The Road to Zero
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Anti-nuclear organizations
List of books about nuclear issues
List of films about nuclear issues
== External links ==
INES official website

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The International Science Festival in Gothenburg (Swedish: Vetenskapsfestivalen) is an annual festival in Gothenburg with science activities.
== About the festival ==
The International Science Festival in Gothenburg took place for the first time in April 1997 and is since then an annual recurrent event.
The purpose is to communicate science to the public and schools in an easy accessible and in a thought provoking manner. Another objective is to create a positive attitude to research and science which is intended to encourage higher education.
About 100 000 visitors come each year. This makes it the largest popular science event in Sweden and one of the largest popular science events in Europe.
University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology contributes with the knowledge.
The International Science Festival in Gothenburg is a member of the European Science Events Association, EUSCEA.
== Theme ==
Each year a special theme that the festival focuses on is chosen: (translated)
2001: Food and eatables
2002: Travel and science expeditions, Life and Medicine
2003: Love and energy
2004: The meaning of life and sustainable development
2005: Design, physics, Finland
2006: Athletics & health
2007: Passion, pistil and personality
2008: Let's play
2009: Civilization in all times and countries
2010: Sustainable feature with small and large changes
2011: Creativity
2012: It's all in the brain
2013: Control or No Clue
2014: Act : React : Interact
2015: Life and Death
2016: Same but Different, 13-17 April
== See also ==
Universeum - Public science centre in Gothenburg, Sweden
Hackerspace - Space for people into technology
== References ==
== External links ==
Official homepage (2012)
Search for activities (parametric search)
Program for 2012, pdf 5 MB (English at page 46)
Where the paper version can be picked up in 2012, pdf 2 MB (Swedish)

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The Italian Union of Scientists for Disarmament (Italian: Unione Scienziati per il Disarmo) is an association established in 1982 with the purpose of providing information and analysis of arms control and disarmament. Members of the association believe that this task is part of the social responsibility of scientists.
The issues it addresses include nuclear arms control and disarmament, nuclear proliferation, consequences of nuclear explosions, control of fissile material, developments of military technology, conventional disarmament, chemical and biological disarmament, and general problems of conflict and conflict resolution. Members share their views with Italian policy-makers and opinion-makers.
It organizes conferences and meetings, including the biennial Castiglioncello conference, courses and seminars at Italian universities, and courses for high-school teachers.
It promotes the establishment of inter-departmental centers of research affiliated to Italian Universities, and has actively collaborated for many years with the CIRP-UniBa (Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerche sulla Pace, University of Bari).
It collaborates with international organizations of scientists and other Italian institutions, such as Archivio Disarmo (Roma) and Forum per i Problemi della Pace e della Guerra (Firenze). Members of USPID participate in Pugwash and ISODARCO meetings.
In 1995 it began a standing collaboration with Landau Network-Centro Volta, in Como. This institution organizes, together with UNESCO and under the sponsorship of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, conferences and research projects on topics including disarmament, non-proliferation and scientific-technological aspects of international security.
== References ==
== External links ==
Official USPID website

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Leiden Classical was a volunteer computing project run by the Theoretical Chemistry Department of the Leiden Institute of Chemistry at Leiden University. Leiden Classical used the BOINC system, and enabled scientists or science students to submit their own test simulations of various molecules and atoms in a classical mechanics environment. ClassicalDynamics is a program (and with it a library) completely written in C++. The library is covered by the LGPL license and the main program is covered by the GPL. The project shut down on June 5, 2018.
== Joining the project ==
Participation was possible via the BOINC manager. Using this software one was once able to create an account in the project. Then someone can make a model of a dynamic system and simulation participating run. There are several models possible, to interactions between molecules or planets.
== User Submitted Calculations ==
To create a personal calculation, a user's model had to have six defined variables:
Colors of the molecules
Box in which the model is run
Number of particles in the simulation
Interaction between the particles
Gravity
Coulomb force
Lennard-Jones interaction
Morse interaction
Rydberg interaction
Harmonic spirit
Harmonic bending
Recurrent torsion interactions
Distance conditions
Confirmation parameter(s)
== See also ==
List of volunteer computing projects
== References ==
== External links ==
Leiden Classical website archive
Leiden Classical forum archive

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The Lattice Project was a volunteer computing project that combined computing resources, Grid middleware, specialized scientific application software and web services into a comprehensive Grid computing system for scientific analysis. It ran the Genetic Algorithm for Rapid Likelihood Inference (GARLI) software to determine the relationships between different genetic samples.
A major aspect of the project makes use of the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) platform. The Lattice Project maintained a separate BOINC web site, but the site is dead as of this writing, causing this project to shut down because BOINC depends on this website to get setup information to set this project up on its clients.
== References ==
== External links ==
The Lattice Project website archive