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​"Think of it as American Idol meets Bill Nye the Science Guy," says David Grinspoon, astrobiology curator of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. This is his best description of FameLab, an international competition for young scientists that has made its way across the pond for the first time ever; Denver was one of only three cities that was asked to host. Tonight, FameLab will challenge beginning career scientists to communicate their passions to an audience of laypeople. Only one winner will move on.

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Project Safeguard valentine Reggie Rivers

​Project Safeguard, a non-profit organization that provides free legal services to victims of domestic violence, has partnered with former Bronco Reggie Rivers on its Valentine's fling.

"We're so excited to have Reggie Rivers joining our event," says Shelly Schreiner. "With incidents of domestic violence and sexual assault so highly publicized when athletes are involved, we feel strongly that it's important to engage the sports community and collaborate with the good guys rather than marginalize them because of the actions of a few. Athletes are critical allies in our efforts to adequately respond to and reduce incidents of domestic violence and sexual assault."

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Cover of the 2011 calendar.

​Where there's smoke, there's ire!

People were feeling burned last fall, when news broke that Fired Up for Kids, the outfit that had produced the Colorado firefighters calender -- with proceeds supportedly going to the Children's Hospital Burn Unit -- was in trouble with the law.

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Gorinto head honcho Corey Elbin.

​Corey Elbin has been the driving force behind Gorinto, the Mercury Cafe's Wednesday-night food and music gathering, since its inception almost two years ago. For tomorrow night's edition, Gorinto will team up with the people behind Communikey -- the Boulder electronic arts festival set for April 25-29 -- to showcase DJs and audio-visual artists from the metro area.

But when we connected with Elbin to talk about this week's program, we learned that Gorinto itself may be coming to an end. As Elbin prepares to move to Ohio for an agricultural internship on a family-owned farm, he's been grappling with the fate of the community-centered night -- and how (and if) it will carry on without him.

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Why do photovoltaic cells have p-type and n-type layers? *

What causes stars to twinkle?*

If you know the answers to these questions, you might qualify for the winning team of the Colorado Science Bowl. You might even be smarter than a Cherry Creek High school student!

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​What's better than Santa Claus coming to town? John Waters coming to Denver. He's a lot like Santa, except his bag of toys is for adults only, his trademark mustache is neatly trimmed, and his elves include Patty Hearst, Traci Lords and Liz Renay. Waters will be presenting An Evening with John Waters -- his one-man vaudeville show based on his spoken word, "This Filthy World" -- at the Mary Harris Auditorium, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design (RMCAD) on Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 7 p.m.

But Westword has been promised some facetime before the event -- and we want to know what you'd like us to ask him.

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They're hiring!

​Goodwill has plans to open two stores this spring, one in Longmont and a boutique in Cherry Creek, which will be do-good organization's 25th and 26th stores in the metro area.

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​With so much of our waking life consumed by the busywork of e-mails, texts and tweet-only communication, it's hard to remember that once upon a time, connecting with other humans didn't involve anything electronic. What would happen if we stepped back into that time for just a moment, and actually wrote out our thoughts? Sugar Bakeshop not only encourages this pen-to-paper activity, it wants to facilitate it with a series of letter-writing parties that the bakery and coffee house will be throwing in the new year. The first is this Wednesday.

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"Jonathan and Govinda," Faith Stone, acrylic on canvas, submission to Heart Art Denver

​ Giving to charity when you're an artist may seem like a catch-22. After all, many emerging artists could use some charity of their own. But Heart Art Denver has made it possible to give back to the community by donating a piece or art to their 18th annual AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Design) Colorado Heart Art Charity Event. Submissions are accepted until February 3, and coordinator Felix Sanchez explains the details.

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​Vine Street Pub, along with a group of fifth-graders from Bromwell Elementary School, will host a fundraiser on Sunday night for the Raymond Wentz Foundation, which helps raise money for parents whose children have cancer and are dealing with the medical costs associated with chemotherapy.

To get people involved, four Bromwell students -- Ava, Sammie, Justin and Abbie (one of whom is my daughter) -- formed an organization called 4 Hearts 4 Help and then enlisted the skills of seniors living at the Highlands West and Highlands South Independent Living Facility in Wheat Ridge.

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