Every year the brightest science minds head south in July–somewhat like the swallows to Capistrano. This is more like the string theorists to the world Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.

There, they meet in an unconference, trade brilliant notions and form collaborations to address real-world problems. Sponsored by Nature and O’Reilly Media, SciFoo ‘09 included a raft of science celebrities, scientists and interested looky-loos.

SciFoo attendee Dr. Shirley Wu was on the scene and gave REALscience a bird’s eye view. Dr. Kirsten “Kiki” Sanford (The Bird’s Brain blog) also gives a little report from SciBarCamp, another science unconference nearby and just before SciFoo. The host of This Week in Science (and good friend of REALscience) talked about “spinning science.”

Most of what happens at SciFoo stays at SciFoo. But a few things trickle out, once the excitement settles. Here’s the REALscience report from last year for reference.

Watch the video Science Foo Camp 2009: by Nature Video

Watch science comedian Brian Malow on Late Night with Craig Ferguson.

Photo of SciFoo courtesy of Duncan Hull

For the full SciFoo ‘09 report listen here.