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The booms and bangs of chemical reactions will reverberate at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Saturday, Nov. 20, during the CU Wizards show "The Chemistry of Booms: Cover Your Ears!" Associate professor of chemistry Tarek Sammakia's show will take place at 9:30 a.m. in Cristol Chemistry and Biochemistry, room 140. It is free and open to the public. CU Wizards is an annual series during the school year that introduces topics in astronomy, chemistry and physics and is intended primarily for students in grades five through nine.

Gale Norton will discuss her perspectives and experiences as current head of the U.S. Department of the Interior during a free public program Nov. 23 at the University of Colorado at Boulder. As part of the Center of the American West's "Inside Interior" series, Norton will be interviewed at 7:30 p.m. in the University Memorial Center's Glenn Miller Ballroom by CU-Boulder law Professor Charles Wilkinson and the center's faculty director and board chair Patricia Limerick.

Editor's note: Reporters and photographers are welcome to attend the awards reception on Nov. 16. The winning photos will be available for publication. Contact Jami Nelson-Nunez for more information at (303) 735-0130. A photography contest and exhibit of pictures taken by international students at the University of Colorado at Boulder and study abroad alumni will take place during International Education Week, Nov. 15-19.

MEDIA ADVISORY Seven University of Colorado at Boulder students who were instrumental in securing financing for a new law school building and future campus construction will present plans for the new building and describe its unique financing at a briefing on campus Thursday morning. The briefing will be at 10:30 a.m. in the faculty lounge of the Fleming Law Building on Thursday, Nov. 11. The faculty lounge is on the second floor.

CU-Boulder Friends of the Libraries will present "Backstage with Margot Fonteyn," a multimedia theatrical presentation highlighting the life of the famed British ballerina on Friday, Nov. 19. The event will be held at 7 p.m. in the Center for British and Irish Studies on the fifth floor of CU-Boulder's Norlin Library. The program is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception. Attendees should enter through the west doors of Norlin Library. Pay parking will be available at the Euclid Avenue Autopark.

Fossilized feces from 73 million-year-old aquatic life found on Devon Island in the Arctic Circle suggest an ancient marine ecosystem teeming with bottom-feeding creatures, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher. Such a scenario is similar to modern Arctic marine environments where excess nutrients generated by huge pulses of plankton growth in the summer drop to the bottom of the ocean where they can be eaten over time.

Note to Editors: Colwell will participate in a news briefing Nov. 9 at the DPS meeting in Louisville, Ky. Contents embargoed until 12:10 p.m. EST Nov. 9. A University of Colorado at Boulder-built instrument riding on the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft is being used to distinguish objects in Saturn's rings smaller than a football field, making them twice as sharp as any previous ring observations.

Help may be on the way for millions of Americans suffering from chronic pain, a debilitating condition that makes it extremely painful to do anything from taking a shower to putting on a shirt, according to a CU-Boulder researcher. Linda Watkins, a professor and researcher in the University of Colorado at Boulder's psychology department and Center for Neuroscience, is developing a revolutionary gene therapy that she says could stop chronic pain for months at a time, something unheard of today.

Note to Editors: Esposito will participate in a news briefing Nov. 8 at the Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Louisville, Ky. Contents embargoed until 12:35 p.m. EST Nov. 8. A University of Colorado at Boulder professor involved with the Cassini-Huygens mission is reporting an ever-changing vista at the frontiers of Saturn, featuring wayward moons, colliding meteoroids, rippling rings and flickering auroras.

Despite its popularity fueled in part by the blockbuster movie "Jurassic Park," amber nevertheless trails the Florissant Fossil Beds in Colorado when it comes to the richness of the fossil beetle record, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder study.