Your daily dose of news, notes and links from around Kansas University.

• As part of Kansas’ 150th birthday celebrations (I’m sure you’re all still recovering from the massive weekend parties), the state’s Ad Astra Institute undertook an effort to name 150 Kansas scientists and engineers who have contributed to the state.

Then, in a fit of whimsy, the organization decided to memorialize them all on trading cards.

So you can go to the project’s website and download and print off cards for scientists, both past and present.

The institute chose several with KU connections. Four already have cards available: Judy Wu, a KU distinguished professor of physics and astronomy; Hamilton Perkins Cady (1874-1943), a professor of chemistry and co-discoverer of the element helium; Walter Sutton (1877-1916), a KU School of Medicine faculty member who pioneered the use of X-ray localization; and Brian McClendon, a 1986 KU engineering graduate who co-invented the Google Earth tool.

In the coming months, more KU-related people will be honored with a trading card. Current faculty members Kristin Bowman-James in chemistry and Prasad Gogineni in electrical engineering and computer science will join past faculty members Cora Downs and Creighton Hardin.

Alumni scheduled to be honored include Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto; Elmer McCollum, who discovered Vitamins A, B and D; Otis Ray McIntire, who invented Styrofoam; and Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford Motor Co.

I don’t know if the trading cards will be as exciting for me as the complete set of 1992 Upper Deck baseball cards I have sitting in a box somewhere, but it’s still an interesting thought.

• An upcoming documentary showing at the KU Natural History Museum will highlight the saga of a reported sighting of a bird thought to be previously extinct in 2005.

Following the showing of the 2010 film “Ghost Bird,” ornithologist Mark Robbins will lead a conversation about the sighting.

Robbins, who still works at KU, also plays heavily in a 2005 Journal-World article written by Terry Rombeck, one of my many able predecessors. In that article, Robbins goes on to argue that the sighting of the extinct bird, the ivory-billed woodpecker, was likely the still-living pileated woodpecker.

The bird sighting in 2005 in Arkansas drew national attention, including from the New York Times and Washington Post. Robbins still contends — though the evidence is far from open-and-shut, he admits — that the scientists who thought they saw an ivory-billed woodpecker were wrong.

• The third annual KU Dance Marathon is set for Feb. 19, and will last from 5 p.m. until 5 a.m.

The 12-hour marathon is an event combining dancing, music, games and food. Participants contribute funds to the Children’s Miracle Network to support KU Medical Center Pediatrics. The first two years have generated more than $50,000 in support.

Each participant registers to raise $100 to participate in the 12-hour marathon. Registration is available online.

• Reading Heard on the Hill is like one giant dance party every day. But it takes two to tango, so keep sending those tips to ahyland@ljworld.com.