Blogs / Cosmic Variance

As I mentioned a few weeks ago in a teaser on Orange Quark, next week sees the inaugural Cafe Scientifique Syracuse event. As you can find out on the Cafe Scientifique web site:

Cafe Scientifique is a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology. Meetings have taken place in cafes, bars, restaurants and even theatres, but always outside a traditional academic context.

The first Cafes Scientifiques were held in the UK in Leeds in 1998. Since then, Cafes Scientifiques have sprung up in Newcastle, Nottingham and Oxford and the network has now begun to expand to other cities in the UK. We hope that by 2003 there will be a thriving network of 20 to 30 Cafes that meet regularly to hear scientists or writers on science talk about their work and discuss it with diverse audiences.

Cafe Scientifique is a forum for debating science issues, not a shop window for science. We are committed to promoting public engagement with science and to making science accountable.”

I learned about this idea a few years ago, and thought back then that it was the kind of outreach that I wanted to be involved with. It took me quite a while to get around to it and, in the meantime, I read over at Pharyngula that PZ Myers was setting one up. It was helpful to read about the process and so, in the Fall, I approached a group of colleagues spanning the science departments at Syracuse University, to see if they’d like to help start a Syracuse branch.

In addition to me (representing Physics), the organizers are Ana de Bettencourt-Dias (Chemistry), Scott Samson (Earth Sciences), Paul Verhaeghen (Psychology) and a Biologist to be named very soon.

The format is that an invited speaker gives a fifteen-minute talk, outlining the broad ideas behind the topic. The subject will then be opened up to questions and, ultimately, debate, moderated by one or more of the organizers. We’ll be having speakers on physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, geology, medicine, engineering, science writing, science policy, and probably other areas I haven’t thought of. It seems like a very promising format to me, but I’ll be able to report back with data after next week.

Our inaugural meeting is next Tuesday, August 2nd, at 7pm at Ambrosia restaurant in Armory Square in Syracuse. Ambrosia is a very modern and minimalist bar and restaurant with a menu that might be described as Japanese/American fusion. They have a slick cocktail bar space in which we’re going to run Cafe Scientifique and, of course, the area’s usual function won’t be lost on us, since I happen to know I can get a good martini there. We have decided to institute a $5 door charge, to cover both some delicious snacks provided by Ambrosia, and our own bartender so that we don’t constantly have to go into the main part of the restaurant to order drinks. For the first meeting though, we’ll cover the door charge for the first thirty people who arrive.

All of this organization took time and effort, of course. However, the trickiest thing to decide was the topic of the inaugural meeting. Cafe Scientifique will take place on the first Tuesday of every month, and so we’ll have the opportunity to address pretty much any scientific issue of interest that we, or our participants, can come up with. I expect, and indeed hope, that we will discuss topics that are often misunderstood or controversial, such as stem cell research, evolution, and alternative medicine. But for the first meeting we’d like to get some practice moderating discussion in this new forum before we get to a topic that will demand us to be well oiled in this regard. In addition, we do not want any of the organizers to speak for the first few events, because we wouldn’t want to give the impression that the meetings were about self-promotion of scientists.

Despite these constraints, we have really lucked out with our first speaker and topic. We’re fortunate to have Scott Erdman, from Syracuse University’s Biology department, introducing us to the topic – “What Use is the Human Genome Project?” I’m hoping this’ll be a superb topic and for sure I’m going to learn a great deal. I’ll let you know how it goes.