This Saturday I’ll be joining fellow Discover bloggers Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, Discover editor-in-chief Corey Powell, along with luminaires like E.O. Wilson and Lawrence Krauss for “The Two Cultures In the 21st Century,” a daylong meeting at the New York Academy of Sciences (7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich St., 40th floor). Chris and Sheril say the meeting is close to sold out, so if you want to join us, please register now.
It’s a weird time to have a meeting about science in the public sphere–a week, for example, in which Jenny McCarthy, doyenne of vaccination misinformation, gets her own Oprah-backed talk show. But I have to say I’ll be in high spirits at the meeting, because this past Saturday I had a great time in New York at an award gala hosted by SUNY Downstate Medical Center. I got to meet fellow award-winners, virologist Anthony Fauci and cardiologist Jeffrey Borer. And I also got to meet some very interesting guests, including some of the actors from the best television show ever made, the Sopranos. I was not going to leave the ballroom without shamelessly begging for photos, but I was startled to find that these guys wanted to take pictures with us. Here’s a shot of Fauci and me with Steven Schirripa, who played Bobbie Baccalieri.
Later in the evening, John Ventimiglia, who was marvelously tragic as Artie Bucco, came up to me and told me how he loves to read about science and asked me (me?) if he could take a picture of us. I suppose I shouldn’t say that it was an offer I couldn’t refuse. But here we are.
And if you two-cultures-mindset is not completely demolished by now, let me show you a picture you may not have ever expected to see: Anthony Fauci mugging with Paulie Walnuts (Tony Sirico) and Johnny Sack (Vince Curatola). Now I can believe anything’s possible.
May 4th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
I hate being the first to comment, so very quickly, well done with the get together (Downstate Medical Center).
Claire
May 4th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Carl,
I actually meant I hate being the only commenter. So come on folks, what do you think of this topic!? Also, Carl knows about micro organsisms(Phil gets over 100 comments about Flu on an Astronomy blog), methinks somethings up…
Claire
May 4th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
I would love to attend meetings such as that, but I think part of the two-culture problem is that too many meetings and the people who attend and speak at them are always in NYC. Or California. Maybe everyone needs to meet in the middle, so to speak.
May 5th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Sopranos was good.
But the Wire was better.
May 7th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
sounds like a great meeting. I find that there are two cultures, one who deals with reality and one that will sacrifice everything and anything to their “god”, whilst being amazing hypocrites when they don’t go and live in mud huts to get away from that “awful” science.