Science Cafes
Published on Jan 22, 2008 at 11:54 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under public science.
I ran across an interesting comment that led me to a new story about science cafes. Put simply, a science cafe is an informal way of promoting science to the public. A scientist meets at a cafe, coffee shop, pub, or some other informal setting to say a few things about his or her area of specialty and to answer questions from people who otherwise might not run across such a scientist in their everyday lives. It sounds like a lot of fun.
I do some of this sort of informal science popularizing on my own. I often host star parties where I speak on a topic in the news of late, and then I am available for questions during the evening. But, the science cafe idea sounds interesting. I don’t have time to organize such a series myself (I have many, many other irons in the fire right now). But, I got to wondering if there might be anything like that in my area, so I did a search on the internet. What I found was a PBS page on science cafes.  There is even a link to search for science cafes around the country. Sadly, the nearest one listed to me is about a 3 or 4 hour drive away from where I live. But, you might want to check on locations near you if you are interested.
-Astroprof
erika on January 26, 2008 at 3:59 am: 1
I am very interested. Unfortunately, we don’t have this science cafes in my country.