Sunday, April 20, 2008
Coming to New York, a Science Event for the Masses
I found this article in the New York times about a huge Science event going to be held in New York City, end of May. Themes such as science communication, public knowledge of science, popular science, etc. were highlighted in this article. Brian Greene from Columbia, the person who proposed the String Theory is one of the organizers of this event. He mentioned that this will be "real science" and not the "fun thing." So does he mean "genuine science" and not "popular science"? He also mentioned that he intends “to move science from the cultural fringes to the center.” I am curious to find out how he intends to achieve this. Have a fun read, and check out this event if you are around in NYC.
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O my gosh this post is great! I literally just finished writing a huge paper for NTRES 201 in which we had to pick any topic we wanted having to do with the environment and I picked environmental activism and education through art. I just finished my argument about why the arts are a great way to communicate science and environmental messages, and then I found this post which 100% backs up everything I said. I am soooo excited this event is coming to NYC; I’m from the city and will definitely be going to check this out. In my paper, I mentioned basically every kind of method that this article says they will be using to share science with the public and I’m thrilled to see that my hypothesis about the best ways to do this is actually being put into practice. I think this event is a great idea because it will not only get people excited about the various different areas of science, but it will be a great tool for spreading complex information to the masses in a fun, yet very educational and progressive way. However, as for "genuine science" vs. "popular science", I was also semi-confused about what Dr. Greene meant. In the article, Greene discusses all the different kinds of “real” science this “world science festival” will incorporate, but the article made it seem very much about “fun science” or rather popular science. I get what Greene is trying to say, that the festival will incorporate scientific knowledge relevant to our lives and technologies and not just “tricks” like those found at a science fair, however the article also goes into great detail discussing how fun the event will be for families, and makes sure to mention that during the interview for the article Dr. Bunsen Honeydew squirted silly-string all over Dr. Greene, which to me says “popular” or “fun” science rather than “real science.” All in all however, this definitely sounds like something worth going to and I hope to find out more about it in the upcoming weeks.
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