There are seemingly endless bars, restaurants and cafés to choose from in New York City, but where can an intellectual omnivore find satisfaction? On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, one such inquiring individual might find herself twirling the stem of a glass of Cotes du Rhone as Columbia University Professor Laura Kaufman explains how the translucent drinking vessel could technically be classified as a liquid.

At the PicNic Café a 10 dollar admission to the Columbia University sponsored Café Science includes the price of a drink. Cheese plates and pommes frites are readily dispensed to a scholarly-looking crowd whose alacrity is reserved f or the main course -- knowledge.

Cookie Neil, Director for Science Development at Columbia, reveals her inspiration for starting the series: "I read an article in the Times... It was obvious to me that I should start a Café Science featuring Columbia faculty." She adds that one should attend these events, "if you have any intellectual curiosity." Café Science had its premiere in June 2006 and has been filling the house on the second Monday of each month at PicNic Cafe ever since.

Much like the symposiums ("drinking parties") of ancient Greece and the 17th century French salon, a new movement, Café Scientifique attempts to reconcile the age-old divide between academic and social discourse.

Café Scientifique was born from seeds of thought sown in death. In the spring of 1998 science communicator Duncan Dallas came across the obituary of Marc Sautet, the founder of the French "Café Philosophique," an informal salon where like-minded individuals would meet on Sunday mornings to chat about philosophy in a café. Intuiting the intellectual preferences of his fellow Englishmen, the Oxford trained chemist realized that café culture could be a potential catalyst for generating a much-needed communal discourse around growing public interest in science. The result: a global chain reaction.

Since the first Café Scientifique event, which featured a speaker on Darwinism to a packed wine bar in Leeds, the movement has grown into the first and largest network of its kind, with more than 30 cafés in the UK and 180 worldwide.
The original format has been reproduced and modified for a variety of social settings but essentially remains faithful to the same template; a guest lecturer presents for the first half hour, followed by a short break for coffee or wine refills, and a subsequent hour of lively question-and-answer fueled debate. About these events, Dallas wrote in a 1999 Nature article:

The atmosphere is friendly and convivial, rather than academic and competitive. This is not a 'self-improving' audience, in the way that Victorian scientific societies arose. People don't just want to listen. They want to participate and be heard on equal terms with the scientists.

What the Café Scientifique movement has ultimately accomplished is the wide-spread popularization of Science Cafés, which have exploded both inside and outside its boundaries, spawning a spectrum of different approaches to making science fun, social, and, yes, even cool.

In Brooklyn you'll find a very different approach to the same concept. The Secret Science Club meets the first Wednesday of every month at Union Hall, an eclectic Park Slope bar that proffers bookshelves, bocce ball, and beer. Contrary to first expectation, the walls do not swing open when triggered by a hidden mechanism to reveal a Batcave-like sanctuary, but rather, a staircase on the far side of the room leads down to a dimly lit basement space where it soon becomes apparent that if there was any secret to this science club -- it's out.

Secret Science Club is crammed with sweaty, young science enthusiasts gulping down themed cocktails such as "The Heat Miser," "The Lab Rat," and "The Bamboozler." Science-inspired music pumps from the speakers while thought-provoking imagery is projected onto the wall and like-minded singles attempt to flirt over the resulting din.

The popular monthly meeting has attracted well-respected figures, such as renowned climatologist Wallace Broecker and Nobel-Prize winning biologist Paul Nurse. A lecture by the former included a discussion focused on the geological implications of climate change and methods of carbon fixation. At Secret Science Club there is no admission fee. The website states simply: "Just bring your own smart self." (Those who arrive at least half an hour early will best live up to that qualification.)

We are living in a time where knowledge is being made more accessible. The perception of science as an ivory tower pursuit is waning, as people realize the necessity of peer review and collaboration in the sciences. Now, the public is finally joining in on a discussion of topics that so profoundly affect their daily lives, and having a great time in the process.

  Zeno Levy is a frequent contributor to the Blogs and In the News sections of Under The Microscope.

FOR MORE INFO ON SCIENCE CAFES AND THE CAFE SCIENTIFIQUE MOVEMENT:

International resources

• The Cafe Scientifique
• The British Council's Science Cafe Network
• Dorkbot ("People doing strange things with electricity")

U.S. resources

• Science Cafes (a general resource)

New York City science cafes

• Columbia University's Cafe Science (in Manhattan)
  
• The Secret Science Club (in Brookyn)

Have you ever been to a science cafe? If so, what did you think? Do you know of any science cafes in your city or town that we didn't mention? Let us know in the comments section below.

TrackBack URI for this entry

0 Comments

Show/Hide comments

Show/Hide comment form