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A scientist and an Old Town hipster walk into a bar.
What is this, you might ask—some kind of joke?
No, happily, it’s not—it’s a growing trend in the scientific community that has finally made its way to Fort Collins.
Tonight is the second official Science Cafe Fort Collins, which combines two of the city’s most impressive exports: scientific research and beer.
The speaker is Colorado State University scientist David Randall, who co-authored a chapter in the Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and thus shared the Nobel Peace Prize.
Randall, the director of the National Science Foundation’s Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes and a CSU atmospheric sciences professor, awaited his talk with some trepidation.
“I’m a little scared; I don’t know what it’s going to be like, going into a bar and people are going to be drinking a beer while I’m talking about climate models,” he said with a laugh.
But, he added, the science cafe is a great idea.
A few Fort Collins-area scientists already know that, having trucked down to Denver once a month since 2003 to participate in the longest-running science cafe in the United States.
Dr. John Cohen, a professor in immunology at the University of Colorado Medical School, started the cafe after reading in the science journal Nature about the nascent movement in Britain.
“Since I’m very into public outreach and education, I thought, ‘Oh, well dang, why didn’t I invent that?’ And the next best thing we could do is start it here,” he said.
The cafe is modeled after the French “cafe philosophique” during the Enlightenment. Scientists wanted to find a less-pedantic way to bring their research and knowledge to the public, so the “cafe scientifique” was born.
An American cafe began in Boston a while before the one in Denver, but it didn’t last, so now Denver’s is the oldest. Since 2003, cafes have been created in Boulder, Colorado Springs and even Frisco, where a CU scientist retired. Denver’s is by far the biggest; Cohen said the event averages 150 people.
“For a geek event, that’s pretty amazing,” Cohen said.
Colorado has a dense concentration of scientists, which Cohen said helps spark interest.
“People in Europe, they’re all envious of us. We’ve been running five years and have had no problem finding speakers,” Cohen said.
In a typical science cafe, there are no PowerPoint slides or other audio-visuals, which organizers like Cohen believe could stymie lively discussion. A speaker will talk for about 20 to 30 minutes, after which drinks, questions and banter are welcome.
“I’ve been at lectures where you’re in the audience and you have to come to the microphone to ask a question, and first of all you think everybody else is an expert, you’re an idiot ... that intimidates a lot of folks,” he said. “At a cafe, you ask, ‘Are you crazy, how could anybody spend that much money to do that stupid experiment?’ ... It’s much more of a free-for-all.”
The speakers and the audience love that setting, he said.
Cohen, who has completed groundbreaking work on programmed cell death, is accustomed to giving lectures before crowds of scientists. But usually, they’re experts in the same field; at the science cafe, they’re each experts unto his or her own.
“As far as tonight’s concerned, they’re just like anybody else, and that’s what’s cool,” he said.
Topics can range from the Hubble Space Telescope, influenza, geology and particle physics.
One recent talk was about the Higgs boson, a theoretical elementary particle. A renowned theoretical physicist, Dr. Mark Sher, was coming through Denver to visit family, and Cohen heard about it and rang the scientist.
Sher’s talk about the elusive Higgs boson was before the maybe-particle came across the pop-science radar and before many people had heard of the Large Hadron Collider, which might prove the particle’s existence when it’s completed this spring.
It was the definition of a “far-out” topic, Cohen said.
“We had one of the biggest crowds ever, for a topic that nobody had a clue about,” he said. “I think it’s about the process as much as it is about the content. People are coming because it’s a fun thing to do, not necessarily because they think they’re going away understanding everything about the Higgs boson.”
One of Cohen’s Ph.D. students is even writing her thesis on the cafe phenomenon and how it can apply to science education, he said.
“Something is going on here that seems to be different than the ordinary public lecturing, and we’d like to know what that is. It’s easy to simplify and to say ‘It’s the beer!’ but I don’t think it is,” he said. “I personally would like to know if there is a distillable essence of the cafe idea, because I’d like to use it in ordinary teaching.”
That’s exactly the message Fort Collins cafe directors want to hear.
Elizabeth Hare, programming director for Beet Street, which is sponsoring the Fort Collins cafe, said many people are probably interested in science but don’t have a way to learn about it.
“In the late ’80s in English pubs, guys are sitting around drinking, going, ‘Hey I wonder about that global warming. Well, let’s get some dude in here who knows what he’s talking about,’” she said. “I think people are really interested, but it’s probably been a while since some of them have had their high school chemistry class and kind of lost touch.”
Fort Collins is home to one of the research centers of the world, and many residents are also highly intellectual. A cafe seemed natural, Hare said.
“Sure, there are nice ones in Boulder and Denver. But we’re Fort Collins, we should have one,” she said.
The first science cafe, in January, featured CSU professor Brian Wilson, who runs the university’s esteemed engines lab. The cafe took place at the lab off North College Avenue, and there was only room for about 30 people. More than 60 signed up, creating a long waiting list and the need for a larger, more permanent home.
Hare worked out a deal with Lucky Joe’s, which will now be the cafe’s monthly home. Topics will eventually be decided by a standing committee of volunteers, but Beet Street already organized the next few months.
Randall’s talk tonight will focus on climate models, which he creates to forecast the weather and make long-term climate predictions.
Next month isn’t finalized yet, but in April, a state geologist will come talk about Colorado’s natural resources; in May, a food scientist will talk about genetically modified crops; and in June, CSU’s Phil Klotzbach will discuss hurricane predictions, Hare said.
“Over the course of the coming years, we’ll have plenty of room for a lot of discussions. And if there’s a visiting scientist we hear about, we’ll try to get them too,” Hare said. “But I tell ya, we have such a wealth of folks right in Fort Collins, you don’t have to go very far.”
Just to the corner bar.
What is this, you might ask—some kind of joke?
No, happily, it’s not—it’s a growing trend in the scientific community that has finally made its way to Fort Collins.
Tonight is the second official Science Cafe Fort Collins, which combines two of the city’s most impressive exports: scientific research and beer.
The speaker is Colorado State University scientist David Randall, who co-authored a chapter in the Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and thus shared the Nobel Peace Prize.
Randall, the director of the National Science Foundation’s Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes and a CSU atmospheric sciences professor, awaited his talk with some trepidation.
“I’m a little scared; I don’t know what it’s going to be like, going into a bar and people are going to be drinking a beer while I’m talking about climate models,” he said with a laugh.
But, he added, the science cafe is a great idea.
A few Fort Collins-area scientists already know that, having trucked down to Denver once a month since 2003 to participate in the longest-running science cafe in the United States.
Dr. John Cohen, a professor in immunology at the University of Colorado Medical School, started the cafe after reading in the science journal Nature about the nascent movement in Britain.
“Since I’m very into public outreach and education, I thought, ‘Oh, well dang, why didn’t I invent that?’ And the next best thing we could do is start it here,” he said.
The cafe is modeled after the French “cafe philosophique” during the Enlightenment. Scientists wanted to find a less-pedantic way to bring their research and knowledge to the public, so the “cafe scientifique” was born.
An American cafe began in Boston a while before the one in Denver, but it didn’t last, so now Denver’s is the oldest. Since 2003, cafes have been created in Boulder, Colorado Springs and even Frisco, where a CU scientist retired. Denver’s is by far the biggest; Cohen said the event averages 150 people.
“For a geek event, that’s pretty amazing,” Cohen said.
Colorado has a dense concentration of scientists, which Cohen said helps spark interest.
“People in Europe, they’re all envious of us. We’ve been running five years and have had no problem finding speakers,” Cohen said.
In a typical science cafe, there are no PowerPoint slides or other audio-visuals, which organizers like Cohen believe could stymie lively discussion. A speaker will talk for about 20 to 30 minutes, after which drinks, questions and banter are welcome.
“I’ve been at lectures where you’re in the audience and you have to come to the microphone to ask a question, and first of all you think everybody else is an expert, you’re an idiot ... that intimidates a lot of folks,” he said. “At a cafe, you ask, ‘Are you crazy, how could anybody spend that much money to do that stupid experiment?’ ... It’s much more of a free-for-all.”
The speakers and the audience love that setting, he said.
Cohen, who has completed groundbreaking work on programmed cell death, is accustomed to giving lectures before crowds of scientists. But usually, they’re experts in the same field; at the science cafe, they’re each experts unto his or her own.
“As far as tonight’s concerned, they’re just like anybody else, and that’s what’s cool,” he said.
Topics can range from the Hubble Space Telescope, influenza, geology and particle physics.
One recent talk was about the Higgs boson, a theoretical elementary particle. A renowned theoretical physicist, Dr. Mark Sher, was coming through Denver to visit family, and Cohen heard about it and rang the scientist.
Sher’s talk about the elusive Higgs boson was before the maybe-particle came across the pop-science radar and before many people had heard of the Large Hadron Collider, which might prove the particle’s existence when it’s completed this spring.
It was the definition of a “far-out” topic, Cohen said.
“We had one of the biggest crowds ever, for a topic that nobody had a clue about,” he said. “I think it’s about the process as much as it is about the content. People are coming because it’s a fun thing to do, not necessarily because they think they’re going away understanding everything about the Higgs boson.”
One of Cohen’s Ph.D. students is even writing her thesis on the cafe phenomenon and how it can apply to science education, he said.
“Something is going on here that seems to be different than the ordinary public lecturing, and we’d like to know what that is. It’s easy to simplify and to say ‘It’s the beer!’ but I don’t think it is,” he said. “I personally would like to know if there is a distillable essence of the cafe idea, because I’d like to use it in ordinary teaching.”
That’s exactly the message Fort Collins cafe directors want to hear.
Elizabeth Hare, programming director for Beet Street, which is sponsoring the Fort Collins cafe, said many people are probably interested in science but don’t have a way to learn about it.
“In the late ’80s in English pubs, guys are sitting around drinking, going, ‘Hey I wonder about that global warming. Well, let’s get some dude in here who knows what he’s talking about,’” she said. “I think people are really interested, but it’s probably been a while since some of them have had their high school chemistry class and kind of lost touch.”
Fort Collins is home to one of the research centers of the world, and many residents are also highly intellectual. A cafe seemed natural, Hare said.
“Sure, there are nice ones in Boulder and Denver. But we’re Fort Collins, we should have one,” she said.
The first science cafe, in January, featured CSU professor Brian Wilson, who runs the university’s esteemed engines lab. The cafe took place at the lab off North College Avenue, and there was only room for about 30 people. More than 60 signed up, creating a long waiting list and the need for a larger, more permanent home.
Hare worked out a deal with Lucky Joe’s, which will now be the cafe’s monthly home. Topics will eventually be decided by a standing committee of volunteers, but Beet Street already organized the next few months.
Randall’s talk tonight will focus on climate models, which he creates to forecast the weather and make long-term climate predictions.
Next month isn’t finalized yet, but in April, a state geologist will come talk about Colorado’s natural resources; in May, a food scientist will talk about genetically modified crops; and in June, CSU’s Phil Klotzbach will discuss hurricane predictions, Hare said.
“Over the course of the coming years, we’ll have plenty of room for a lot of discussions. And if there’s a visiting scientist we hear about, we’ll try to get them too,” Hare said. “But I tell ya, we have such a wealth of folks right in Fort Collins, you don’t have to go very far.”
Just to the corner bar.
To Go
What: Science Cafe Fort Collins
When: 6 p.m. - 7 p.m. tonight. Arrive early to get a good seat and order drinks. Where: Lucky Joe’s, 25 Old Town Square Learn more: Visit www.beetstreet.org. |
Better know a scientist
David Randall first started working on climate models in 1972, when he was a graduate student at the University of California-Los Angeles. By the time he received his Ph.D. in 1976, the field was relatively young and climate change was a watchword only among researchers, academics and freshman Congressman Al Gore.How times have changed. Last year, as a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Randall shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Gore.
Randall co-authored chapter 8 of the panel’s fourth assessment, a five-year ordeal of study and synthesis. He was also part of the working group that authored the panel’s summary for policymakers, in which the slightest nuance had monumental impact.
“We went through, word by word, the summary for policymakers. And it wasn't exactly fun but it was really interesting. Every single word of every single sentence in the entire document was up for discussion,” he said.
Chapter 8, which Randall wrote with an oceanographer from England, was not as contentious. The authors evaluated 20 climate models around the world that were being used to do the suite of calculations for the IPCC—basically the forecast the panel was using to form its opinions and recommendations.
“So what we did was evaluate the quality of the models and basically ask how reliable are these, what problems do they have, how are they better since (the previous IPCC report),” he said.
At the CSU-based Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes, which Randall directs, he and other scientists build climate models — basically computer programs.
“We start with a blank piece of paper, and we’ll work on something for maybe five years, or maybe 10 years, and then we kind of finish it, and then we start over,” he said. “We basically take the ideas that we think are best and try to put them together to build a new model that’s better than any model that exists before.”
Randall will start a model based from today’s weather, maybe, or the weather from 1960. You have to put in data to make it go, but the data can vary and the rules can vary.
Climate models are used to predict the weather for the next 10 days and the climate for the next 10 decades. They are the same type of models, but the predictions are vastly different because of how they are used.
Weather predictions use small-scale knowledge—such as a low pressure system today over California, which might make it rain on Friday in Colorado. Climate predictions use large-scale knowledge, like the rotation of the Earth, the composition of the atmosphere, and how much carbon dioxide it will contain in 100 years according to economic indicators. Those larger-scale factors “force” changes in a climate that can be readily measured by models, given the right data and equations.
“They’re the best ways that we have, and they are getting better all the time. And we test them every way we can think of,” Randall said.
One notable CSU colleague has scoffed at the trustworthiness of climate models—Dr. Bill Gray, the renowned hurricane forecaster who is also the scientific community’s Doubting Thomas of climate change. He said the models cannot predict what will happen next week, let alone in 100 years. But Randall said computer models can, if they have the right information.
All those topics are on the table tonight at the Science Cafe.
