This weekend, some students and I are going to be doing a day-long apprenticeship, learning how to set up and run a session of the Cafe Scientifique in Minneapolis. The plan is to get lots of ideas and scurry back to Morris, where we will then be putting together our own series of public science events next Fall.

This is a public event, and if you're in the Minneapolis area, this is a good thing to attend. It's a monthly series of informal talks about science run by the University of Minnesota and the Bell Museum, intended to open up the university's science to the community. You're all invited!

Here's the official announcement for this Saturday's event:

Café Scientifique
Mirror Neurons: The Science of Empathy
with Lindsay Shenk, UCSD Deptartment of Psychology
Saturday, April 23, 5 p.m.
Varsity Theater, Dinkytown
Free. Participants must be 18 or older to attend.

A recent discovery revealed that brain cells called “mirror neurons” might hold the key to understanding how we read and empathize with the emotions of others. Lindsay Shenk of the University of California San Diego’'s Department of Psychology will discuss her own investigation of neural circuits, which may shed light on developmental disorders such as autism.

Co-sponsored by NOVA ScienceNOW, The Rake and Sigma Xi.

If you're wondering where this place is, here's the address and a link to the google map: