PZ Myers. 2005 Apr 21. Speaking of science outreach…Cafe Scientifique!. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/speaking_of_science_outreachcafe_scientifique/>. Accessed 2008 Dec 01.

Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Thursday, April 21, 2005

Speaking of science outreach…Cafe Scientifique!

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:

The Varsity Theater
1308 4th Street SE, MPLS Dinkytown
(4th and 14th --Can't Miss it!)
Posted by PZ Myers on 04/21 at 01:10 PM
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  1. Just noticed on the Cafe Scientifique website that we have three in Copenhagen in the upcomming weekend (it's part of a science fiction conference). I might just have to go to see it, if it's not too expensive.
    #: Posted by  on  04/21  at  03:02 PM
  2. Typo: "UCSD Deptartment of ..."
    #: Posted by  on  04/21  at  03:45 PM
  3. Just out of curiousity, why do participants have to be 18 or older? A little advanced for children? Slightly "mature" examples? I'd understand either one, it just seems like a rather unusual disclaimer for a science lecture (could work well to interest and attract people, actually.) wink
    #: Posted by  on  04/21  at  04:23 PM
  4. Because you have to be at the age of consent to participate in the post-meeting orgy?

    No, actually, the meetings are G rated, but they're often held in bars. It's the venue that limits the age.
    #: Posted by PZ Myers  on  04/21  at  05:03 PM
  5. There's actually a place called Dinkytown? Sounds like a suburb of Legoland.

    I'd actually be very interested in this talk; my son and possibly other members of my family have Asperger's Syndrome, where people have difficulty empatizing with others, and I'd like to see how this might relate. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a commute from California.
    #: Posted by senoritafish  on  04/21  at  05:45 PM
  6. Dinkytown is a nice place -- it's the university district in Minneapolis.

    How close are you to UCSD?
    #: Posted by PZ Myers  on  04/21  at  05:49 PM
  7. How close are you to UCSD?

    About a two hour drive - however I am down in La Jolla every other month or so for meetings at the National Marine Fisheries Service office down there. Hmmm...
    #: Posted by senoritafish  on  04/21  at  06:44 PM
  8. Thanks for alerting my attention to these cafes PZ.

    I'm quite interested in whether these would work down here in NZ too.

    These last two blogs and the comments have set me thinking about this whole issue. I wrote a fantastic piece for it on my blog, and then blogger dot com had a seizure and lost my work.

    One of the issues I still haven't seen addressed is how we publicise un-applicable science. By that I don't mean useless; but just science for the sake of it. It's easy to hold a cafe discussion on global warming or Asperger's syndrome. But what about the micro-gyrations of quarks? (i'm not a physicist, so I just made that up). Most of my work in publicising science is to talk about how useful and important it is.

    But some of the greatest science has come out of apparently useless and tedious research, which doesn't make for good headlines. How do we stress the importance of just investigating for investigating's sake?
    #: Posted by dp  on  04/21  at  06:48 PM
  9. I've been to one of the Café Scientifique Palo Alto meetings (http://www.cafescipa.org/), about the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, and it was very interesting.
    #: Posted by LochNess  on  04/22  at  12:11 AM
  10. Did anyone go to this? I am very bummed that I didn't hear about it until today.

    DL
    #: Posted by  on  04/29  at  10:43 PM