The World Science Festival is coming to New York City, May 29th - June 1st, 2008. The inaugural Festival is a four-day celebration of science that aims to shift science from the cultural fringes of our society to the cultural center.
The brainchild of Columbia physicist and string theorist, Brian Greene, the Festival will take place all over the city and will bring together an amazing roster of Nobel Laureates, world renown scientists, intellectual pioneers, artists, and authors to help in this effort. (Full disclosure, I am a volunteer at the World Science Festival and all-around science enthusiast; it is as the latter that I write this post). The Festival will set the stage for discussions, debates, and performances that will both educate and entertain students of all ages and those of us that will always be students at heart.
Lest you think this is just a dry lecture series that will give you college flashbacks, let me assure you it is anything but. There will be film screenings on parallel universes and amnesia, dance performances inspired by string theory and planetary motion, and dramatic productions based on the discovery of oxygen, experiments gone wrong, and Einstein's theory of relativity.
Additionally, there will be a street fair in Washington Square Park all day Saturday the 31st for kids and families to explore the science of sports with Olympic Athletes and members of the NBA and discover the science behind the imagination of Disney involving robotics, pyrotechnics, and special effects.
And of course, for the purists, there will be fascinating conversations on today's hot topics such as sustainable development in cities of the future, the creative impulses in the brain, the search for extreme forms life, the science of morality, and the continued search for a unified theory of physics.
I, for one, am absolutely thrilled that something like this is finally happening! Science festivals with similar goals have been put on overseas in places like Edinburgh and Genoa, but the World Science Festival, here in New York City at the end of this month, will truly be an unprecedented celebration of science and the important role it can and should play in our society.
(Image credits: Science Festival Foundation)
