European science trend makes its way across pond to Houston

European
science trend makes its way across pond to Houston

BY LINDSEY FIELDER
Rice News staff

Grabbing a cup
of coffee will never be the same again. In a quest to educate
the general public on science issues and spark community
debate over hot topics, science cafés have been popping
up in a host of cities all over the world.

Houston can now
be added to that list. The Houston Science Café is
making its debut at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 at Salento Café
in Rice Village.

Held in a pub
or coffee shop, science cafés provide a forum for
the public to interact with a multidisciplinary expert panel.
The panel brings together experts in science and in various
other fields to provide informative discussions on current
issues such as “mad cow” disease, cloning and
global warming.

Emmanuelle Schuler,
a postdoctoral research assistant in chemistry, helped organize
a science café in Copenhagen, Denmark. She said the
response generated by the café showed her the general
public’s desire to discuss scientific issues relevant
to everyday life.

“The role
of the experts is to give the public some answers or tools
to think about an issue, not to lecture to the public,”
Schuler said. “The experts learn what the public’s
hopes and concerns are, and how they think about scientific
issues.”

As founder of
the Houston Science Café, Schuler said she recognizes
the importance of integrating science into the broader framework
of life and wanted to bring that experience to students
at Rice, as well as those in the Houston community.

The topic of
the first Houston Science Café will be “Sports,
Doping and Money.” Schuler said the topic was chosen
after the extensive media coverage on drug use by professional
and Olympic athletes. Since the Super Bowl will be the following
Sunday, she said it was a perfect topic for this session.

Panelists include
Jon Warren, Rice’s head coach of men’s track and
field, and Mickey Herskowitz and Fran Blinebury, sports
writers for the Houston Chronicle. The scientific experts
will be Austin J. Cooney and John Cianca, both professors
at Baylor College of Medicine. The discussion will be moderated
by Christi Myers, health reporter for KTRK-TV in Houston.

There is no entrance
fee, and no registration is needed. For more information,
visit <www.sciencecafe.net>
or contact Schuler at <eshuler@rice.edu>.