Just a speaker and a microphone — and maybe some drinks for the audience, too. The setup is simple for “Science Straight Up,” a new University-sponsored event series that launched last month.
Michelle Prysby, the College’s director of science education, designed Science Straight Up in the form of a “science café” to connect University academics to the greater Charlottesville community. Science cafés are regular, informal talks given by researchers or professors, designed to bring discoveries out of the lab and into the public eye.
The monthly event, held at the Black Market Moto Saloon in Charlottesville, joins hundreds of other science cafés around the world.
Although the University offers a wide array of lecture and event series, such as TEDxUVA, Flash Seminars and OpenGrounds, Science Straight Up fills a niche in marketing itself to the scientifically curious both within and outside the University. The program is also more informal and requires a relatively low commitment for people who are curious about a particular issue, Prysby said.
Asst. Biology Prof. Bob Cox gave the inaugural speech for the series, discussing evolutionary genetics and sexual conflict theory. He was followed by Physics Prof. Bob Hirosky in March, who discussed the Higgs Boson, a recently confirmed elementary particle which helps to explain why matter has mass.
“[The lectures] step back and look at the big picture,” Hirosky said. “It’s a rare and great opportunity.”
People who come to the events, while not as knowledgeable as a graduate student, are eager to learn, Hirosky said — whose lecture attracted more than 60 people.
“[The audience] was one of the best crowds I’ve ever spoken to,” Hirosky said. “They were very engaged and enthusiastic, and the questions afterwards were fabulous … I was there for two hours talking with people.”
Physics Prof. Stu Wolf will head to the Black Market Moto Saloon in April to speak to a crowd on counterintuitive theories of quantum mechanics, and Jerry Stenger, director of the University’s climatology office, will speak about climate change in May.
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