Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Brooklyn Bound, Blegging

I'm headed out the door for this month's Secret Science Club lecture. I figure that this is a perfect time to bang the drum for the Secret Science Club fundraiser. The SSC has been delivering hard science lectures, accessible to the layperson but not dumbed down, since September 2006. With the Trump administration ramping up the Republican war on science and attempting to censor scientists, a public platform for scientists to disseminate information, to explain their methodology, and to advocate for continuing research is crucial.

Back in 2006, during the dark days of the Bush administration, attending science lectures in the basement of the Union Hall bar really felt countercultural, this was resistance. In late 2008, I was actually interviewed by a journalist who, rather than printing the cogent arguments I made for science popularization, decided to print an offhand joke about how, with a nerd ascending to the White House, the SSC would come out of the basement and eventually need a stadium for a lectures. When the beautiful Bell House opened in 2009, the performance space could accommodate three times the attendees, and it's been pretty much standing room only every month. Healthy people want to be smart, and smart people are needed now more than ever. Margaret and Dorian, the staff of the beautiful Bell House, and the coterie of lecturers who have taken the stage are fighting the good fight. In my small way, I am trying to do my part. If you like the monthly lecture recaps, please consider sending a Hamilton their way.

2 comments:

mikey said...

Good on ya.

Wish I could contribute.

Hell, I wish I could participate, but my anxiety goes off the scale in crowds these days. But I'll do my part from here, reading and studying those areas of science that call out to me, and at least I won't be dirt-ignorant when I die...

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

I've always felt that, when you stop learning, you stop living.