In May this year I posted on “How to Find A Lecture in the UK”. I discussed the wonderful Lecturelist.org, a website that tracks lectures across the UK.
Since posting that I have gone off lectures somewhat. The reason is that I find them as boring as polishing telescope mirrors.
Some of the hundreds of lectures given across the UK every night are fun, but in my experience, the majority are dull. Perhaps I should say that for the majority of the time the lecture being listened to is dull.
The final 10% is normally great fun, that is the “Questions and Answers” session. The preceding 90% can be insufferable.
I find that even the most fascinating subject can be ruined by the combination of a stuffy room, a monotonous speaker and an the inevitable boredom that comes with not being able to interact and converse.
So I have been casting around for intellectual stimulation without the boredom element. I still wanted to encounter smart people and hear their opinion s and the findings of their research, but I wanted it to be more like a long Questions and Answers session rather than a schoolroom.
I think I may have found something worth investigating: The Dana Centre and Cafe Scientifique.
Cafe Scientifique:
“Cafe Scientifique is a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology. Meetings have taken place in cafes, bars, restaurants and even theatres, but always outside a traditional academic context.
Cafe Scientifique is a forum for debating science issues, not a shop window for science. We are committed to promoting public engagement with science and to making science accountable.”
The Dana Centre:
The Dana Centre is a stylish, purpose-built venue, complete with a cafèbar, appealing to adults. It is a place for them to take part in exciting, informative and innovative debates about contemporary science, technology and culture.
It’s the place for experimental dialogue events, blending the best from science, art, performance and multimedia to provoke discussion and real engagement with the key issues of the day
.you’ll see science delivered in a very different way, everything from Edinburgh-Fringe-style stand-up comics debunking science myths to updates on radical research, handling sessions of rarely seen objects from the Science Museum’s collection and challenging debates on modern science.
State-of-the-art digital facilities link the Centre and its events with venues all over the UK, those on the Internet and everyone with a mobile phone. If you can’t make it to the Dana Centre in person, you can join the debate on-line.
The events focus on themes that are important to you and present them in new and attractive ways – all in a lively, informal atmosphere.
The Dana Centre is a collaboration between the BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science), the European Dana Alliance for the Brain and the Science Museum.”
Sounds like exactly what I am after. Will I see you there?