Some of you have asked to see the video of the Two Cultures event at the NY Academy of Sciences (I was a panelist for the Science and Policy discussion). Two main architects of this event were Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, authors of Unscientific America, a book on the crisis of scientific illiteracy. Speaking of which, see how YOU stack up against others who’ve taken this brief, basic science literacy quiz.
Here’s a note from Shawn Otto, CEO of Science Debate, and a link to the videos.
On May 9, 2009 we co-organized and co-hosted a conference with our friends at the New York Academy of Sciences marking the 50th anniversary of C.P. Snow’s “Two Cultures” lecture. Snow famously complained of a “gulf of mutual incomprehension between science and the humanities.”
That gulf now exists between science and policymaking, and in an age when the world’s greatest challenges revolve around science and engineering, it must be overcome. This is the focus of our work at Science Debate.
The conference proceedings, including video of the presentations, are now up at the New York Academy of Sciences website. We hope you can join us online as we explore issues and strategies, with keynote addresses by:
Pulitzer Prize winner E.O. Wilson
former Congressman John Porter
Segway inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen
And panel explorations with an all-star line-up:
Cultural History
Moderator
D. Graham Burnett, Professor of History, Princeton University
Panelists
Ann Blair, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History, Harvard University
Lawrence Krauss, Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University
Kenneth Miller, Professor of Biology, Brown University
Guy Ortolano, Author, The Two Cultures Controversy: Science, Literature and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain
Science Communication 101
Moderator
Corey Powell, Editor in Chief, Discover Magazine
Panelists
Paula S. Apsell, Executive Producer of NOVA, Director of WGBH Science Unit
Ira Flatow, Executive Producer & Host, NPR’s Science Friday
Andrew Revkin, Environment Reporter, The New York Times
Carl Zimmer, Author and Science Essayist
Political Science
Moderator
Chris Mooney, Co-author, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future
Panelists
Darlene Cavalier, Founder, ScienceCheerleader.com
Matthew Chapman, Darwin descendent, filmmaker, author, founder Science Debate 2008
Francesca Grifo, Senior Scientist and Director, Scientific Integrity Program, Union of Concerned Scientists
Shawn Otto, Co-founder and CEO, Science Debate 2008; filmmaker
John Porter, Chair of Research!America’s board of directors and Partner in Hogan & Hartson’s DC law office
Education and Citizenship
Moderator
Sheril Kirshenbaum, Co-author, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future
Panelists
Stacy Baker, Biology Teacher, Calverton School, Huntingtown, MD
Kevin Finneran, Editor-in-Chief, Issues in Science and Technology, the policy journal of the National Academies
Adrienne Klein, Co-Director, Science & the Arts, The Graduate Center of The City University of New York
Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology, Duke University
Don’t miss this unique and important event – and if you think this kind of discussion is helpful, please contribute!