I didn’t make it to ECHO’s Café Scientifique last night. I went home after a long day, had a beer, put the kids to bed, watched a couple episodes of “The Office” with my partner and fell asleep by 9 p.m.

But blogger Bill Simmon was there, and he’s got an informative post up about the event over on Candleblog. Here’s what he has to say about it:

Lastnight’s Café Scientifique was fun. It was surprisingly well-attendedtoo. Seats were hard to find as the presentation began. It’s great thata pure science topic can bring out so many folks on a cold Januaryweeknight.

Dr. Dennis Clougherty gave a fascinating 30 minute talkon the history and current state of nanotechnology, invoking cool ideaslike nanotube-constructed space elevators and cloaks of invisibility.Following the talk, the audience was invited to jot down some questionsfor the professor while everyone visited the bar and had a stretch.

Here’s where things got a little frustrating. Now, readers of this blogwill know that A: I am a bleeding heart liberal, and B: I love Vermonta lot. Despite my left-leaning Vermont pride however, I am oftenannoyed by the fact that I cannot go to any sort of public gatheringfocused on science, technology or culture in this state without thediscussion getting sidetracked or overtly hijacked by armchairactivists with an agenda.

Indeed. For more about the armchair activists, click here.

This article appears in The Health and Fitness Issue January 2009.

Seven Days’ deputy publisher and co-owner Cathy Resmer is a writer, editor and advocate for local journalism. She works in the paper’s Burlington office and lives vicariously through the reporters while raising money to pay them. Cathy started at...

2 replies on “Cafe Scientifique Critique”

  1. Sounds like a frustrating experience Bill had. There should be (and are) ways to question scientists about possible negative consequences of the technological advances they are promoting without issuing blanket denunciations of science and technology. But I guess if you issue those denunciations, you don't see the matter as worth debating anyway.
    Check out The Straight Dope (this week, I think) for an amusing letter from someone who's letting his imagination about nano-tech run away with him. Just because Walter Skinner got infected with nanobots on The X-Files doesn't mean it's going to happen in real life (any time soon)… or is it?

  2. Yeah… it sounds like some of the people who went weren’t interested in listening at all. Just sitting there waiting for the Q&A to give it to The Man.They probably went forth and told their friends, “You should have seen his face when I nailed him!”. That wasn’t fear or discomfort you saw, friend. It was an incredibly gracious and intelligent man struggling to conceal the incredulity your invincible stupidity had provoked.

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