Science Cafe comes to Sandpoint

SANDPOINT - It's not often that a person gets the chance to learn about the latest innovations in science and talk with their mouth full at the same time, but that's just what's going on as part of a hot, new trend in the United States.

It's called a Science Café - an informal gathering where people either bring a bag meal or buy a little something to eat and then sit back to hear a scientist discuss the latest scientific discoveries in plain English. After that, they quiz the expert on the topic at hand.

The U.S. map is dotted with cities that hold the monthly gatherings and, as of this week, North Idaho claims two pins on that map with the addition of Sandpoint to the Science Café community. The first regional meeting was formed in Coeur d'Alene at the beginning of 2007, when Laurie Hassell, regional manager of the Northwest Association for Biomedical Research, got the program started there.

"One of our missions is outreach education, so we want to get out in front of audiences with the latest research," Hassell said. "And personally, I'm a science groupie - I don't even care what science it is, as long as it's science."

Those who attend Science Café meetings around the nation are finding that science groupies like Hassell are not at all uncommon. The audience, she explained, is "anybody who shows up" for the free event, with those attending coming from the ranks of home school students, business people and retirees.

"There's a wide variety of people, but it's definitely geared toward adults," said Kristen Buckmiller, a hands-on teacher at home whose two sons are enrolled in the The Idaho Virtual Academy. She began attending the Coeur d'Alene meetings with her oldest son, who is interested in pursuing science, but found it difficult to balance his rigorous academic schedule with the commute south.

"We had conflicts that caused us to miss several of the meetings, so I wrote Laurie an e-mail and asked if they'd ever consider coming to Sandpoint," Buckmiller said. "She wrote right back and said, 'We were thinking about expanding, anyway.'"

The local interaction between scientists and audiences will be closely watched by other members of the national network, according to Hassell, because of the location and timing of the lunchtime sessions.

"A lot of the Science Café coordinators are looking at Sandpoint as a test case," she said. "We're the only ones doing it in a community center in the middle of the day.

"We chose that time so that we could reach county residents who are already in town during the day," she added. "I'm not sure an evening program would work up here during the winter if it meant people had to drive back in after dark."

Some scientists who speak at the Sandpoint Science Café will also make presentations to local schools and many will cover the regional circuit of meetings in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene in order to get in front of a wider audience.

"When we bring a scientist in from out of town, we try to give them as many venues as possible," Hassell said.

Along with a general curiosity about science, the participants share an interest in starting a two-way conversation with scientists. That dialog, Buckmiller pointed out, is the reason the informal meetings have proven so popular.

"The audience tends to be those people who are fascinated with science, so they feel very comfortable asking questions," she said.

"But it took a little while to get it that way," Hassell interjected. "We stacked the speaker roster with scientists who ask the audience questions and get them involved.

"We've gotten a few 'nasty grams' in the letters to the editor, because sometimes we bring in speakers who are more controversial than others," she continued. "People ask me, 'Aren't you worried about that?'  No - it carries the dialog forward. We want people to meet these scientists, ask them questions and come to their own decisions." 

One of the organizations supporting the Sandpoint Science Café is the East Bonner County Library. The program might not be taking place within the library building, administrative librarian Ann Nichols said, but it is very much in keeping with the kinds of activities it provides.

"We're always interested in finding new ways to offer information to people," she said. "We've had quite a few science programs at the library and they're always well received. Whenever we have a scientist do a presentation, people say, 'More, more, more.'"

Meetings of the Sandpoint Science Café will take place once a month at noon in the community room of the new Panhandle State Bank building. There is no charge for the event and participants are invited to either bring their own lunch or purchase food from the adjacent Tango Café, located inside the bank building.

The first session is scheduled for tomorrow, Monday, Nov. 10, with Alan Griffitts, director of the Naval Acoustic Research Detachment in Bayview. He will make a presentation on how the U.S. Navy uses its facility on the southern end of Lake Pend Oreille to develop submarines that are "superior to all other vessels worldwide."

Future meetings will be held on Monday, Dec. 8, when Dr. Mason Harrup of the Idaho National Laboratory discusses breakthrough battery research for consumers, and on Jan. 12, when Dr. Carolyn Hovde Bohach of the University of Idaho delivers a presentation titled: "Spinach to Hamburger - What is E.coli 0157 and why is it in my food?"

For more information on the national Science Café trend, visit: www.sciencecafes.org. For additional information about the new Sandpoint Science Café, contact Laurie Hassell at (208) 699-6240 or e-mail her at: lhassell@nwabr.org