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A Passion for Reason: Wonder

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Dear friend of Wonderfest,
 
My childhood hero wasn’t real. He wasn’t even fully human. Science Officer Spock, the supremely logical being of Star Trek fame, was half human and half Vulcan. He spent parts of many Star Trek episodes trying to suppress his emotions—or at least to control them. Perhaps Spock was not such a weird hero for a 12-year-old boy getting deeply involved with science … and with the emotional perils of puberty.
 
SPOCK
 
Given my still Spock-loving disposition, it is odd that, very soon, I will be giving a short public talk on one particular emotion. At Sunday Assembly in Oakland on April 27, I will present “A Passion for Reason,” and my subject will be the emotion called wonder.
 
Sunday Assembly is a new endeavor that some people describe as “church without God.” It was founded in 2013 by two British stand-up comedians, Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans. Some 30 congregations around the globe now preach the Sunday Assembly gospel: “Live better, help often, wonder more.”
 
Sanderson Jones will be attending this particular Sunday Assembly in Oakland, so I suppose I’d better do a good job with my little talk. Its title is borrowed from Antonio Damasio, a neuroscientist at USC and the Salk Institute. Damasio’s Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain (1994) argues that “biological drives, body states, and emotions may be an indispensable foundation for rationality.”
 
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Our most rational selves, the part that makes “free will” decisions, seems to depend on our emotions. Damasio writes, “It is as if we are possessed by a passion for reason, a drive that originates in the brain core, permeates other levels of the nervous system, and emerges as either feelings or non conscious biases to guide decision making…”
 
… To guide decision making. I hope I am making the right decision—non-expert that I am—to speak at Sunday Assembly about the emotion of wonder. But it is this emotion that got Wonderfest started 17 years ago, that inspires today’s Wonderfest events, and that, perhaps a bit, leads you to be reading this newsletter.
 
The Mystery of Sleep
 
Wonderfest’s next wonder-inspired event is The Mysteries of Sleep, set for Wednesday, May 7, at StrEat Food Park in San Francisco. UC Berkeley psychology professor Matt Walker, an outstanding speaker, will tell us about the importance of sleep for learning, for memory, for creativity, and for the regulation of emotion. Maybe Dr. Walker (and a good night’s sleep) will help us to regulate — I hope to enhance — our experience of wonder.
 
Sincerely,
 
Tucker Hiatt
Wonderfest Founding Director
 
P.S. If your scientific sense of wonder seeks a Saganesque balance with healthy skepticism (and whose doesn’t?!), you’ll love SkeptiCal, the Northern California Science and Skepticism Conference. Admission to great talks on science literacy, astrology, climate change, con games, psychological pseudoscience (and more) will cost only $40 until May 1. After that, the price goes up, so act promptly. SkeptiCal happens at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center on Saturday, May 31.

 

Wonder Song

Wonder Song – Jack Conte

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Jack Conte created this song for Wonderfest in 2008. It is also on his album “Nightmares and Day Dreams.” http://ow.ly/tsn1L

 [su_button url=”/wfcode/download.php?file=http://wonderfest.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Wonder-Song.mp3″]Download MP3[/su_button]

Here he is performing at Wonderfest 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeKE1l4gi0s

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How Humans Got Smart

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Dear Wonderfest friend,

It’s one of the most compelling detective stories of all time: What key human skills best elevated us past our knuckle-walking forebears?  Was it tool use? … complex language? … insider trading?
 
         FarSideStoneTools                          
 
One of the great advances in human cultural evolution was the invention of the stone-tipped spear. With such a weapon, our African ancestors could hunt masterfully.  More significant, perhaps, were the communication skills that such weaponry demanded. Teaching others how to fix stone points to wooden shafts “is so complex that it absolutely, positively requires language,” says John Shea, Professor of Paleoanthropology at Stony Brook University.
 
Stone-tipped throwing spears were unknown on Earth prior to 80,000 years ago. Or so we thought. Now, Yonatan Sahle and his colleagues have uncovered evidence of such weapons dating from some 280,000 years ago. Sahle et al have turned back a key clock on hominid cultural evolution by ~ 200 millennia!
 
      YonatanSahle-sm                    CalStateEastBayLogo
 
Wonderfest joins California State University, East Bay, in presenting Yonatan Sahle to discuss the surprising details and the larger implications of this remarkable discovery. Dr. Sahle’s talk, The African Origins of Human Intelligence, will be presented at CSU East Bay’s University Theater at 6:00 PM on Wednesday, February 19. I hope you will register at Eventbrite, and join us for this FREE event!
 
Wondrous regards,
 
Tucker Hiatt
Founding Executive Director
 
P.S. Wonderfest Board member Jacob Bien, statistics professor at Cornell, recently had a mischievous idea: let’s get Tucker to submit a video script to TED-Ed, the purely educational wing of the well-known “TED talks” organization. Sure enough, Jacob and Tucker succeeded, and so has their TED-Ed video. Entitled How Fast Are You Moving Right Now?, it has earned over 200,000 views! However, despite our best efforts, Wonderfest is mentioned only peripherally in the video metadata. We are still working on TED-Ed to toot the Wonderfest horn.

 

Why SCIENCE? Prosperity, Pleasure, Profundity

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Dear Wonderfest friend,
 
Wonderfest calls itself the “Beacon of Science.”  Why science?  Among all human endeavors, what makes science particularly worthy of illumination?
 iStock_000012259726Small
 
PROSPERITY.  Coupled with human freedom, science has been the driving force behind global prosperity. Learning how the world works has helped both culture and comfort to flourish. Since the time of Galileo, our understanding of the natural world — including of ourselves — has grown fantastically.  Is there even one person alive today who would honestly prefer to live in the 16th century? I mean this quite literally: Better a pauper today than a prince only a few centuries ago! Why? Because of science — and the technology (from cotton underwear to electricity to anesthetics) that it has made possible. Science is the engine of prosperity.
 
 Richard-Feynman
PLEASURE.  Richard Feynman, we are told, did physics not for the glory or the prizes but for the fun of it. Lacking Feynman’s genius, the rest of us may find science’s fun to be even more accessible. Whether I am grasping the mind-boggling scope of the energy conservation law, or, through neuroscience, finally seeing how a magician’s sleight of hand plays with my powers of perception, I take great pleasure in finding things out. And this is a pleasure that neither poverty nor infirmity can deny me. Science is as basic a pleasure as music, sex, and even dessert!
 
 XKCDcorrelation
PROFUNDITY.  Ideally, to paraphrase Carl Sagan, science is skepticism married to wonder. Note that wonder comes first: it is probably the first emotion we experience after birth! It is certainly the emotion that Wonderfest strives to nourish beyond childhood. With humility, science asks some of the deepest questions. And it often provides wondrous, natural, even mechanistic answers that make mysticism and the supernatural seem banal. Our species yearns for transcendence, and, strangely, science delivers. Not in the afterlife, but in THIS life — as it helps us to transcend personal egocentricism, conceptual anthropocentrism, and cosmic geocentrism.  Sometimes, at its best, science also fills us with awe — with deep acknowledgment of the mysterious rather than the mystical.
 
“All our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike,” said Einstein, “and yet it is the most precious thing we have.”
 
Happy new year, and wondrous regards! 
 
 Signature(sm)
 
 
Tucker Hiatt
Founding Executive Director
 
P.S.  To help Wonderfest continue its pro-science mission, please make a year-end, tax-deductible gift here. Or, for as little as $1 per month, become a formal Wonderfest patron here. Finally, if you shop at Amazon.com on this last day of 2013, AmazonSmile will donate $5 to Wonderfest. No matter how you choose to give, with every penny Wonderfest will help to promote the scientific outlook — in the Bay Area and beyond.
 
AmazonSmile
AmazonSmile

Of Envoys, Smorgasbord, Patreon, & Giving Tuesday

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Dear Wonderfest friend,

I sometimes think that general and popular treatises are almost as important for the progress of science as original work.  – Charles Darwin

How can we inspire today’s budding researchers to take science popularization as seriously as Carl Sagan, Jane Goodall, Neil Tyson, … and Charles Darwin? As the photos below hint, the answer may be: TO GET ‘EM YOUNG!

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Wonderfest’s new Science Envoy Program identifies Bay Area PhD students who show particular science-popularization promise. We help these young researchers to develop the subtle art and science of public speaking. The program’s participants emerge as articulate Science Envoys, appearing before live Wonderfest audiences that are eager for their insights.

Here is Wonderfest’s inaugural class of Science Envoys. And here is Wonderfest’s first all-Envoy event, the New Science Smorgasbord. I hope you will take part on Wednesday evening, December 11, at San Francisco’s StrEat Food Park. Come for the smorgasbord of gourmet truck food, and stay for the smorgasbord of new findings about viruses, stars, brains, and shapes!

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…Can’t make it to the New Science Smorgasbord? And/Or were you located too far away from Wonderfest’s last event, The Neuroscience of Magic, at Stanford? Wouldn’t it be nice to watch free, high-quality, online videos of these events? Alas, the production of such videos can be costly. Venue rental fees and speaker honoraria can be pricey, too.

Today is #GivingTuesday. Coming on the heels of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday is dedicated to the support of worthy nonprofit causes. If you believe that Wonderfest presentations are valuable — if you believe in Wonderfest’s Mission of enlarging the concept of “scientific community” through public exposure to the great work of scientists — then perhaps you will let Giving Tuesday nudge you into philanthropic action.

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Wonderfest’s vehicle for generating support is called Patreon. It’s a brand new enterprise co-founded by visionary musician Jack Conte. (Jack is also a Wonderfest Board member!) Please visit Wonderfest’s Patreon page and see how inspired you will be to support science popularization.

I’ve heard Darwinian evolution described as “the single best idea ever.”  Maybe so.  But perhaps right up there in “very good idea” territory is Darwin’s speculation that “popular[ization is] almost as important for the progress of science as original work.”  Please do consider becoming a Wonderfest patron on this Giving Tuesday.

Wondrous regards,

Tucker Hiatt
Founding Executive Director

Neuromagic, Contagion, and 3-for-1 Donation Deal

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Dear Friend of Wonderfest,
 
Last week’s Neuroscience of Magic presentation by magician Robert Strong and neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley was a tremendous hit. Some 200 people jammed into (and outside of!) StrEat Food Park to devour the showmanship of Strong, the insights of Gazzaley, and the educational effectiveness of their great partnership.
 
The atmosphere was magical for two reasons: because of the fascinating presentation AND because of the publication that very day of Prof. Gazzaley’s cover article in Nature magazine. The Gazzaley Lab has discovered that a custom-designed video game can enhance key aspects of cognition in older adults. Prof. Gazzely briefly shared the story with us — as he had with dozens of the world’s best news outlets earlier that same day.
 
NeuroMagic event   Nature cover
 
If you missed Gazzaley’s and Strong’s brilliance at StrEat Food — or if you want to see the sleight of hand (and mind) once again — there will be a repeat performance of The Neuroscience of Magic at Stanford in mid-November. Please check Wonderfest.org for an announcement by the end of September.
 
For intriguing science insights before then, please come to Don’t Lick That Doorknob on September 21st. This is a special movie screening of 2011’s Contagion with expert commentary from microbiologist/immunologist Dr. Bob Siegel. Contagion, starring Kate Winslet and Matt Damon, is 84% “Fresh” at RottenTomatoes, and Prof. Siegel is 100% fresh (at least!) in the minds of his thousands of enlightened Stanford students.
 
Most Wonderfest events are FREE. However, quarterly “Cinema Science” events like Don’t Lick that Doorknob request a nominal admission donation that supports both Wonderfest and Variety Children’s Charity. You’ll find ALL event details here.  Like earlier Cinema Science presentations, Don’t Lick That Doorknob will sell out, so I recommend that you purchase your ticket soon.
 
Contagion   Prof. Bob Siegel
 
Speaking of donations to the cause, a marvelous Wonderfest benefactor is providing 3-for-1 matching dollars to all donors who support Wonderfest’s new Science Envoy Pilot Project: every dollar given will magically morph into three dollars (up to a maximum of $15,000). Clearly, somebody thoughtful and generous thinks that this “Science Envoy” idea has merit!
 
Indeed: Science Envoys are PhD candidates who receive training and numerous opportunities to share their science with the public. In our Science Envoy Pilot Project, eight outstanding, hand-picked, graduate students from diverse science fields* will attend workshops by noted experts in science popularization. The Envoys will also have opportunities to hone their skills — and share their youthful energy — before Wonderfest and Bay Area Science Festival audiences.
 
Filippenko   Jane Goodall with chimp   Brian Greene
 
Won’t you please take advantage of this fantastic 3-for-1 matching gift by donating right now? Every dollar given is tax-deductible, and every dollar becomes THREE dollars the moment you give it. Please help Wonderfest to inspire the next generation of public-spirited researchers — helping them to become the Alex Filippenkos, Jane Goodalls, and Brian Greenes of tomorrow!
 
Wondrous regards,
 
Tucker Hiatt
Founding Executive Director
 
P.S.  Take Flight For Kids is a huge, FREE, and science-heavy festival that takes place on Saturday, October 19, in the south bay.  There’ll be live entertainment, tasty BBQ, and 200+ exhibitors focused on aviation and hands-on science.  If you have no kids eager to “take flight,” perhaps you can volunteer to help this terrific public service event. Contact Dean McCully <dean@dmccully.com> to learn more.
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* Wonderfest’s eight Science Envoys were recommended by Bay Area researchers who are expert in the realm of science communication: Stanford’s Deborah Gordon (biology), Robert Sapolsky (neuroscience), Bob Siegel (immunology), & Ravi Vakil (mathematics), and UC Berkeley’s Terrence Deacon (anthropology), Dan Garcia (computer science), Alison Gopnik (psychology), & Geoff Marcy (astronomy).

Of Tunnels, Teaching, and Time Travel

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Dear Wonderfest friend,

On Monday, inventor Elon Musk challenged California’s high-speed rail plans with his Hyperloop. On the very same day, Wonderfest challenged Mr. Musk to think more “deeply” (*ahem*) about truly futuristic, low-cost, high-speed transport. The Radical Physics chord tunnel would take us from San Francisco to LA in 42 minutes at virtually no energy cost!
  
Hyperloop sketch
 
Who will be the next Carl Sagan? Could s/he be in development at, say, a Bay Area university, right now? More generally: How can we inspire great researchers — as psychologist Alison Gopnik and astronomer Geoff Marcy have been inspired — to dedicate a significant portion of their energies to public science understanding?
 
To address these vital questions, Gopnik and Marcy (and six other local professors noted for their expertise in science communication) have nominated eight gifted Bay Area PhD students to become Wonderfest Science Envoys.
 
Scientists Must Speak
 
Wonderfest’s Science Envoy Pilot Project (SEPP) will provide a series of workshops and speaking opportunities to these most-promising, hand-picked, energetic, young researchers. The very title of their SEPP textbook declares the point of the project: Scientists Must Speak.
 
Through SEPP, Wonderfest will simultaneously present youthful science insights to the Bay Area and inspire the next generation of well-spoken public-spirited researchers to follow in Sagan’s footsteps. Keep your eyes peeled for further news about SEPP, and please check this newsletter’s post script for a remarkable opportunity to triple your donation to the cause.
 
Einstein sailing
 
Speaking of generous science experts who share knowledge with the public…  San Jose State physicist Ken Wharton will expand upon the insights of his June Cinema Science presentation with Physics vs. Time Travel, on August 20, at NASA-Ames in Mountain View.
 
Prof. Wharton’s presentation will use popular movies to explore both the logical and physical challenges to this most favored of science fiction themes. (For a short review of Einstein’s insights into forward time travel, try this.) Physics vs. Time Travel is a free presentation that marks Wonderfest’s first collaboration with the prestigious Commonwealth Club.
 
Wondrous regards,
 
Tucker Hiatt
Founding Executive Director
 
P.S.  Would you like to help inspire Saganesque dedication to public enlightenment among young researchers? Why not donate to Wonderfest’s Science Envoy Pilot Project?! For the next few weeks, every dollar donated to the project will be matched by TWO dollars from an anonymous Wonderfest benefactor! This fantastic 2-for-1 offer expires on September 30 or when we’ve raised $5,000, so please make a contribution soon.

Improving Wonderfest: a quick & crucial survey

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Dear friends,

Is this the first or second Wonderfest newsletter that you have received in … ages?
 
I have learned that many — maybe even most — of the 2000+ email addresses on the Wonderfest mail list have not been receiving these letters. Two-years-worth of monthly newsletters may have gone largely undelivered!
 
The Scream
 
I’d be surprised if this news breaks any hearts.  😉  But it does quite a cardio stomp on mine. That’s because these newsletters have described some truly wonderful ideas and events. For the record, here is our online newsletter archive.
 
The Wonderfest Board of Directors and I would like to learn from our newly rediscovered friends — and from our old ones. So, in an effort to improve not only Wonderfest’s programs but also its funding, we want to hear from you our dear supporters.
 
Survey Monkey logo
 
Will you kindly take a moment — 5 minutes at most! — to respond to this crucial Improving Wonderfest survey?  Your feedback will be invaluable in re-shaping Wonderfest and in generating new ideas for funding our critical programs.
 
In hopeful thanks … and wondrous regards,
 
Tucker Hiatt
Founding Executive Director
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Time Travel (of a sort) Guaranteed

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Dear Wonderfest friend,

Einstein has shown us that time travel is possible. In fact, special relativity theory* reveals that time travel is not just possible, it’s unavoidable! The relativity of time guarantees that my every motion “through space” causes a complementary slowing in my motion “through time” (relative to everyone who doesn’t move with me).

Physicists put it this way: “The moving clock runs slowly.”  Always.

Fortunately, everyday motions cause a negligible amount of clock slowing. So, as I cruise down the highway, the clock in my car stays synchronized (synchronized enough for me not to notice the discrepancy) with the world’s other clocks.

But if I were to flout the posted limit, and cruise near the speed of light**, my clock would run so slowly (as others measure it) that I would time travel into the future. When my trip was over, the short time registered on my car’s clock (and in my body), would be at odds with the long time registered on others’ clocks (and in their bodies). My four-wheeled time machine would have catapulted me forward in time.

Such time travel into the future would be a kick.  But it is time travel into the past that seems to spark most people’s imagination. This “backwards” time travel is not a feature of special relativity; we have no idea how it might be done. … Or do we?!

2012’s Safety Not Guaranteed is a wonderful movie that toys with this question gleefully. In it, not only do we wonder whether backwards time travel is possible, we wonder whether the movie’s two central characters really even believe it is possible!

The late Roger Ebert wrote: “Few descrip- tions of Safety Not Guaranteed will do it justice. It’s a more ambitious and touching movie than seems possible.” Other critics tend to agree; Safety Not Guaranteed is 91% “Fresh” at RottenTomatoes.

This Saturday, June 8, you are cordially invited to a special screening of Safety Not Guaranteed followed by an even more special half-hour discussion of time travel with physicist and sci-fi author Ken Wharton.  Dr. Wharton is professor of physics and astronomy at San Jose State University.

As with other Wonderfest “Cinema Science” events, this one will take place at the terrific little Variety Preview Theater, within a few paces of the Montgomery Street BART station in San Francisco.

Since the theater seats only 49 people, you will need to purchase a ticket to attend. All proceeds from ticket sales benefit Wonderfest and Variety Children’s Charity of Northern California.

I dearly hope you will express your curiosity — and your affection for science popularization and children’s welfare — by joining the fun this Saturday evening.

Sincerely,

Tucker Hiatt
Founding Executive Director
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* Einstein’s special relativity is called a theory only in the scientific sense of that term; it’s not just an educated guess!  Like the theory of evolution and quantum theory, the special theory of relativity is supported by overwhelming evidence.

** It would take me about a year to reach such speeds — unless I didn’t mind getting squished by the “g-force” of extreme acceleration.

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Believing in Something Bigger

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Dear Wonderfest friend, 

“Believe in something bigger” is the current sales pitch of the California Lotto. Presumably the “something,” here, is the probability P of winning the Powerball six-number jackpot: P = 0.0000000057 (that’s 1 in ~ 175 million). Believing in a probability bigger than this—much MUCH bigger than this—is the only “reasonable” explanation for buying a lotto ticket.
Lotto Billboard
 
Wonderfest friends have no problem believing in “something bigger.” At last week’s Modern Origins Story: From the Big Bang to Habitable Planets, astronomer Eliot Quataert (pictured at center, below, at StrEat Food Park) showed us that ~ 1030 cubic lightyears of space is plenty big. And that’s just the portion of the universe that we can see!
Modern Origins
 
Believe in something bigger. Of course, I shouldn’t interpret the word “bigger” so literally. The Lotto folks mean “big” in the sense of living large: getting rich and being able to buy a better life. But what about buying life itself … by SAVING a life? The state-of-the-art life-saving medical marvel seems to be stem cell research.
 
On June 4, also at StrEat Food Park, Wonderfest and Ask a Scientist join forces to present The Promise of Stem Cells: Hope or Hype?  Researchers Uta Grieshammer and Kevin Whittlesey will show us just how “big” stem cells really are in the realm of saving and improving lives.

Stem Cells

Believe in something bigger.  Or maybe “bigger” means “more wonderful”!  In that case, I again point to an upcoming Wonderfest event: Time Travel Not Guaranteed.  What could be more wonderful than time travel?! On June 8th, we will watch a terrific little movie called “Safety Not Guaranteed,” and then hear physicist Ken Wharton describe the logical perils of time travel.

This limited-seating event is the third in Wonderfest’s Cinema Science series that benefits Variety Children’s Charity as well as Wonderfest. It takes place just a few blocks from StrEat Food Park at the Variety Preview Theater on Market Street. At this moment only 45 tickets are available, so please act promptly.
Time Travel Not Guaranteed
 
Believe in something bigger. The spiritual overtones of this command are obvious, too — if not to the Lotto advertisers who crafted the slogan, then surely to us Wonderfest folk. The science that we believe in—that we have so much gorgeous evidence for—is enormous and life-affirming and wondrous. The global effort to understand “the awesome machinery of nature” (as Carl Sagan put it) enriches us like nothing else. In our lives, science is “something bigger” for sure.
 
Wondrous regards,
 
Tucker Hiatt
Executive Director
 
P.S. Need even more science in June? Please remember to consider SkeptiCal, the NorCal Conference on Science and Skepticism, on June 15 at the Berkeley Doubletree Hotel. The official experiment of SkeptiCal investigates the claim that hot water freezes faster than cold water. This is I.C.E., of course, the Incredible Community Experiment that Wonderfest introduced last fall. Have you done the experiment yourself, yet?
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Why Science?

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Dear friends of science,

A committee of Wonderfest Board members recently met with Randall Kline, the fabulously successful executive director of SFJazz.  Mr. Kline had kindly offered to suggest ways to improve Wonderfest’s outreach and funding.
 
In preparation for the meeting, I wanted Mr. Kline to understand why science is so important to the people involved with Wonderfest. I wanted to offer three big reasons for the worthiness of this specific human endeavor — and why, in particular, science deserves a well-supported “Beacon” like Wonderfest.
 
Beacon
 
1)  SCIENCE HELPS.  Has any aspect of human culture lessened suffering and supported human flourishing more than science? Virtually every aspect of engineering and medicine — and key elements of human self-understanding and every-day comfort — are founded in science.
 
2)  SCIENCE PLEASES.  Besides being useful, it’s just plain FUN to learn “how the world works” and to appreciate the intricate beauty of nature. The close study of reality satisfies a profound inner drive — an urge particularly active in scientists but also vibrant in many of the rest of us, particularly children.
 
3)  SCIENCE EXPLORES.  We have learned astounding truths about reality, but human ignorance remains unbounded. Perhaps tomorrow, some new marvel of science will wildly enhance how science, itself, helps and pleases — thus better realizing the first two benefits enumerated above.
 
Einstein
 
This third reason is the most compelling for me, and it’s the hardest to appreciate in the grandeur of its applicability. Consider Einstein’s take: “One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike — and yet it is the most precious thing we have.”
 
Our science is “primitive and child-like.” …  And this is Albert Einstein talking!
 
I wouldn’t be surprised if UC Berkeley astronomer and physicist Eliot Quataert feels the same way. Professor Quataert has titled his upcoming Wonderfest/Ask-a-Scientist presentation, The Modern Origins Story: From Big Bang to Habitable Planets.
 
You can’t do cosmology without being humbled. That humility is evident in Quataert’s title — in the word story.
 
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Prof. Quataert will tell the best origins story that human beings possess. It is a story backed-up by oodles of evidence and by careful reasoning — from deep thinkers all around the world. But that it may still be a “primitive and childlike” story could be its best feature of all!
 
Please join us at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, May 14, at SF’s StrEat Food Park for The Modern Origins Story. Perhaps a primitive and child-like story, but the best one we’ve got.
 
Wondrous regards,
 
Tucker Hiatt
 
P.S.  SkeptiCal 2013, the Bay Area Conference of Science and Skepticism, features some speakers well known to Wonderfest folk — anthropologist Genie Scott and astronomer Jill Tarter, in particular.  Wonderfest will be there as an “exhibitor,” too. SkeptiCal happens in Berkeley on Saturday, June 15.  Why not check it out?
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Parasites Among Us, with Jim McKerrow

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You still don’t know what you’re dealing with, do you?
[It’s a] perfect organism.
Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility …
I admire its purity — unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.
 
This soliloquy from the 1979 horror classic Alien is spoken in admiration of a perfectly horrible creature that is parasitic upon numerous organisms — including unsuspecting Earthlings.
 
Alien facehugger
Alas, much of what I know about parasites I learned while watching Alien — with my stomach in a knot and my arms folded VERY tightly across my chest. Fortunately, I have a friend who finds parasites fascinating, and this friend loves to share her insights.
 
My knowledge-sharing friend is Juliana Gallin, creator of Ask a Scientist. In the case of parasites, Juliana has asked an expert to share his knowledge with the fans of Ask a Scientist AND the friends of Wonderfest.
 
On Tuesday, April 2, Dr. Jim McKerrow, Director of the Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases, will present Parasites Among Us. Our venue is as exciting as — and a great deal more appetizing than — our topic. Surrounded by a diverse and delightful convoy of food trucks, we will gather in the enclosed heart of Streat Food Park.
 
Streat Food Park
The second dictionary* definition of parasite says “an organism living in, with, or on another organism” obtaining “benefits from that host, which it usually injures.”  (The first definition refers to “a person who exploits the hospitality of the rich”!)
 
Of the ~ 4,000 species of mammals, very few are parasitic.  But when we add up the 5,000 species of tapeworms, 200,000 species of parasitic wasps, and the legion of other parasitic species, we find that the majority of animal species are parasitic! And, finally, when we kick in untold thousands of fungi, plants, protozoa, and bacteria, we see that most living organisms on the planet are parasites of one form or another.
 
Humans, too, certainly have parasitic qualities. Some say we have become the foremost parasites of Gaia, i.e., of the whole biosphere. And that we have nothing to be ashamed of … unless we do it poorly.
 
Gaia Parasite“There’s no shame in being a parasite. We join a venerable guild that has been on this planet since its infancy and has become the most successful form of life on the planet. But we [humans] are clumsy in the parasitic way of life. … [Other parasites] are expert at causing only harm that’s necessary, because evolution has taught them that pointless harm will ultimately harm themselves. If we want to succeed as parasites, we need to learn from the masters.”**
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* Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed., 1997
** Carl Zimmer, Parasite Rex, 2000, p.245
 

Please consider making a donation to Wonderfest to help us promote science. Even a modest gift will make more events like this possible.

RSVP:

RSVP

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The Practical Turing Test: Will Thinking Machines Matter?

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Dear friends of Wonderfest,

“I propose to consider the question ‘Can machines think?'”
 
With that sentence, mathematician Alan Turing began a now-legendary article entitled On Computing Machinery and Intelligence in a 1950 issue of the philosophy journal Mind.
 
Alan Turing
The article presents an operational definition of artificial intelligence by means of what is now called the Turing Test: If a thoughtful human interrogator cannot distinguish a machine’s (i.e., a computer’s) answers from the answers of an intelligent human, then that machine should be deemed intelligent.
 
Wonderfest’s upcoming March event will examine perhaps a more important question than Turing’s seminal “Can Machines Think?”: What difference will it make to humans if machines can think? 
 
 
Ken Goldberg at workOn Saturday, March 23, Wonderfest presents UC Berkeley computer scientist Ken Goldberg to discuss artificial intelligence alongside the delightful Robot and Frank, one of 2012’s sleeper movie hits.
 
The evening will begin with schmoozing in the Variety Theater Lounge. A special screening of Robot and Frank will follow in the intimate and super-comfy Variety Preview Room. And then Prof. Goldberg will share his thoughts and entertain questions about the current state of artificial intelligence.
Robot & Frank
 
Please join us for Will a Robot Be Your Friend?. Only 49 seats are available, so I recommend that you make your $20 ticket purchase right now. All proceeds will be shared equally by Wonderfest and by Variety Children’s Charity of Northern California. Any intelligent machine would heartily approve of this enlightening and enjoyable expense!
 
Wondrous regards,
 
Tucker Hiatt
Founding Executive Director
wonderfest_social_network_side_effects_adler_chi_conte_eckles_nass_jongsma_web

Our Digital Selves

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Dear friend of Wonderfest,

What is the very first thing you do upon waking up each morning? For nearly one-third of Americans 18-34 years old, the answer is: “check Facebook”—while still in bed.

This fact comes courtesy of social networking expert Jack Conte. Jack was a pioneer of the YouTube social landscape as he built a luminous career in music and videography. Jack will join four other thoughtful observers of the online realm to see how our “digital selves” may be influencing our material selves:

Nancy Adler, Professor of Psychology, UCSF
Ed Chi, Staff Research Scientist, Google
Dean Eckles, social scientist & statistician, Facebook
Cliff Nass, Professor of Communication, Stanford

social networking gal in web

Entitled “Does Social Networking Have Side Effects?”, this panel discussion takes place at Stanford’s Braun Auditorium on Feb. 16, one week from this Saturday. Full information is available here.

Both my digital and material selves hope you will join us.

Wondrous regards,

Tucker Hiatt
Executive Director

P.S. If you love doing science AND exploring science journals, the Citizen Scientists League has quite a sweet deal for you. And, if you’re over in Marin County, why not check out Science on Screen at the California Film Institute?

DavidHume-crop

The Matrix, Skepticism, & Wonder

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Dear Wonderfest friend,

In 1999’s The Matrix, heroic Neo must choose between a red pill and a blue pill. The red pill will awaken Neo to the real world; the blue pill will keep him in a computer-fabricated pseudo-reality, the eponymous Matrix.
 
Should Neo take the red pill or the blue pill?
 
The blue pill presents an intriguing challenge that reminds us of Rene Descartes’ 17th-century “evil genius.” This great creation of philosophy could, right now, be deceiving us about the nature of reality. Perhaps this electronic newsletter, the chilly winter air, and all the stars above are impenetrable illusions created by the evil genius.
 
Such thoughts animate late-night dormitory discussions, but they don’t have popular staying power. Most of us eventually shrug-off questions about reality, artificial or not, as Woody Allen did: “I hate reality, but it’s still the best place to get a good steak.”
 

David Hume w/ quotation

 
David Hume, in the 18th century, did not shrug Descartes off. In a sense, Hume one-upped Descartes by leaving us with a skeptical insight that can’t be shaken off. It lies, today, at the heart of science, and it can fill us with a continuous sense of wonder.
 
This month’s Wonderfest presentation is co-produced with the Bay Area Skeptics.  Its title is Overconfidence and the Frailty of Knowledge, and it addresses skepticism about what we know — both at the personal level and at the universal level. We will examine ourselves for signs of overconfidence, and we’ll probe deep into the heart of science to discover unavoidable Humian frailty.
 

Bad sumo move

The two speakers are psychologist Dr. Marilin Colon of Cal State East Bay and a certain Tucker Hiatt of Wonderfest. The time is Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 7:30pm; and the place is Berkeley’s La Peña Lounge, 3105 Shattuck Avenue. The subject is more than the red or blue bill. It is key issues in how well we really know most any matter of fact. I hope you can come.
 
Wonderous regards,
 
Tucker Hiatt
Executive Director
 
P.S.  Please join Wonderfest on Facebook, and share this information with your friends.  We also have a Meetup group with almost 300 members.  Come take part!
End of Daze - Steve Carell, Keira Knightley

Seeking Science Friends for the End of the World

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Dear friend of Wonderfest,

You have good taste in friends!  In the “person” of Wonderfest, you have befriended a very enterprising Beacon of Science.  In our first year as an independent nonprofit, Wonderfest has:
Wonderfest is going strong.  But with your help, there’s so much more that we can do!  Please help Wonderfest continue its outstanding work for science education and popularization by attending End of Daze, our low-cost gala fun(d)raiser this Saturday evening in San Francisco.
Seeking a Friend (flat)
Planetary scientist Chris McKay will be there (in person). And so will doomed friends Kiera & Steve (on the silver screen) in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. There’ll be free popcorn and a no-host bar for drinks and candy.
 
Tickets for End of Daze are still available. It’s not too late to have a blast(!) with your best science friend: Wonderfest!
 
Wondrous regards,
 
– Tucker Hiatt, Executive Director
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* compared with Wonderfest’s pre-“Beacon” days, when it was the Bay Area Festival of Science

Wonderfest Fundraising, Take-2 and Take-3

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Dear friends,
 
Wonderfest is a nonprofit organization. Our goals are lofty, our budget is streamlined, and our services are free.
 
Yet Wonderfest has held only a single fundraiser in its 15-year history! For late September of 2001, we planned a small science-rich dinner to open the hearts and wallets of a select group of supporters. Unfortunately, the events of September 11, 2001, undermined our fondest hopes.
NYC Skyline
 
People were fearful back then; and fear does not inspire munificence. That first Wonderfest fundraiser actually cost more money to produce than it earned in donations!
 
Now, as 2012 draws to a close, Wonderfest presents TWO new fundraisers, each quite distinct from the other. We dearly hope that at least one of these pleasing efforts will take hold of you!
 
Consider Wonderfest’s fundraiser take-2: the “What is Energy?” Kickstarter campaign. As the online introduction proclaims, “Energy may be the single most important idea in science.”  Ten expert online videos will explain the science of this mysterious essence “from quantum to cosmos, from evolution to economics.”
 
We need $12,000 to produce the “What Is Energy?” video series, and we have already reached (nearly) $10,000 in pledges. But the last two thousand dollars are elusive; and, ironically, they are the most important dollars! That’s because Kickstarter dissolves all obligations between donors and donees whenever funding goals are not FULLY met. If our “What Is Energy?” campaign does not earn $12,000 in pledges by Monday, Nov. 12, then all pledges vaporize!
KS-promo-image (small)Please visit our Kickstarter page, and pledge a few dollars. We have fine rewards at every pledge level — from Wonderfest all-cotton shirts to a cosmic dinner in North Beach with legendary astrophysicist Alex Filippenko.
 
Bear in mind that these next $2,000 in pledges will secure the earlier $10,000. So, in effect, every dollar pledged now brings FIVE MORE DOLLARS along with it. This is a kind of “matching grant” like no other! Please do take a look at the inspiring video that will fund our rich and multifaceted answer to “What Is Energy?”
 
Wonderfest’s fundraiser “take-3” happens on December 1st, just one month before the end of the mythic year of our global demise: 2012. We are told that obscure Christian and Mayan chronologies foretell the “End of Days” in 2012. Consequently, Wonderfest presents End of Daze: Does Hollywood Get Doomsday Right? 
End of Daze
The evening will begin with the astronomical insight and wit of planetary scientist Dr. Chris McKay. Then we will watch Steve Carell and Keira Knightley in 2012’s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Doomsday has never inspired such a delightful story, or such a fun evening.
 
The venue for the “End of Daze” fundraiser is a luxurious, little-known, 49-seat theater in downtown San Francisco. This absolute limit on seating means that tickets must be purchased in advance. Please follow the link here, get one of those 49 tickets before they’re gone, and prepare yourself for a memorable evening of science, humor, romance, and — with regard to doomsday — daze abatement.
 
Wondrous regards,
 
Tucker Hiatt, Executive Director
BASFLOGO

Wonderfest and the Bay Area Science Festival

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Dear friend of Wonderfest,
 
For twelve years, Wonderfest produced the annual Bay Area Festival of Science. Then, in 2011, Wonderfest became the Bay Area BEACON of Science, producing science events year-round. Also in 2011, UCSF’s Science & Health Education Partnership began to produce the Bay Area Science Festival (BASF), thus preserving the annual science festival idea.
 
BASF Logo
 
BASF 2012 kicks off in two weeks. It runs for ten days, Oct.26 – Nov.4, and Wonderfest is a BIG part of the Festival.  Of the 23 formal BASF Partner organizations, Wonderfest is the youngest, the smallest, and (arguably) the most BASF-involved: we are producing four activities! Each of these is intriguing, and, unlike many BASF events, each is FREE:
 
1) Does a Scientific Approach to Cooking Kill the Joy? is a classic Wonderfest dialogue between author Harold McGee (On Food & Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen) and professor Richard Zare (Stanford Chemistry Department).  It takes place at 7:30 PM on Saturday, October 27, at Stanford’s Braun Auditorium (in the Mudd chemistry building).  Braun seats nearly 300, but NOVA ScienceNOW is co-promoting this event with its upcoming Can I Eat That? premier, so expect a crowd.  Why not guarantee a seat by arriving a little early and snacking on complimentary cheese and grapes?
 
Physics Circus

2) Wonderfest – Physics Circus takes place at the biggest BASF venue. This so-called Discovery Days event happens at AT&T Park on Saturday, November 3. Celebrated physics wizard Zeke Kossover and I will offer demonstrations and hands-on activities from 11 AM to 4 PM using homemade equipment and the finest of physics gizmos from PASCO Scientific.

3) When World’s Collide, also on November 3 (the event, not the collision!), is jointly presented by Wonderfest and the Mt. Tamalpais Astronomy Program. It starts with a lecture under the stars in Mt. Tam’s Mountain Theater by NASA planetologist Kevin Zahnle, and will conclude with naked-eye stargazing and complimentary deep-sky observing through the big telescopes of the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers.

ICE

4) ICE, an Incredible Community Experiment is the most original Wonderfest contribution to BASF 2012, and it runs all festival long. ICE is a do-it-yourself, community-wide experiment that tests the seemingly absurd claim (made by Aristotle, among others) that hot water freezes faster than cold water. This simple, eye-opening, Bay-Area-wide experiment may end up being the BASF event that best promotes the understanding and appreciation of science.  Please do try the experiment yourself, and then submit your results for comparison with thousands of others at BASF.

The Bay Area Science Festival is a fantastic display of local science popularization efforts. Please check out the full Festival schedule, and mark you calendar accordingly. I hope I see you at some of Wonderfest’s intriguing BASF events.

Wondrous regards,

Tucker Hiatt, Executive Director

P.S.  To get more involved in Wonderfest activities, please consider becoming an Ambassador of Wonder.  This volunteer position comes with a fancy badge, a Wonderfest polo shirt, and a host of interesting opportunities.  The first such opportunity takes place on Nov. 3 at AT&T Park during our Wonderfest – Physics Circus.  We need volunteers to represent Wonderfest by greeting the public, helping with physics demonstrations, and selling Wonderfest goodies.  To become an Ambassador, please just drop me a message.

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