This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: October 6, 2008 - This Thursday, Oct. 9, the St. Louis Science Center kicks off SciFest 08, a five-day festival celebrating science in St. Louis and around the world. From global warming, to the physics of baseball, to the science of chocolate, the festival promises something for everyone.
SciFest will offer more than 40 presentations about topics like personalized cancer care, rock guitar and particle physics, cars of the future, green fashion, stem cell research, the science of dating, NASCAR - the science of speed, extreme weather, and the science of beer (presented by Tom Schlafly of Schlafley Beer), to name a few.
Festival goers will buy tickets to some sessions, ranging from $5 for group tickets and Science Center members to $10 for special events. But many activities and sessions, such as the political candidates' forum on science, are free. According to Naomi Joshi, festival director of SciFest 08, the free science showcase will have activities like battling robots, model airplanes, and a car show featuring a NASCAR race car, a solar car and a Smart car, among others.
A Center for Science and Technology
St. Louis might seem an unlikely city for an international science festival. But because Science Center head Doug King had been active in a festival in England and active in one of the projects, St. Louis was on the list of 20 possible host cities. According to organizers, St. Louis won the bid over such places as New York and San Francisco because of strong scientific institutions, but more importantly, sheer enthusiasm.
"The support we got from the community was phenomenal," said Joshi. Indeed, St. Louis' major scientific institutions including Washington University, Monsanto, the Missouri Botanical Garden, Pfizer, the Danforth Plant Science Center and others are all involved.
King described the support of the non-science community as well. "We put together the bid with the help of the sports commission, the mayor's office, the RCGA, the Convention and Visitors Commission, all the people who promote St. Louis as a great venue," he said.
On a world-wide search for presenters on the science topics, Naomi Joshi found universal interest from scientists around the United States and from other countries. But she was pleasantly surprised to find the depth of local scientific expertise. "I can't tell you how many times people would tell me that the best person on a particular topic was right here in St. Louis," she said.
From England to Missouri
The path that brought SciFest to St. Louis began two years ago in Cheltenham, England. Doug King, president and CEO of the St. Louis Science Center, visited the Cheltenham Science Festival, which draws thousands of people to this small town to talk science.
"I was fascinated," said King, "Here were people from all over England and Europe, both speakers and attendees, saying what a great experience it was to come to town, meet each other, and have discussions about science the way they would about music or art at any other festival."
One of King's discussions at the Cheltenham Science Festival was with Caudwell Xtreme Everest, a team of British doctors preparing to lead an expedition to Mount Everest to study how the human body copes with little oxygen. The team's goal is to help emergency room and intensive care patients who often suffer harm from low levels of oxygen.
King saw an incredible story and wanted to share it. "We're trying to talk about real science, get kids interested in real jobs, and show that scientists aren't all weird guys in lab coats tucked away somewhere," said King.
Mountain Top Medicine
So, in the spring of 2007, along with an IMAX film crew, King found himself hiking through the mountains of Nepal in the name of medical science. One of 200 healthy volunteers who trekked to Everest base camp, "I learned more about my body than I ever wanted to know -- about what happens to your heart rate and your blood pressure riding an exercise bike to exhaustion at 18,000 feet," recalls King, laughing. "I can't wait for the research results."
King may have to wait for those results to be published, but St. Louisans can meet members of the Caudwell Xtreme Everest team this Thursday evening, at SciFest 08's opening presentation.
Scifest 08 in St. Louis
Starting with extreme science, the St. Louis festival doesn't slow down.
Beyond the sessions and the showcase, festival organizers want to create a place where the public can meet scientists face to face. "There aren't nearly enough people going into science," said Joshi, "And one of the reasons is the invisibility of the scientist in our world."
In an effort to change that perception, King also emphasized meeting the scientists. "We want every presenter to be involved with the audience and then stay around, almost in a living room type atmosphere in the Exploradome, where they can sit and talk to the public causally," he said.
The Science Center is often thought of as a place to bring kids, King explained, and there are many activities for children at SciFest. Parents can drop kids off at Young Scientist Workshops. "But this time it's for you," King said, emphasizing that most of the festival is aimed at adults.
St. Louis Scientists
One of the local speakers, Peter Raven, president of the Missouri Botanical Garden, will talk about the importance of protecting plant and animal species from extinction. He also commented on St. Louis as a center for scientific research. "St. Louis has a very unusual concentration of scientists, engineers, and technical people for a community of its size," said Raven. "There are probably more plant scientists at work in St. Louis, for example, than anywhere else in the United States."
Another presenter from St. Louis is David Peters, professor of aerospace engineering at Washington University and a Cardinals fan. At his session on the science of baseball, Peters will talk about the aerodynamics of a curve ball, the left-hander's advantage, and the dynamics of sliding, to name a few.
"An aerospace engineer is a natural to talk about baseball," said Peters, "We have to look at the dynamics of how things move, missiles, rockets, helicopter blades. When the space shuttle docks with Skylab, that impact is similar to when a ball hits a bat."
The Future
St. Louis has SciFest for the next three years and organizers hope for enough success to keep it here permanently. Beyond a great time with science, King hopes the festival will raise St. Louis' profile as a center for science, both with St. Louisans and around the world.
"If you ask somebody about St. Louis, we almost always say it's a great place to raise kids and a great sports town," he said, "But what if we also said it's one of the hubs of science and technology in the country."
Attracting people from more distant cities may take a few years, but King wants St. Louis to become known for its science festival. Over the next three years, King said, "We'll find out what works." For its English sister festival, King said, "what makes it special is not going to hear a lecture, it's the atmosphere they create in the rooms and between the sessions. There's a buzz going on and a lot of energy and you walk away thinking - gee, that was cool."
SciFest 08 is at the St. Louis Science Center Oct. 9-13. For more details, schedules and ticket information, visit the website, scifeststl.org/ .
Julia Evangelou Strait is a freelance science writer based in St. Louis. She has a master's degree in biomedical engineering and works in hospital epidemiology for BJC HealthCare.