On Wednesday (September 21st), we discovered a new local event that sounded pretty cool. Dale was told about this event through her department head at the college she works for. The event was a Science Café hosted by Granite Geek. This event is very similar to what most of us know as Skeptics in the Pub or Drinking Skeptically. Being organizers of skeptics in the pub for our area, we were very interested in checking it out. We are always looking for new possibilities that promote science and are related to the get-together format.
Sarah Eck and Dan Marcek are the organizers of Science Cafe NH. Based on what we found on their website, they started in May of 2011. September’s topic was on vaccinations, something we can all relate to. There were three panelists for this talk: Dr. Jose Montero, who serves as Director of the Division of Public Health Services for New Hampshire, Dr. Jennifer Gittzus who is a practicing physician specializing in infectious diseases at Concord Hospital, and Dr. William Storo, Chair of Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth. The moderator for the evening was David Brooks, who writes for the Nashua Telegraph and had been promoting the event through his twitter feed.
A side note of interest: Dr. Storo was not originally part of the discussion. By sheer coincidence he happened to be at the restaurant having dinner with his wife. When he found out about the event and the topic involved he asked to be a part of it. For us, this is what these local discussions are all about. This is our dream. To have someone who is “random” but with a professional background come join us for a discussion. Getting more people involved in sharing their expertise and getting them to participate in discussion that promotes accurate information should be a goal that we all share.
With panelists and a moderator, the first impression was that this would be a formal debate. However, that was not the format at all. The moderator’s role was to initiate discussion. When the audience’s questions or commentary died down, it was Mr. Brooks’ job to keep the discussion going. This made the format similar to the events we are used to hosting; the speakers introduced themselves, provided commentary about vaccines, then a break, followed by a question and answer period. Based on each of the panelist’s professions, it should come as no surprise that all were pro-vaccination. Their employers are the only ones that provide their paycheck. If there is a day where no one comes in for a vaccine, they are paid regardless. This was something the panelists emphasized; they wanted to dispel that myth before things got rolling.
The panelist brought up several interesting points. Dr. Montero for example brought up points about cost/benefit, especially in regards to specific vaccinations for very rare illnesses. All three of them agreed that vaccines are not less effective when delayed. They all agreed that the problem with delaying vaccination is the increased duration of risk and exposure. By delaying, parents are allowing a greater opportunity for their child to become sick. Dale had been live tweeting the event up until her phone battery died; you can see them in her twitter feed (http://twitter.com/#!/Ntr0py_roy).
The Science Cafe idea is a great one and something we should consider as part of our repertoire. It seems to draw in a very different crowd and that’s a good thing. By not using the word skeptic in the title or promotion, it removes the stigma associated with the word. Agree or not, the word skeptic has negative baggage that comes with it. For example, Dale asked Dr. Storo to do a talk for Granite State Skeptics. Dr. Storo asked why he would want to come talk to a group of vaccine skeptics. She had to explain that our group is not skeptical about vaccines. We know they work. He then asked (paraphrasing here) “Well then why would I come do a talk that would be nothing more than participating in an echo chamber?” Once Dale explained what our group is and what we were looking for he agreed to consider doing a talk for us. This is just one example of the impressions the word “skeptic” gives off. This does not mean we have to change who we are or our title completely, but for scientific outreach we really think this model works better than a SitP or Drinking Skeptically event.
That said, we think that these events can work hand in hand to help promote critical thinking. A Science Cafe may have an easier time getting a variety of people to come and may even have an easier time getting speakers while a SitP event can bring in people that feel they wouldn’t fit at a Science Café, but still want to participate in the promotion of critical thinking. Recently we hosted ParaTom, who is a paranormal investigator. It was a fantastic talk and there was a lot of great discussion afterwards. However, it would not have fit the Science Cafe model. This may be true for many paranormal topics.
Our goal as skeptics is to promote critical thinking and science. SitP does a wonderful job of doing that, but the type of crowd it attracts might be limited. By adding a Science Café to our activity list, we can hopefully attract a greater number of people by creating a two-pronged approach to promote critical thinking, science while reducing the effects of misinformation. We understand that we have only attended one of these so far. However, the event showed promising results and we will be attending more of these. We will be sure to take note of the crowd Science Café draws and the success it has with each event. So far, it looks very promising.
Dale and I would like to thank Sarah Eck and Dan Marck for taking the time to organize and put on Science Café NH. The event we attended was fantastic. They are doing a wonderful job and we hope this event continues to be successful. Please visit their website: http://www.sciencecafenh.org/index.html for more information.
Travis and Dale Roy run Granite State Skeptics. They have monthly Skeptics in the Pub events and on October they are having their first SkeptiCamp (co-sponsored by the JREF). For more information see granitestateskeptics.org