Of Schemes and Memes Blog

Science festivals – part 4: The World Science Festival Opens!

Our latest mini-series has been focusing on science festivals. We have already looked at the brief history of a science festival, how they are organised and have spoken with Tracy Day, one of the co-founder’s of this week’s World Science Festival in NYC. In our latest installment we report back from the opening night of The World Science Festival.

On Wednesday evening, celebrities from the worlds of science and art gathered at the Alice Tully Hall in New York City for the opening of the World Science Festival. The festival commenced with the Opening Night Gala, featuring a spectacular reading of Radiance, The Passion of Marie Curie.

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Radiance tells the emotional story of the most accomplished and revered female scientist in history, Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 100 years ago. Laying out a banquet of food for thought, the performance explored the intellectual passions of Curie’s pioneering research on radioactivity, as well as her confused private life.

This special opening feature is the creation of the acclaimed actor/writer Alan Alda. Glamorous guests like Regis Philbin and Diane Sawyer were in attendance; equally as glamorous was the all-star cast, including Maggie Gyllenhaal as Marie Curie and Bill Camp and Brent Sexton:

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Bound by a deeply moving narrative, the reading examined Curie’s passion for science and for those she cared about. In an emotional attempt to explore the private world of one of the most celebrated female scientists, the evening’s performance revealed Curie’s meticulous rituals, highlighting her role as a mother and the troubles she faced as a woman working in science. Radiance delicately reflected on her relationship with her husband, also her intellectual partner, who died suddenly in a tragic accident.

The story, although familiar to the scientific community, was powerfully compelling. At times laughter bubbled through the theater hall, alternating with shocked gasps and murmurs as the narrative unfolded. The audience learnt how Curie had to fight to make her mark in the scientific world, while remaining a caring mother scorched by the pain from the loss of her husband. Who knew that she was involved in a public affair, nearly losing her second Nobel Prize if it wasn’t for her indomitable nature and her determination to succeed?

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More coverage from WSF

The reading was a great way to whet everyone’s appetite for the coming days of festival events which will combine superstars in the world of science with those in theatre and art.

If you are interested to learn more about the World Science Festival’s unique program and selection of shows, saloons and discussions, stay tuned as we are planning to report back with coverage of many of the key events via write-ups, archives of the Twitter conversations and hopefully even some video footage. Don’t forget that we have already interviewed co-founder of The World Science Festival, Tracy Day about what you exciting happenings you can expect for the rest of the week.

However, we are not the only source of coverage; you can find out more in the World Science festival blog. Reporters from Scientific American will also report on some of the events in their blog, as will Nature Medicine on the The Spoonful of Medicine blog.

If you want to read more highlights from the World Science Festival, you can find a summary of all our coverage here.

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