Talk talk
A few of my colleagues are at the 2006 Society for Neuroscience meeting this week, and I think it's really interesting that the SfN invited architect Frank Gehry to speak at their meeting (in the "Dialogues between Neuroscience and Society" lecture/section). This isn't the first time they've invited a famous non-scientist to speak at the annual meeting - the Dalai Lama of Tibet spoke last year - and it's not entirely clear if the lecture was a success: one neuro-blogger wrote that she "throuroughly [sic] enjoyed seeing the pictures of his work ... [though he did not] attempt to draw his narrative into the realm of neuroscience."
This got me thinking - who could a large chemical society (like the ACS) invite to speak in a "Dialogues between Chemistry and Society" seminar? The late R. Buckminster Fuller would have been an obvious choice for chemists interested in nanotechnology, and the late Rachel Carson could have spoken in front of the Environmental Chemistry division... As for living non-scientists, maybe Tracy Kidder could speak in the Computers in Chemistry division?
If you were in charge of a "Dialogues between Chemistry and Society" seminar, who would you invite and why?
Joshua
Joshua Finkelstein (Associate Editor, Nature)
Comments
What made you think of Tracy Kidder?
Posted by: daen | October 17, 2006 02:03 PM
Tracy Kidder won the Pulitzer Prize for writing The Soul of a New Machine, a "true story of a computer design team racing to complete a next generation computer design under a blistering schedule and tremendous pressure."
Posted by: Joshua | October 17, 2006 02:12 PM
"Dialogues between Chemistry and Society" demand Poppa Carl Djerassi. The inventor of the Pill broached the first ray of hope for humanity to end war from population pressure. Both God and government actively hate Poppa Carl. In both cases, the worst possible solution to any problem is one that works. The Pill is safe, effective, and inexpensive. The Pill is anathema.
Poppa Carl is Fine Artsy, too.
Posted by: Uncle Al | October 17, 2006 02:20 PM
I'd invite Dr Gillian McKeith PhD for her pioneering work bringing awareness of the role of photosynthesis in the human gut to the attention of the British public.
Posted by: Mushy | October 18, 2006 04:21 AM
I'm a big fan of "Soul of a New Machine," but I just wondered why *specifically* Kidder?
Posted by: daen | October 18, 2006 07:41 AM
Daen - thanks for the follow-up question... Kidder popped into my head because I really enjoyed reading Mountains Beyond Mountains last year and recently read House (when I was away on holiday last week).
(On a related note - if you're in the Boston area this week, Tracy Kidder and Dr. Paul Farmer will be speaking about Mountains Beyond Mountains at Harvard's Sanders Theatre on October 20th).
Posted by: Joshua | October 18, 2006 11:36 AM
Sir James Black who discovered drugs for two major therpeutic clasess.
Posted by: Chris | October 23, 2006 09:03 AM
Dialogue with society? What dialogue with society?
Why is it that Chemistry rarely makes to the general media? The only science that makes it seems to be drug discovery (without any mention of chemistry), Astronomy, Robotics (well that is more like engineering) and Animal Biology.
Perhaps the speaker might help us create a dialogue with society.
Well, I think the best choice might be someone who works in the general media in science shows. Eg, a producer of Nova, David Suzuki, the folks from the Daily Planet (Canada),- even the great Bill Nye would do.
What are their opinions on why Chemistry is out of the general media? How could we make chemistry more palatable and better understood?
Posted by: Jemma | October 23, 2006 04:25 PM