– Alexis Pfannenstiel
The writer is a student in Comm 240 News Reporting.
The 50th Science Café will be hosted and celebrated at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 12, in the Fort Hays State University Robbins Center with special guest Chris Mooney.
Science Cafés were started in the Hays community seven years ago with help from Hays High School teacher Cheryl Shepard Adams and Paul Adams, Anschutz endowed professor of Education at FHSU.
“Cheryl worked with public representatives to try and get these informative cafés started in Hays,” Adams said. “The Science and Mathematics Institute (at FHSU) put her ideas into action.”
The whole reason behind starting these discussions was to inform people in the community on timely scientific topics, ranging from wind energy, politics, and weather, all the way to evolution and honey and bees, Adams said.
“It’s not only students and staff who benefit from this,” he said. “These discussions are intended for the entire public to learn more about scientific events happening in our everyday lives. We usually have a core of 10 people who come to all the cafes; the others vary depending on the topic.”
Adams said is anxious to hear Mooney speak again.
“He spoke quite a few years ago at another café of ours about his book ‘Storm World,’ but that’s the last time I’ve heard him speak,” Adams said. “I’m especially excited about his talk . . . Wednesday evening, ‘The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science.’ This discussion will support the reasons of why we even do science cafés in the first place.”
Mooney is a noted scientist journalist and author of numerous books, two of which are “The Battle over Global Warming” and “Unscientific America.” During Wednesday night’s discussion, however, Mooney will describe his findings from his last three years of reporting on the role of psychological factors in promoting science denial. He will discuss the broad range of science and how different personality traits process information in different ways.
“Chris is in very high demand nationally,” Adams said. “We are lucky to get him here to talk about a topic that he is so passionate about. The information he will be providing us with will be intriguing to many.”
The Office of the Provost is sponsoring this event, with the FHSU Science and Mathematics Education Institute providing the program. Students, staff, faculty and community members are welcome free of charge.