2008 World Science Festival
2008 World Science Festival | |
---|---|
Leon Lederman at the 2008 World Science Festival. | |
Genre | Science festival |
Location(s) | New York City, US |
Attendance | ... (2008) |
Website | http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/ |
The inaugural World Science Festival was held in New York City from May 28 to June 1, 2008. It consisted mainly of panel discussions and on-stage conversations, accompanied by multimedia presentations. A youth and family program presented topics such as sports from a scientific perspective and included an extensive street fair. A cultural program led by actor and writer Alan Alda focused on art inspired by science. The festival also included a World Science Summit, a meeting of high-level participants from the worlds of science, politics, administration, and business.
The festival was the brainchild of
History and background
The World Science Festival was founded by
Day and Greene sounded out scientists and science communicators about their idea, enlisting many of their contacts as the festival's scientific advisors. They met with the presidents of the city's major universities and its cultural and scientific institutions, forging partnerships for the festival's organization. According to Greene, their idea fell on open ears wherever they went, and the most frequent reaction to their proposal was the expression of disbelief that a festival like this did not already exist in New York City.
Next came the assembly of a team of producers who were to organize the festival's events. Notably Kyle Gibson, an Emmy Award-winning former producer of
The foundation organizes the World Science Festival (WSF) in partnership with Columbia University, New York University, the
Inaugural festival
The inaugural World Science Festival took place from May 28 to June 1, 2008, at 22 venues throughout New York City. It included 46 events, a street fair and, on its first day, the one-day World Science Summit at Columbia University. The Festival was attended by 120,000 people.[7] It featured several different kinds of presentations: science events for a general audience, a cultural program focusing on art inspired by science, and a youth and family program.[8] Although inaugural, no other festival is planned.
World Science Summit
Preceding the public events was the invitation-only World Science Summit on May 28, 2008; New York City Mayor
As part of the summit, the winners of the first
Festival events
Events covered a wide variety of scientific topics, and combined talks, demonstrations, video presentations and panel discussions. A number of events addressed "big questions". For example, a roster of scientists including physicist
The festival's cultural program ranged from a
Events for a younger audience included an examination of the science of sports (with sports scientist Tom Crawford, neuroscientist
Street Fair
The WSF Street Fair took place in and around
Stage events at the street fair included live performances by the "Mathemagician"
Reception
Festival coverage leading up to the 2008 festival, which included articles in major newspapers and appearances by Alda and Greene on national shows such as
Online coverage typically focused on specific festival events. Notably,
References
- ^ a b Cf. Musser, George (April 25, 2008), "A Science Fête Project: A Q&A with Brian Greene", Scientific American, archived from the original on November 18, 2008, retrieved 2008-11-24
- ^ Non-profit status and chairman position from the foundation's 990-EZ form for 2006, accessible online via
GuideStar, GuideStar USA, Inc., 2008, archived from the original on 2020-01-15, retrieved 2008-06-11. Current board of directors from World Science Festival (April 2008), Board of directors, Science Festival Foundation, archived from the originalon June 7, 2008, retrieved 2008-06-08.
- ISBN 978-0-8129-2478-7. Biographical information for Robin Reardon: World Science Festival Website: Robin Reardon, archived from the original on June 2, 2008, retrieved 2008-06-25 and R3Productions Website: Robin Reardon, R3Productions, LLC, archived from the original on 2009-05-31, retrieved 2008-06-25
- ^ Overbye, Dennis (3 June 2008). "An Overflowing Five-Day Banquet of Science and Its Meanings". The New York Times.
- ^ "NYC to host the World Science Festival in May". 3 April 2008.
- New York Times, pp. E2, archivedfrom the original on April 30, 2011, retrieved 2008-04-30
- Crain's New York Business, archivedfrom the original on November 17, 2008, retrieved 2008-06-06
- ^ Timmer, John (April 3, 2008), "NYC to host the World Science Festival in May", Ars Technica, archived from the original on May 7, 2008, retrieved 2008-04-28
- Washington Post, pp. A04
- ^ Timmer, John (May 28, 2008b), "First Kavli Prize winners in new fields of science announced", Ars Technica, archived from the original on May 29, 2008, retrieved 2008-06-05
- ^ General description: Overbye, Dennis (June 3, 2008b), "An Overflowing Five-Day Banquet of Science and Its Meanings", New York Times, archived from the original on April 30, 2011, retrieved 2008-06-05. Additional participant names as listed on the Festival's website at World Science Festival (2008), Speakers, Science Festival Foundation, archived from the original on July 1, 2008, retrieved 2008-07-17; additional event information from the entries in World Science Festival, All Events by Date, Science Festival Foundation, archived from the original on July 16, 2008, retrieved 2008-07-17.
- ^ Armitage, Sacks, Moth: Overbye, Dennis (June 3, 2008b), "An Overflowing Five-Day Banquet of Science and Its Meanings", New York Times, archived from the original on April 30, 2011, retrieved 2008-06-05. Additional information on Moth event:
Tierney, John (May 30, 2008), "Early Reviews of Science Festival", TierneyLab, The New York Times, archived from the original on June 4, 2008, retrieved 2008-06-25. Dear Albert: van Gelder, Lawrence (May 12, 2008), "Arts, Briefly: Footnotes", New York Times, archived from the original on April 30, 2011, retrieved 2008-06-25 and Hoffman, Jascha (2008), "Insight into Einstein", doi:10.1038/453987a
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- ^ Powers, Zach (Aug 17, 2009), The PCR Rap, YouTube, archived from the original on April 30, 2012, retrieved 2009-08-17
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- ^ Scalera, Nicholas (June 1, 2008), "Human, All Too Human", Science Channel's Live Coverage of World Science Festival 2008, archived from the original on June 6, 2008, retrieved 2008-11-25
- ^ Quotations from Overbye, Dennis (June 3, 2008b), "An Overflowing Five-Day Banquet of Science and Its Meanings", New York Times, archived from the original on April 30, 2011, retrieved 2008-06-05; a similar assessment in Timmer, John (June 19, 2008), "World Science Festival wrapup", Ars Technica, archived from the original on June 20, 2008, retrieved 2008-06-25
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• Scalera, Nicholas (June 1, 2008), "Human, All Too Human", Science Channel's Live Coverage of World Science Festival 2008, archived from the original on 2008-06-06, retrieved 2008-11-25
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• Scalera, Nicholas (June 1, 2008), "Science of Sports", Science Channel's Live Coverage of World Science Festival 2008, archived from the original on June 1, 2008, retrieved 2008-11-25
• Quinlan, Heather (May 31, 2008), "Invisible Reality", Science Channel's Live Coverage of World Science Festival 2008, archived from the original on June 1, 2008, retrieved 2008-11-25
• Scalera, Nicholas (May 31, 2008), "Not the Usual Doom and Gloom", Science Channel's Live Coverage of World Science Festival 2008, archived from the original on June 1, 2008, retrieved 2008-11-25
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External links