The odds of bumping into a scientist are higher in Hobart than in any other city in Australia, thanks in large part to its role as a hub for marine research.
At the start of National Science Week, which ends this weekend, you would have recognized them even earlier, as they wore LED name badges with their name and research keyword.
These “wandering scientists” populated the Beaker Street science and arts festival in the city center, chatting with attendees and trying to break the misconception that science is done behind closed doors.
The festival has expanded in the six years since its inception so that the conversations take place outside the festival hub in Hobart. Visitors can go into the field with scientists as part of the festival’s Road Trip, from a guided hike through the ancient plants of Cradle Mountain to the dark skies of the East Coast.
The purpose of Beaker Street, according to festival director Margo Adler, is to share the fact that “science isn’t just people in test tube labs — there’s science in everything.”
“We have a panel of deaf people who are experts in non-verbal communication… we have a conductor from the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, who talks about the science of baton waving,” Adler said.
By combining science with bars, live music and art, Adler says, “we’re really trying to invite an audience that doesn’t normally engage in science, or don’t consider themselves science enthusiasts.”
“It really bothers me how exclusive science can be. You have a university that brings an interesting researcher every week to give a lecture at some departmental seminar for 30 people. And the public is not invited.
“Instead, you talk to the same people over and over.”
Adler says a lack of accessibility in science is also a missed opportunity for scientists who can “get stuck in a tunnel,” missing out on ideas that can be generated by talking to people who think in different ways.
“I think it’s really important to bring non-scientists together with scientists, and have people challenge their ideas and come to them with suggestions completely out of the field,” she says. “Sometimes those are the best suggestions.”
Zoe Kean, a science communicator and MC of the Road Trip, says engaging with scientific ideas gives people a better understanding of the beauty and complexity of the universe, but also serves a more immediate and urgent function.
“In recent years we have seen how dangerous it can be if communities are not given the tools to understand science; it can put those communities at risk, like with the spread of antivax messages,” Kean says.
Karl Kruszelnicki, who has been at the forefront of bringing science to a wider audience for decades, reiterates the importance of scientific literacy for the interpretation of the news.
“Science is a way of not being fooled, so [people] don’t get fooled by lies about Covid vaccines, or flat Earth, or climate change,” he says.
But “we need to have a higher background knowledge of science purely for the selfish purpose of pressuring our politicians to do what is economically good for our country”.
An Australian study found that investing in health research and development yields $5 for every $1 spent.
But Kruszelnicki says he is frustrated by uncertainty about funding jobs at government investigative agencies, including the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology.
Adler says understanding that scientists are “not some weird elitist class” helps restore public confidence.
Understanding scientific processes helps the public understand that acceptance of evolution, or climate change, is not a matter of belief, but “an understanding of the way the world works.”
“The divisions in our culture right now, it’s a real problem, and I think part of what we’re doing at the festival is trying to combat that.”
