THE SCIENCE BUZZ CAFÈ                 MAY 2007       oak@pon.net

by Robert Porter PhD

I think it’s not widely appreciated that the greatest technological invention was the printing press. It was a great invention because the wide communication it enabled empowered scientists, aka natural philosophers, and brought about science as we now know it. Everyone knew someone who had an uncle who heard it on good authority that there were entrepreneurs who could turn lead into gold. This story had all the charms of modern “Big Foot” stories, with the additional appeal of GOLD. But when people could try it for themselves, science began to rise up out of the dross of gossip and philosophy. Printing made communication cheap enough for the recipes of science to be attempted. This was real innovation; and science rushed into the human condition like a rash.

It’s also not appreciated that coffee made an important contribution to science. Until coffee was widely available in Europe, reasoning wasn’t a popular pastime, because people were reluctant to drink the water. Drinking plain water was  an invitation to death – it was full of wee beasties, animalcules, and germs that found water so charming at this time of year. Or any time. Consequently Europeans drank beer, wine, mead, ale, brandy, whiskey and more. The array of beverages was as much fun as fashionable bottled water today; it made Europeans drunk as skunks, and gave great joie de vivre  to the élan vital, and the babble of the vox populi. And relieved them of the burden of - and ability for - serious thought. The Europe of yore, and Europeans, had a disdain for sanitation, and bathing was an unhealthy habit, a sign of too much concern for the flesh. Ah! Blessed alcohol that deadened all senses.

Then along came coffee, made with water so hot it killed the unknown but troublesome bugs that brought everything from cholera to ordinary tourista to the people. Alcohol consumption decreased, brain power increased, and soon coffee houses were found anywhere worth visiting. Each coffeehouse specialized in a particular kind of thought; finance, science, politics, or what have you. For very little money, the price of a cup of java, anyone could listen  to experts holding forth on the hot topic of the day. The cafes became known as “penny universities.” These talks were so popular it became common for someone to feverishly take notes, print them up, sell them, and lo, newspapers were born. This tradition was developed until journals became the mainstay of scientific publication and a means of promulgating the word, right up until now, when the internet has begun to replace much printing.

Communication is still the soul of science. Someone has distinguished between “daytime science” and “nighttime science”. The first is “legitimate” science, the one of conferences and publications, the one argued out in the rational light of day with one’s colleagues ready, nay anxious, to find fault in your work at. But night science is the science of bull-sessions and fevered dreams and the disruption of sleep when an idea needs to be attended to, Right Now! It is the science of coffee houses. It is the fun one.

The Science Buzz Cafe is dedicated to the night science tradition. It is for professional scientists (who do it for money) and for the amateurs (who do it for passion). Professionals have science for their spouses. Amateurs have it for their lovers. The Science Buzz Cafe honors both species.