July 28, 2009
The Secret Garden Party, 2009
Our third year at our birthplace (and spiritual home) featured four days of talks devoted to the mind, music, the cosmos and the universe inside our classic military tent – the natural habitat of guerilla scientists.
July 27, 2009
The Guardian
Kitchen science with Nikolai & Bethan at the Secret Garden Party, July 2009.
Lured by Red Stripe and other totally legal substances, the scientists wowed festivalgoers with the delights of space travel and Jupiter’s moons, the neuroscience of music and the propagation of waves in conga lines – before they were finally allowed to join the party … After every talk there are dozens of inquisitive minds throwing forth questions.
And as one speaker told me, these aren’t the same as the questions discussed in science labs. Instead, the audience tends to see the big picture, and often the scope of their enquiries takes the scientists by surprise. When there’s no more time for questions, small crowds descend upon the speaker as the Q&A continues by the candy-pink stretch limousine outside. All of those presenting their research are flattered by the interest, often returning to lectures on similar areas of research the next day to form impromptu roundtable sessions with the audience. There’s no end to people’s appetite for science here.
Full post by our quizmaster Science Punk Frank Swain
Wired
Morten Kringelbach at Latitude, July 2009.
One unexpected hit at the Latitude festival this year was Guerilla Science, a loose group of scientists, lecturers and communicators dedicated, as they put it, to bringing “science by stealth” to those of us less familiar with the inside of a lab
… Science for non-scientists often tends towards the mawkish and Guerilla Science makes a refreshing change from the plodding tones of a professor talking down to their audience. Sometimes you long for a little more technical detail but that’s a minor quibble. These guys held the attention of some pretty cycnical arts graduates for a good hour, and they managed to talk without even a single reference to Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica or Doctor Who. Which has to be some sort of a first.
Accelerated Learning
The grand finale: A session of stellar freestyle rapping with MC Inja.
He gave the audience a crash course on all the weekend’s Guerilla Science events.
It’s not every day a science tent turns into a rave.
Complete photos on our flickr site.
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