Streets ahead in science
MARGO Adler thinks every pub in Hobart should have a microscope. Lord knows what might be viewed blurrily on its slides late at night, but the evolutionary biologist is adamant we need to stake our claim as Australia’s City of Science.
Margo, a former New Yorker who made Hobart her home three years ago, is the brain behind Beaker Street@ T MAG, a celebration of science at the museum and around the city next weekend as part of National Science Week.
“I want Tasmania as a whole to be known for embracing science as a worthwhile cultural and social activity,” she says.
She describes BeakerStreet as her first step towards trying to create a social movement where people view science as a worthwhile social focus.
“In past 15 years, I’ve lived in eight cities in five countries, and Hobart’s the place I wanted to settle because it’s got the right community, connectedness and vibrancy to become a world leader in putting science front and centre,” she says.
Margo is on a mission to bring science to the people, and if that means luring them with grog to learn more, she will. Beaker Street@Tmag will have eight pop-up bars, with another two at the Town Hall.
And there will be 150 scientists to ply us with
evidence-based entertainment over two evenings. As we raise a glass of Tassie pinot noir to that plan at North Hobart’s Willing Bros bar on Tuesday afternoon, Margo says fostering a City of Science identity is a no-brainer with Hobart’s nation-leading ratio of scientists per capita.
“Science is already very visible here,” she says. “We are the home of Antarctic science in Australia, the gateway to Antarctica, and we have the CSIRO and IMAS, not to mention a tonne of iconic species and incredible environments.”
Margo echoes Leigh Carmichael of Dark Lab’s call in this column last year for the state to get meaningfully behind a Dark Sky project to make even more of its geography.
“Tasmania has some of the vastest expanses of dark skies in the world and some of the brightest Southern lights in the world, but we don’t take good advantage of that,” she says.
“We could really embrace our dark skies as a tourism drawcard.”
She says many visitors don’t reaIise they are already coming to Tassie for scientific reasons – “the beautiful nature, the iconic species, the food, the cooking, the wine, the weather, the auroras; it’s all science and winter is a really great time to come to see it all.”
With the proposed move of key scientific facilities to Macquarie Point in the Hobart City Deal, Margo is calling for people-friendly designs and guaranteed public access to regular presentations.
“We should make sure the public is invited to seminars and to the staff club afterwards for a drink with the speaker and other scientists,” she says.
She sees the University of Tasmania’s city move as another great opportunity to throw open the doors of STEM foyers and seminar rooms for events that will engage locals.
As for all that scientific research hidden away in academia, she says let’s get it beyond peer-review journals, which are often expensive to access, and get more of the info into the public domain. After all, we are funding most of it at our public institutions.
“Of course scientists should be sharing their research,” she says. At street level, Margo is keen to see Hobart’s burgeoning pub science scene grow. “Why not a microscope in every pub?” she says. “Science is just as legitimate a social/cultural option as music and arts. I’d like to see more public science events, including booze, that create ways for people to interact, chat with scientists and elevate pub conversation, which can be so boring.”
She even wants a law enshrined — or purports to, with a straight face — stating every major museum must have a bar and open regularly in the evenings.
“The night is the best time to be at the museum,” she says.
And the best time for stargazers. “I’d like to see telescopes and microscopes in all public parks, and nets and waders to use at ponds, to encourage people to explore and discover. I don’t understand why we stop exploring and discovering after we become adults.”
She says creating opportunities for engaging scientists and the community is crucial amid “an unprecedented level of mistrust” of scientists fuelled on social media by conspiracy theorists and their followers. She nominates anti-vaxxers and climate change sceptics as key offenders.
“Climate change is a really good example,” she says. “The cultural divide over ideas is only getting bigger — and it shouldn’t be an ideological issue. It’s fact. This is not ‘Do you believe in evolution? Do you believe in climate change?’ The questions are, do you understand climate change and that it’s a big problem?”
If you think partying at TMAG next weekend (August 16-17) sounds fun, check out beakerstreet.com.au