Lab Coats Not Required is a new Oberlin Science Café series aimed at increasing the accessibility of science communication within the Oberlin community. Held at Slow Train Cafe and the Oberlin Public Library every other week, this series features informal presentations about science by students and faculty at the College. College third-years Ben Deacon and Henry Bennet collaborated with Lisa Ryno, chair and associate professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Jillian Scudder, associate professor of Physics, among others, in order to bring this series to Oberlin this semester.
Over the summer, Deacon and Ryno communicated via email about the best way to tackle challenges within the science world. One concern in particular was the lack of community between scientists and non-scientists. With obstacles such as massive cuts in federal funding for research grants, Ryno emphasized that building community between the College and the City of Oberlin is essential.
“It will continue to help us build trust and form important relationships,” Ryno said. “It could be something that ultimately leads to changes in terms of what kinds of bigger projects the community can do and what kinds of things are being supported on the ballot.”
Deacon shared a similar sentiment, striving for a compromise that would have a tangible impact while staying small-scale.
“I think it’s fair to say that things are a little bit on fire in the world right now,” Deacon said. “The problem is, you can’t address all of it. As a STEM student, I figured I could tackle in some way what was going on in the scientific community — the turmoil, the mistrust, the misinformation.”
While brainstorming solutions for this issue, Ryno sent Deacon an article on the concept of science cafés, a grassroot movement of events for community members to gather in a casual setting and engage in conversation with scientists. Ryno expressed that these events allow attendees to reflect on the fundamental questions of how natural phenomena come to be.
“It’s something that we have much more organically as children, and through the busyness of life or because we’re told not to question things quite as much, that [curiosity] gets lost and rekindled,” she said.
In order to get a clearer idea of what these science cafés would look like, Deacon reached out to Scudder, who has substantial experience with science communication. During Scudder’s post-doctoral years in Sussex, England, she attended and presented at various events called Nerd Nights that were a form of science cafés held in a series of pubs.
“It was a really fun audience,” Scudder said. “Everyone was increasingly drunk over the course of the evening. It was like a string of 20-minute talks, and there were probably 50 or 60 people there. They signed up to go have a couple of drinks and listen to silly science.”
Scudder recalled the key aspects of these events that led to their success in order to apply them to Oberlin’s series.
“It is meant to be informal, accessible, and lighthearted,” she said. “Having it be in the evening at Slow Train where you can go get a coffee and listen to something that you might not otherwise have a chance to hear about is neat.”
When discussing topics with which to kick the series off, the organizers wanted to prioritize accessibility. This meant starting off with lighter topics that scientists as well as non-scientists would be able to resonate with.
“It should be understandable for somebody with no scientific background,” Bennet said. “What we want is for students to present something that they are interested in because it’s a lot easier to make a presentation about something that you are passionate about.”
The first two events were held Sept. 12 and 26. While Deacon and Scudder led the first event, they invited Becca Radomsky, visiting assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Monica Blatnik, assistant professor of Biology, for the second. The evenings featured presentations by Scudder on evidence that there were volcanoes on the moon, Deacon on bioluminescence, Radomsky on crystals, and Blatnik on fungi. Future dates for the series include Oct. 9 at the Oberlin Public Library and Nov. 7, Nov. 21, and Dec. 5 at Slow Train Cafe.
The turnout for the events so far have largely consisted of students and faculty from the College, and organizers have been advertising the series in local spaces in order to get more community involvement from outside of the College.
“The main goal is … to get people excited about science,” Deacon said. “It’s easy to get sort of lost in the jargon, and even people in this town can forget why they love it so much.”
