Time at Science Cafe

At the Science Cafe in downtown South Bend, IN, invigorating ideas are served--a science martini stirred, not shaken. Coordinator and host Jessica Baron invites a guest to speak for 15 minutes to share his or her perspective on something from the domain of science, followed by Q&A. I've been fortunate to present at two Science Cafes, the latter one being Science With Balloons, and I've attended several in the past year, so my perception of this second-Monday event at Chicory Cafe is admittedly biased.

It's fun to grow in science as a community. Hopefully the dialogue breeds political courage for science inquiry and literacy, and courage to act responsibly. Notions raised in Science Cafe can be technical, philosophical, whimisical, innovative, controversial, bold, and more.

Tonight's guest Robert Gouldin, introduced by "the other Doctor Baron", had been announced originally on Facebook as a South Bend Science Cafe event:

It’s About Time: The History of Clocks

Robert Goulding, Associate Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies at ND.

This month's SB Science Cafe is held in conjunction with SJCPL's One Book, One Michiana, an event in which our community comes together to read a book and participate in events supporting its content. This year's book choice is The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern.

Clocks and time play a significant role in The Night Circus. Dr. Robert Goulding, Associate Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies at ND presents an informative discussion on the history of clocks.

Tonight the audience received a crisp handout that informed but did not overwhelm. And astrolabes to pass around. Here's a snapshot of the evening from my "gnotes":

Notion of time flowing through like water thru meter

Read more past Let there be light verse

Daily pegboard. Name?

Astrolabe as model of sky itself

Salisbury cathedral clock with verge and foliot

Needed governor to alter daily until pens and escapement.

Now instruments tell the time more than the universe does.

Social... Punctuality, "Machine creates conditions for his own proliferation"

Ancient philosophers thought technology was unimportant

First clocks mimic bells of monastery

Move from blacksmiths to goldsmiths

parapegma

7:22 Wednesday. 56 times 5 s separation

It was another digestible episode of science applied. I hope you can make the next Science Cafe. Details will certainly emerge here. Thanks to the Science Cafe community for making South Bend a good place to gather.