Michael Moynihan: Pint of Science festival will quench the thirst for greater knowledge

 The Oyster Tavern, Market Lane, Cork, is one of three pubs that will host Pint of Science, an initiative to allow scientists to engage with the general public.  Picture: David Keane

Your columnist is not a science man.

All that remains from science in secondary school is a random term or two. The Irish for physics (fisic). A rudimentary grasp of an timpeallacht, the environment, survives from the classes in bitheolaíocht (biology). The time I read in a comic that electricity is the flow of electrons, probably in relation to some Marvel superhero or other.

That’s my fault, of course, but the odd time I wonder if I’m missing out on a world of scientific knowledge. Which is why a series of events taking place next week in Cork caught my eye.

Pint of Science? Science? In pubs?

“Yes,” Namrata Iyer told me. She’s the Cork Chapter Manager of Pint of Science. Which is . . .

“It’s a festival which helps to bring scientists to the general public. There’s a lot of curiosity and interest in science, but we want to bring that discussion out of the formal environment of the university and to bring it to where the people are.

“We want people to talk about the amazing research being done across Ireland and to do so in a way that’s accessible to the general public, that’s engaging and casual — more of a conversation than lecturing people. That’s the idea — science outreach, but fun.”

It’s a great idea for a science dullard like myself. Pint of Science is a global initiative, going on in 26 countries all around the world, and in Ireland alone, there are seven different locations hosting events.

“In Cork, we have six different events happening over three days in pubs across the city,” Namrata told me.

“We’re in the Old Oak, the Oyster Tavern, and Tequila Jack’s.

“It’s a two-way street because it’s a chance for scientists to hone their skills in communicating what they do, to make it easy for people to understand what they’re doing in their research.

“And it should be understood by people because a lot of the research is supported by taxpayer money, and the taxpayer deserves to know what is being done with that money.

“Scientists have a responsibility to make their work accessible and understandable to the public, and it’s fantastic to be in a country where the public is invested in research — where science is supported and understood by the public.

Pandemic

“If the pandemic taught us anything it’s that we need more communication between scientists and the public — we need a relationship of trust and communication between the two rather than being isolated from each other. So we’re invested in making that communication work.”

Good point. Despite the bloviating of a few clowns claiming to be doing their own research, the scientific achievements during the pandemic were astounding even to a layman

'The regular person who visits that pub, whose job may have nothing to do with science — that’s the kind of person we’d love to attract to these talks.'

All of us had to bone up accordingly on basic virology, R numbers and so on, which underlines one of Namrata’s key points.

“There’s science in everything, after all, and not just in the obvious places.

“Last year we had someone pipe up to suggest people’s grandmothers would benefit from lifting weights, and there’s scientific reasoning behind that. We want audiences to go home and think about science in that context as well as more obvious applications such as their phones or technology in general.

“For instance, we’ve had talks about fisheries and the ecosystem of organisms in waterways, or about the meaning of probiotics when you read that word on the labels of the yoghurt you buy at the supermarket. These are small things which we mightn’t automatically associate with science, but once you stop to think about it and to unpack the subject you realise how much science is involved there.

“I think there’s definitely an audience for this — it’s up to us to get them into the room to hear the scientists, but once we get them into those rooms they’re very interested.”

That’s a significant delineation. The people who aren’t dealing with these scientific topics on a daily basis are the target audience.

“Absolutely, we’re trying to diversify the audiences because it’s relatively easy to attract students or people who are involved in the various fields, from biology to physics, but we don’t want to be preaching to the choir.

“The regular person who visits that pub, whose job may have nothing to do with science — that’s the kind of person we’d love to attract to these talks. We certainly get those people coming along, but not as many of them as we’d like.”

Cork's science community

Talking of people’s jobs ... Cork is a well-known hub for the pharmaceutical industry, the tech sector is well represented on Leeside, there are universities with discrete scientific research facilities in the city.

Is Cork relatively literate scientifically, given that background, or is it impossible to judge?

“By virtue of the presence of those industries and universities, a lot of people obviously work in those places themselves or they know people who work in those places.

“But that doesn’t automatically translate to people understanding all of the science at play in those places, or to people thinking about science having an impact on their everyday lives.

“I’m a scientist myself, but I don’t do it myself that often. I don’t stop to think ‘how is the water in my tap clean?’ or ‘how does my mobile phone actually work?’

“There’s an interest, but is Cork more or less interested in science than other cities? I can’t say, but I can say that there’s a lot of interest and, in fairness, there is a lot of support from the institutions in Cork for Pint of Science.

“Apart from our national sponsors, like TU Dublin, we also have great support from APC Microbiome Ireland, which is part of UCC, and IPIC (the Irish Photonic Integration Centre, a SFI (Science Foundation Ireland) research centre on photonics. So we definitely feel that local support.”

'Boom in research'

The intersection of research interest and real life is visible elsewhere in Namrata’s case.

“I’m a microbiologist and immunologist, I study the microbes that live in our gut and look at how, over the years with industrialisation and our diets becoming more westernised, we might have lost microbes which would be beneficial and how to bring those back.

“We are seeing a huge boom in research on this topic — and also a huge boom in the products on supermarket shelves which tout the benefits of microbes.

“There’s a lot of potential in this field, there’s some amazing work being done in Cork on this subject — and in other places — and it’s something our speakers will discuss. They’ll talk about the actual science behind some of these microbes and what they can do.

“But if people want to learn more they’ll have to come along to the Pint of Science — I can’t give away the punchline!”

Sold. And if the Pint of Science folks ever need someone to talk in a pub about the timpeallacht, I’m the man for the job.

For more information go to pintofscience.ie

The festival is in Cork from 22-24 May.