Image: Google Maps.We welcome Kishore Hari, QUEST's newest blogger. His bi-monthly blog post will keep you current on Bay Area science events. Kishore is the founder of Down to a Science, a science cafe in San Francisco, where local scientists share their research with the community.
One of the reasons I love the Bay Area is the variety of events every week. Just in the last month, I've been to the opening of the new Cal Academy of Sciences, Fleet Week, even the Red Bull Soap Box Race.
The first weekend of November brings one of my favorite hidden Bay Area gems: Wonderfest, the Bay Area Festival of Science. This year, the two day festival takes place at Stanford on Saturday November 1, and at UC Berkeley on Sunday November 2. The core of Wonderfest is a series of public discussions on provocative topics.
Last year was my first time to the festival. I was skeptical of dragging myself to a series of boring lectures, especially in a stodgy lecture hall. The first hour was a quick discussion on a professor using DNA as an inspiration for composing music. I spent my 2nd hour learning about those "superbugs" that may bring about a new health pandemic. Finally, there was a discussion on the development of new drugs, focusing on the corruption associated with the approval of Merck's Vioxx drug that absolutely BLEW my mind.
I was hooked. There were hardly any crowds, I had access to some of the top scientific minds in the Bay Area, and there was none of the awful foods that inhabit other festivals (I shudder at the thought of deep fried oreos).