Café Scientifique
Café Scientifique is a place where you can enjoy a cup of coffee or
a glass of wine and explore the latest ideas in science and technology. Café
Scientifique meetings have taken place in a range of places (cafes, bars, restaurants
and even theatres) and are always away from traditionally academic contexts.
The national cafe scientifique website includes details of venues and events throughout the UK and the Culture NorthEast website has details of Necastle's programme.
In Newcastle, Cafe Scientifique is now incorporated into Cafe Culture, an exciting blend of topics ranging from politcs through philosophy to science. There are a great range of discussions in the current season, from women in Islam to cyborgs and the future of stem cell work, and we are planning some great discussions for the 2008-09 season. You can view our latest Cafe Culture leaflet in PDF format to find out more. Details are also published in our events section.
Café Culture generally runs on the first and third Monday of each month, now at 7.00pm. After four very successful years at the Live Theatre (which is undergoing redevelopment), Café Scientifique moved to the Café Royale for one year. From January 2006 until June 2008 they took place at World HQ, Curtis Mayfieild House, Carliol Square, in Newcastle city centre. An exciting new venue has been secured for the 2008-09 season - the Urban Café at Dance City, Temple Street (near the Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne). The railway station is only a couple of minutes' walk away and there is an NCP carpark (Grainger Street) very close by.
The venue
Urban Café is fully accessible. You can enjoy a meal in the café beforehand, or snacks and refreshments during the event. No booking is required and the events are free.
Past events
Previous speakers have included Children's Commissioner Al Aynsley Green, Lyle Armstrong, George Monbiot, Matt Ridley, John Burn, Mary Midgley and Igor Aleksander, talking about issues ranging from the end of the universe, to the sexual competition strategies of birds.
Previous years' programmes are available (pdf) to give a taster of the range of topics that Cafe Scientifique addresses: