What can I say about an event that counts both Carlsberg (as in the brewery) and Nature (the scientific journal) amongst its sponsors? That event will be the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) 2014. In just a week, I’ll be stepping out of my little bubble in the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, on my way to ESOF 2014, held this year in the big city of Copenhagen. There, I’ll be joining several thousand others, from Nobel laureates to mere journalists in a week-long marathon of science-related events.
I’ll be blogging daily from the week-long science fest. Not to name-drop, but Brian Schmidt will be there, as will Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Karl Deisseroth, Serge Haroche, and many others. There is a dizzying array of topics on offer, ranging from “hard science”: neurobiology, astrophysics, robotics, climate, to social science and science and culture. Careers and policy are both well-represented in the sessions: Much of the point of this giant forum is to provide opportunities for young scientists to meet with veterans in their fields, researchers whose work helps shape our world with a mix of policy-makers, planners, industrialists and architects, as well as, of course, journalists, all of whom will be writing on or from the conference.
And if I should, at some point become bored with all of this, Copenhagen’s Carlsberg district is also hosting a “Science in the City” festival for the general public. (Watch the trailer and ignore the text. I assume they do not actually want to “incite” anyone.”) If you're in the area, I believe day tickets are still on sale.
I’ll try to get to as many sessions as possible and report on them. No promises, though.