Where are our public science spaces?
Reading a post on the Guardian’s science blog about the sacking of Susan Greenfield as head of the Royal Institution, I could feel only one thing – jealously that London has a Royal Institution. I’d never really heard of it before, but found the idea of an organisation devoted to science communication, and one which holds an annual science lecture aired by the national broadcaster and watched by millions, to be quite mouth-watering. Where’s the Irish equivalent?
Yes, Britain has a much higher population to patronise its science institutions, but that does little to ease my envy. London’s Natural History Museum is an awesome example of how to communicate science to the public – last year they opened the £78m Darwin Centre where visitors watch scientists at work in the lab, and even ask them questions. Meanwhile, our natural history museum is still closed after a flight of stairs collapsed in 2007, and plans to refurbish it are on hold.
In London, just down the road form the Natural History Museum is the equally excellent Science Museum. The city also boasts the Royal Society (which hosts regular public science lectures), the Botanic Gardens at Kew, the Royal Observatory in Greenwhich, a National Maritime Museum, a transport museum, the Wandle Industrial Museum…the list goes on.
And how about Dublin? We’ve got the Science Gallery, the Botanic Gardens and, erm, that’s it as far as I know. There’s also Astronomy Ireland, who run regular events and classes and open their observatory to the public. There’s often public science talks and lectures in the various third level colleges, but they’re poorly advertised off campus.
Beyond that, I’m stumped. The Science Gallery is excellent but it only really focuses on one exhibition at a time, so isn’t the kind of grand science museum we need. You could spend days or months just exploring the Natural History and Science museums in London, but there really isn’t much for a nerd to do here by comparison.
For all the the talk of developing a knowledge economy that’s based on science and technology, how much effort have we made to really stimulate public curiosity in science? Is throwing money at PhDs really enough? Where are our public science spaces? We’ve done an excellent job of creating public cultural spaces – think of Dublin’s theaters, arthouse cinemas, galleries and now, endless start-up studios and art spaces – but science has been massively neglected by comparison.
