Get facts with your coffee: Science Cafe starts this week

At 7 p.m. Thursday a new monthly science forum called Science Cafe will serve facts with foamy lattes. The public forum will feature experts speaking on specific themes at Seattle's Best Coffee Cafe in Borders, 2634 E. Third St.\nSpeakers will introduce a topic and after a break for refreshments, discussion will resume. \nThe forum will be held the second Thursday of each month, with the fall semester's theme focusing on the environment and global warming. \nSchool of Public Affairs and Environmental Affairs professor Phil Stevens will speak Thursday about air pollution and climate change, a topic he says everyone can benefit from.\n"I've always thought science is about studying how things work and interact," said Erika Lee, the initiator of the forum. "It will be a chance for people in the community to interact, discuss science and figure out how the world works."\nLee got the idea after attending a conference in Gainesville, Fla. However, the idea originated in the United Kingdom, where science enthusiasts were inspired by French cafes that hosted philosophy discussions. Now there are science cafes across the world, so it made sense to Lee to start one in Bloomington.\nExposing people and familiarizing them with current scientific issues is more important than ever, Lee said. \n"The world just keeps getting more complex," she said. "And science is getting more complex, too, because more of the issues that keep popping up in the news are interdisciplinary and involve the global environment, and more and more of these issues are overlapping with politics." \nScience policy issues will be covered in November.\nThe Science Cafe is intended to inform attendees about the latest research and provide a comfortable environment for questions and discussion.\n"It's a great idea to help the public learn about science that is happening around campus," said Stevens, who plans on starting his lecture from a local level before branching out globally. "There are ways to clear the air that will also help climate change."\nStevens said the focus of his lecture would be more on air quality and its relation to climate change than global warming. \n"Global warming is something that can't be proven just by one extreme hurricane or a hot summer," said Lee, who is also communications director for the IU Graduate School. "But there are people who have taken the research and summarized it for the general public ... Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth' is a great example of that. And what I like best about his message is that if we can get past all the fear and take some simple actions, there's still hope."\nDulcie Holtz, general manager at Borders Books, Music & Cafe, said she is very excited to be hosting the Science Cafe. Borders will have books and multimedia available related to discussion topics. \n"It seemed like such a natural fit for us to host events that would be exciting, educational and accessible," she said.