About Science Buzz Cafe

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I think it is not widely appreciated that the greatest science invention was the printing press. It was a great science invention because it was wide communication that enabled scientists, aka natural philosophers, that brought about science as we know it now. Everyone knew someone who had an uncle who heard it on good authority that there were entrepreneurs who could turn lead into gold. This story had all the charms of modern “Big Foot” stories with the additional appeal of GOLD. But science began to rise up out of the dross of gossip and philosophy when people could try it for themselves: Printing made communication cheap enough that the recipes of science could be attempted. This was real innovation and science rushed onto the human condition like a rash.

But it is also not appreciated that coffee made an important contribution to science. Until coffee was widely available in Europe the idea of actual reasoning was not a popular past time because people were reluctant to drink the water in Europe, it being an invitation to death because of the wee beasties, the animalcules, germs, if you will, that found Europe so charming this time of year. Or any time. Consequently they drank beer, wine, mead, ale, brandy, whiskey and so on. The array of beverages was as much fun as our fashionable bottled water today. Except it made Europeans drunk as skunks, which gave great joie de vivre to the élan vital, and the babble of the vox populi. And relieved them from of the burden - and ability - for serious thought. The Europe of yore, and Europeans, had a disdain for sanitation, and bathing was an unhealthy habit, a sign of too much concern for the flesh. Ah! Blessed alcohol that deadened all senses.

Then along came coffee, made with water so hot it killed the unknown but troublesome bugs that brought everything from cholera to ordinary tourista to the people. So alcohol consumption decreased, brain power increased, and soon coffee houses were found anywhere worth visiting. Each coffeehouse specialized in a particular kind of thought, be it finance, science, politics, or what have you. For very little money, the price of a cup of java, one could listen to experts holding forth on the hot topic of the day. These cafes became known as "penny universities" for this reason. These doings were so popular it became common for someone to feverishly take notes, print them up, sell them, and Lo, newspapers were born. This tradition was developed until journals became the mainstay of scientific publication as a means of promulgating the word right up until now when the internet has begun to replace much printing.

But communication is still the soul of science. Someone has distinguished between "daytime science" and "nighttime science". The first is the "legitimate" science, the one of conferences and publications, the one argued out in the rational light of day with one’s colleagues ready, nay, anxious, to find your work at fault. But night science is the science of bull-sessions and fevered dreams and the disruption of sleep when an idea needs to be attended to, Right Now! It is the science of coffee houses. It is the fun one.

by Robert Porter