The science festival has come to an end - there is still a street fair today down at Washington Sq. Park but I realized that there was no way I could go hang out there and get all my work done in lab and run all the other errands I must run today, need to prioritize!!! I am so glad I got involved in this event, not only because of the science and learning really cool stuff, but I also met some very interesting people in the past few days.
For the past three nights, I volunteered at different events of the festival, which mainly included handing out programs, organizing lines, showing people to their seats, etc. I got to wear a large red shirt with VOLUNTEER written on the back in huge letters, and act like I was so important - although people sort of look through volunteers as if they were invisible, which I had felt before when I was volunteering in the hospital - in any case, I got to see the shows for free once everyone was seated, which was awesome!
Last night there was a discussion about nuclear energy as a potential alternate for carbon-based fuels like coal and oil, which are emitting so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that it's causing all kinds of really serious problems for our poor planet (which was the topic of another discussion I attended on Thursday). Before the event, all the volunteers were hanging out, getting instructions, and then we were dismissed for half an hour before the crowd showed up. So this one girl and I went out to look for a cafe to hang out in. We just hit it off over a cup of coffee, talking about science (she's not even a scientist), plans, living in New York (she's from Russia) and how neither of really knew where we were going with our lives at the moment. It's rare that I feel comfortable telling someone about my insecurities connected with my career, especially after knowing that person for about 10 minutes. At the end of our coffee break, we exchanged numbers and made plans to hang out, and she said "I feel like I can share all my neuroses with you." which is how I felt too.
I was then assigned - well, I volunteered my services - to hold a microphone throughout the whole lecture (it was a panel discussion between a few scientists, one former Green Peace activist, and one policy maker who works at the European agency that deals with nuclear power issues) and once the discussion was opened up for Q&A with the audience, I had to run around with the mic, giving it to the person the moderator was pointing at from the crowd. Of course, this being a discussion about nuclear power, things got a bit heated. One guy was literally jumping out of his seat to ask a question and when I handed him the mic, he just went on this rant. He was a nuclear physicist, with an obvious Slavic accent, and he was questioning the safety as well as the technology, as far as I remember, cuz by that point, I was getting anxious, and so were the organizers, and then my supervisor came up behind to tell me to not let this guy talk more - like how am I supposed to tackle the mic out of his hands? Anyway, he got only slightly belligerent and then started yelling when he lost the mic... anyway, it was a little nerve-racking, but also cool in a way that people were so into the topic.
The other talk I had gone to on Friday night really deserves its own post. So long for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment