The audience is of two sorts, regulars, about half, and strangers with a particular interest in whatever’s being discussed, whether it’s Alternative Medicine, Bio-engineering, Computer security or Minerals and local Industries.
The atmosphere is friendy, you can have a meal before-hand, and there’s always a break after the short introduction, for coffee or beer. And the meetings are free! The idea is to de-mystify science, and to bring it to “the man on the street”.

There are regular Science Cafes in Bath, Cardiff and Cheltenham, and every town should have one, for there is so much exciting to learn about developments in engineering, code-breaking, energy from rivers and the sea, new medicines for old diseases, maths, computing, health, the environoment, as well as the developments in the traditional pure sciences of chemistry, physics, geology, biology, astronomy, – the list is endless, and the news is astonishing. Do come along – you’ll be most welcome!

I’d start with the Universities, most will have public lecture series and all Research Council funded work now includes some element of public engagement; try the MRC Cell Biology Unit (UCL, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lmcb).

You could keep an eye on Bright Club (http://www.brightclub.org/) for up coming events, and there are quite a few TED talks that discuss DNA e.g. http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_rothemund_details_dna_folding.html

Hope that helps,
John

I am trying to access fascinating Science talks… I am a total geek for detail and nature and would love to attend talks, but I live in London… Any hints as to where I might go to find some people to talk about cells and DNA with?

Thanks alot, Anna