Star‐studded science

Abstract

My worldly, well-read parents were suitably dazzled when I returned from a recent trip to New York City for the 2nd annual World Science Festival, where I saw the cellist Yo-Yo Ma and actresses Glenn Close and Anna Deveare Smith at a sold-out performance at the Lincoln Center. The only name on the program they didn't immediately recognize was the evening's honoree: the biologist Edward Osborne (EO) Wilson, who was celebrating his 80th birthday. Unthinkable, right? Yet, while most Frontiers readers would have no trouble recognizing Wilson's name, given his seminal studies on island biogeography and ants, two Pulitzer-Prize-winning books, and a 1990 Crafoord Prize (the highest honor in the field of ecology), most Americans are more likely to perk up at the mention of names linked with Hollywood than with Harvard. It is, in fact, just this failing that the festival was meant to address. Americans could use a lot more glitzy celebrations of scientists who have had profound impacts on our lives, says bestselling author and Columbia University physicist Brian Greene, whose own achievements include explaining string theory to Charlie Rose and David Letterman. After attending a science-themed street fair in Genoa, Italy, Greene and his wife – the former television producer Tracy Day – came up with the the idea for the New York festival, which drew some 120 000 people in June. The four-day event featured 130 speakers and performers, including 11 Nobel laureates, and, on the night of the opening gala, a tour-de-force combination of violinist Joshua Bell playing parts of Eugène Ysaÿe's Sonatas for solo violin, alternating with Greene expounding on the nature of the universe. The gala was followed by a street fair in Washington Square, where booths offered take-home science experiments and a “Big Bug Boogie” conveying the importance of insects. Sold-out events included interviews by local high-school students with Harold Varmus, co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and the prominent marine biologist Sylvia Earle. “When kids look up to great scientists the way they do to great musicians and actors, civilization will jump to the next level”, Greene told the New York Times. Such a shift may already be underway, driven by both fear and hope. For many years, scientists have been widely blamed for some of the worst products of modernity, starting with nuclear bombs. More recently, however, the pendulum seems to be swinging toward the anxious expectation that scientists will step in and help solve some of our most pressing planetary crises, from climate change to species' extinctions. On the cheerier side, exciting recent progress in fields such as renewable energy and neuro-science has also helped boost researchers' popular stature. Nor has it hurt that the new US presidential administration has embraced science with its “dream team” of experts, including Harvard's climate expert John Holdren as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and the influential marine biologist Jane Lubchenco as NOAA Administrator. As Greene explained, the festival's elaborate tribute to Wilson –including the Abyssinian Baptist Church gospel choir singing Happy birthday from the Lincoln Center's balconies – was a strategic decision. For science to resonate in popular culture, we may need to embrace a new kind of celebrity, and Wilson was a natural first choice for this festival's homage: “His research is important and accessible, and he's such a nice guy”, said Greene. Some of Wilson's work also specifically reflects the spirit of the festival, such as his 1998 book, Consilience: the unity of knowledge, which focused on the importance of uniting science and art. The worshipful treatment of EO Wilson included a troupe of dancing children dressed as ants, who flocked around Yo-Yo Ma as he played his cello against a backdrop of a giant photograph of Wilson. It was a striking counterbalance to the fierce criticism Wilson endured during the 1970s, after his writings on “sociobiology” emphasizing the biological roots of human behavior prompted a backlash from a few of his Harvard colleagues, including Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould, as well as activists who accused Wilson of fostering racism. At a conference in 1977, protesters poured a pitcher of water on Wilson's head. Thirty-two years later, he celebrates his birthday with 1000 cheering fans at the Lincoln Center. That's showbiz!