All Events by Date
Opening Night Gala Performance
Wednesday, June 2, 2010, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center
Renowned theoretical physicist Stephen W. Hawking will be honored at the Festival's opening night gala performance, featuring Alan Alda, Yo-Yo Ma, Kelli O'Hara, and many others, in a star-studded performing arts salute to science directed by Damian Woetzel. The evening concludes with the world premiere of Icarus at the Edge of Time, a mesmerizing musical tale of space, time and the journey to the very edge of understanding, performed by The Orchestra of St. read more
The James Webb Space Telescope
Tuesday, June 1, 2010, 11:00 AM - Sunday, June 6, 2010, 6:00 PM
Battery Park
The world’s most powerful future space telescope arrived in New York City as part of the World Science Festival. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will allow us to unveil the very first galaxies formed in the Universe and discover hidden worlds around distant stars when the mission launches in 2014. For six days in June, a full-scale model of this successor to the famed Hubble Space Telescope was on public view in Battery Park. read more
Astronomy's New Messengers: The Exhibit
Listening to the Universe with Gravitational Waves
Wednesday, June 2, 2010, 10:00 AM - Sunday, June 6, 2010, 8:00 PM
Broad Street Ballroom
Open daily June 2 -6, from 10:00am to 8:00pm.
Experience the power and beauty of LIGO, a new kind of telescope—one that observes not light but gravitational waves from millions of light years away. read more
2010 Kavli Prizes
Thursday, June 3, 2010, 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Kimmel Center, Rosenthal Pavilion, NYU
Winners of the prestigious 2010 Kavli Prizes—biennial international awards that recognize seminal advances in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience, and include a cash prize of $1 million in each field— were announced via live satellite from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, in Oslo. Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus, Co-Chair of President Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, delivered the keynote address to open the event. read more
Pioneers in Science
Thursday, June 3, 2010, 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Pioneers in Science gives middle and high school students the rare opportunity to interact with world-renowned scientists. In this installment, Nobel laureate and NASA astrophysicist John Mather—whose groundbreaking research has greatly advanced our understanding of the origin of the universe—met live and online with local New York City-area students and others, including schools in Africa and Kansas, in a discussion hosted by Carl Zimmer.
This event is by invitation only. read more
BioArt
Thursday, June 3, 2010, 3:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Museum of Arts and Design
Science is transformed into art in this program that uses pigmented E. coli as a “living paint,” to create printed designs on paper. Under the guidance of Growing Impressions team Amy Chase Gulden and Kristin Baldwin, select New York City students were able to learn about microbiology as they spent the afternoon cultivating living designs of their own imagination. Throughout the program, the public is invited to visit the Museum's Open Studio (sixth floor), to watch the designs, quite literally, emerge.
Participation by invitation only; public welcome to observe. read more
Machover and Minsky: Making Music in the Dome
Thursday, June 3, 2010, 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Hayden Planetarium Space Theater
How does music help order emerge from the mind's chaos? How does it create and conjure thoughts, emotions and memories? Legendary composer and inventor Tod Machover explores these mysteries with Artificial Intelligence visionary Marvin Minsky. read more
Eye Candy: Science, Sight, Art
Thursday, June 3, 2010, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Kimmel Center, Eisner & Lubin Auditorium
Are you drawn to Impressionism? Or more toward 3D computer art? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Or is it? Contrary to the old adage, there may be universal biological principles that drive art’s appeal, and its capacity to engage our brains and our interest. Through artworks ranging from post-modernism to political caricature to 3D film, Margaret S. Livingstone and Patrick Cavanagh join cartoonist Jules Feiffer and others in an examination of newly understood principles of visual perception. read more
Modern MacGyvers: Innovations for a Developing World
Thursday, June 3, 2010, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Museum of Arts and Design
Extraordinary visionaries are changing lives around the globe--with ideas ranging from microbe-powered dirt batteries to solar-powered camel-transported refrigerators. Carl Zimmer engages with Pamela Ronald and Bevil Conway, as well as biologists, inventors and engineers whose scientific innovations are addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges. read more
The Search for Life in the Universe
Thursday, June 3, 2010, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Galapagos Art Space
Are we alone? It’s a question that has obsessed us for centuries, and now we have the technology to do more than wonder. Scientists on the hunt for distant planets and extraterrestrial intelligence will take us on their expeditions into faraway galaxies and barely visible realms. Nobel Laureate Sir Paul Nurse journeys to the brink of discovery with Jill Tarter, David Charbonneau, and Steven Squyres to contemplate what it would mean to have company in the cosmos. read more
The Moth: Grey Matter
Thursday, June 3, 2010, 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
The Moth (Webster Hall)
Presented with New York's innovative storytelling organization, The Moth, scientists, writers and esteemed artists tell on-stage stories about their personal relationship with science. In keeping with Moth tradition, each story must be true, and told without notes in ten minutes. The result is a poignant, hilarious and always unpredictable evening of storytelling and science. Participants include Leonard Mlodinow (The Drunkard’s Walk) and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek. read more
Our Genome Ourselves
Thursday, June 3, 2010, 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM
Kimmel Center, Rosenthal Pavilion, NYU
There is a revolution underway in the world of medicine. As researchers identify the genetic variants responsible for cancer, schizophrenia and diabetes, and doctors tailor medications and diagnostic tests specifically for your genomic makeup, we inch closer to personalized medicine. But what does this mean for you today? And how will it impact your health care 10, 20 or 30 years in the future? ABC's Richard Besser joins Francis Collins, George Church and Robert C. Green. read more
Good Vibrations: The Science of Sound
Thursday, June 3, 2010, 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM
The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College
We look around us—constantly. But how often do we listen around us? Sound is critically important to our bodies and brains, and to the wider natural world. In the womb, we hear before we see. Join John Schaefer, Jamshed Bharucha, Christopher Shera, the Danish sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard and multi-instrumentalists Polygraph Lounge for a fascinating journey through the nature of sound. read more
Black Holes and Holographic Worlds
Thursday, June 3, 2010, 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM
NYU Skirball Center
Black holes are gravitational behemoths that dramatically twist space and time. Recently, they’ve also pointed researchers to a remarkable proposal—that everything we see may be akin to a hologram. Alan Alda joins Kip Thorne, Robbert Dijkgraaf and other renowned researchers on an odyssey through one of nature’s most spectacular creations, and learn how they are leading scientists to rewrite the rules of reality. read more
Brutality and the Brain
Thursday, June 3, 2010, 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM
Baruch Performing Arts Center (Engelman)
Why do humans commit violent crimes and go to war? How to explain Abu Ghraib? Is human violence wired into our brains and genes? What role does it play in human evolution? Walter Isaacson joins Oliver Goodenough, Marc Hauser and scientists who are using brain imaging and the study of psychopaths to explore the science of moral judgment and behavior, shedding fresh light on the dark side of human nature. read more
Astronomy's New Messengers
Listening to the Universe with Gravitational Waves
Friday, June 4, 2010, 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Kimmel Center, Eisner & Lubin Auditorium
Marcia Bartusiak joins Kip Thorne, Laura Danly and Rainer Weiss to demonstrate how two observatories on opposite sides of the country, called LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory), may open a new window on observing the cosmos—one based not in light but in gravity. Scientists have embarked on this joint experiment, seeking whispers of far-away violence—like the collision between distant black holes—rippling through the cosmos. read more
Food 2.0: Feeding a Hungry World
Friday, June 4, 2010, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Baruch Performing Arts Center (Engelman)
Pamela Ronald, Louise Fresco and Monty Jones—influential voices from a wide variety of perspectives—engage in a spirited discussion and debate on issues vital to our future. By 2050, one of every four people on Earth will go hungry unless food production more than doubles. Science-based agriculture has proposed unconventional new tools -- earthworms, bacteria, and even genes from sunny daffodils -- to meet this towering challenge. But will such innovative ideas be enough? read more
The Science of Star Trek
Friday, June 4, 2010, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Galapagos Art Space
The original Star Trek and its numerous successors were far ahead of their time, but just how far? Will science eventually catch up to this series’ nearly five-decade-old creations? With Lawrence Krauss, Eric Horvitz, Seth Shostak and moderator Faith Salie, explore the plausibility of scientific phenomena from the Star Trek universe, including warp speed, time travel, humanoid aliens and whether anyone in our universe will be "beamed up" by transporter anytime soon. read more
Armitage Gone! Dance
in the New York Premiere of "Three Theories"
Friday, June 4, 2010, 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Cedar Lake Theatre
Internationally renowned choreographer Karole Armitage has created a stunning dance of high-speed duets, sensual undulating moves and shape-shifting formations. Inspired by Brian Greene’s book, The Elegant Universe, Armitage translates key concepts in contemporary physics into a thrilling kinetic ride. read more
From the City to the Stars: Star-gazing
with the Webb Telescope
Friday, June 4, 2010, 8:00 PM - 11:00 PM
Battery Park
Join professional and amateur astronomers at the base of the full-scale, tennis court-sized James Webb Space Telescope model for a free evening of star-gazing in Battery Park. John Mather, Nobel laureate and the Webb telescope’s senior project scientist; John Grunsfeld, astronaut, physicist and “chief repairman” of the Hubble Telescope and planetary astronomer Heidi Hammel, with journalist Miles O’Brien moderating, will be with us to talk about the discoveries anticipated when the world’s most powerful space telescope, the successor to the Hubble, launches in 2014. Hayden Planetarium Director, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, will host the stargazing party to follow. It will be a festive evening of appreciating the vast wonders of the cosmos. Bring your telescope if you have one or plan to use one of the dozens we’ll have set up. read more
The Limits of Understanding
Friday, June 4, 2010, 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM
Tishman Auditorium, The New School
This statement is false. Think about it, and it makes your head hurt. If it’s true, it’s false. If it’s false, it’s true. In 1931, Austrian logician Kurt Gödel shocked the worlds of mathematics and philosophy by establishing that such statements are far more than a quirky turn of language: he showed that there are mathematical truths which simply can't be proven. read more
Mind And Machine: The Future of Thinking
Friday, June 4, 2010, 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM
NYU Skirball Center
Creative thought is surely among our most precious and mysterious capabilities. But can powerful computers rival the human brain? As thinking, remembering and innovating become increasingly interwoven with technological advances, what are we capable of? What do we lose? Join Luciano Floridi, John Donoghue, Gary Small and Rosalind Picard for a thought-provoking program about thinking. read more
Strangers in the Mirror
Friday, June 4, 2010, 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM
The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College
What’s it like to face a faceless world? Acclaimed neurologist Oliver Sacks once apologized for almost bumping into a large bearded man, only to realize he was speaking to a mirror. Sacks and photorealist painter Chuck Close—geniuses from opposite ends of the creative spectrum—share their experiences of living with a curious condition known as “face blindness,” or prosopagnosia. read more
Mathemagician and the Mathemagician's Apprentice
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Tishman Auditorium, The New School
Mix math with magic and the result is thrilling. Mathemagician Arthur Benjamin returns in an encore presentation, with mesmerizing feats of mental mathematical gymnastics. Followed by Mathemagician's Apprentice, at Wollman Hall, where Benjamin will divulge his secrets of doing lightning-fast mental math.
Tickets to Mathemagician's Apprentice available for an additional fee. Apprentice limited to 50 people, ages ten and older, and is an hour long. read more
Einstein, Time and the Explorer's Clock
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Kimmel Center, Eisner & Lubin Auditorium
Back by popular demand, Nobel prize-winning physicist William Phillips takes us on a voyage to the lowest temperatures ever recorded. What is an atomic clock and why do they keep better time when they’re cold? And just what is the relationship between speed, temperature and relativity? Phillips shows us with jaw-dropping experiments what happens when ordinary objects are taken to the edge of absolute zero. read more
Back To The Big Bang: Inside the Large Hadron Collider
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Tishman Auditorium, The New School
Come venture deep inside the world’s biggest physics machine, the Large Hadron Collider. This extraordinary feat of human engineering took 16 years and $10 billion to build, and just weeks ago began colliding particles at energies unseen since a fraction of a second after the big bang. We'll explore this amazing apparatus that could soon reveal clues about nature’s fundamental laws and even the origin of the universe itself. John Hockenberry moderates a discussion among physicists including Marcela Carena, Monica Dunford, Jennifer Klay and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek. read more
All Creatures Great And Smart
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
NYU Skirball Center
Join leading scientists—Brian Hare, Vanessa Woods, Jeremy Niven, Patrick Hof and Klaus Zuberbühler—whose research is challenging long-held assumptions about the differences between “animal” and “human”—and learn about pin-sized brains that can count, categorize, and hold a grudge against those who’ve tried to swat them. Does your dog really think and feel like a human? Do our closest primate relatives have brains and emotions similar to ours? What about the storied intelligence of dolphins and singing humpback whales? And do other species hold surprises for us if we’re willing to look closely?
Ages 10 and up. read more
Faith and Science
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Kimmel Center, Rosenthal Pavilion, NYU
For all their historical tensions, scientists and religious scholars from a wide variety of faiths ponder many similar questions—how did the universe begin? How might it end? What is the origin of matter, energy, and life? The modes of inquiry and standards for judging progress are, to be sure, very different. But is there a common ground to be found? read more
Armitage Gone! Dance
in the New York Premiere of "Three Theories"
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Cedar Lake Theatre
Internationally renowned choreographer Karole Armitage has created a stunning dance of high-speed duets, sensual undulating moves and shape-shifting formations. Inspired by Brian Greene’s book, The Elegant Universe, Armitage translates key concepts in contemporary physics into a thrilling kinetic ride. read more
Illuminating the Abyss: The Unknown Ocean
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
The Paley Center for Media
The oceans remain a realm of mystery, with an astonishing 95% still unmapped, but their secrets are starting to be revealed. Journey into the deep to explore exciting discoveries like sea sponges with cancer-fighting potential and underwater mountain ranges that may hold the clue to life’s origin. ABC News’ Bill Weir moderates a discussion with marine biologist Sylvia Earle, oceanographer David Gallo and Fabien Cousteau. read more
Cool Jobs
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Kimmel Center, Eisner & Lubin Auditorium
Imagine hunting extraterrestrial life for a living. Or getting paid to study South African penguins. Meet scientists with some of the coolest jobs in the world; watch as a neuroscientist scans a brain and a robot inventor brings his complex and novel creations to life. Get inspired by the possibilities. Participants include roboticist Dennis Hong, neuroscientist André Fenton, extraterrestrial life hunter Jill Tarter and aquatic biologist Pamela Schaller; Josh Zepps moderates. read more
Spotlight
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Rubin Museum of Art (Cabaret)
Strip away the trimmings of a traditional science presentation, add cocktails, and you have the WSF Spotlight. An intimate, cabaret-style setting provides an unobstructed glimpse into the minds of some of the world's most inspired thinkers. It's a science happy hour featuring cutting edge science and one-of-a-kind talks that promise to entertain, engage and enlighten. Participants include astrophysicist Mario Livio and cognitive neuroscientist Jamshed Bharucha, with Faith Salie moderating. read more
Armitage Gone! Dance
in the New York Premiere of "Three Theories"
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Cedar Lake Theatre
Internationally renowned choreographer Karole Armitage has created a stunning dance of high-speed duets, sensual undulating moves and shape-shifting formations. Inspired by Brian Greene’s book, The Elegant Universe, Armitage translates key concepts in contemporary physics into a thrilling kinetic ride. read more
Hidden Dimensions: Exploring Hyperspace
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM
NYU Skirball Center
Extra dimensions of space–the idea that we are immersed in hyperspace -- may be key to explaining the fundamental nature of the universe. Relativity introduced time as the fourth dimension, and Einstein’s subsequent work envisioned more dimensions still--but ultimately hit a dead end. Modern research has advanced the subject in ways he couldn’t have imagined. John Hockenberry joins Brian Greene, Lawrence Krauss and other leading thinkers on a visual tour through wondrous spatial realms that may lie beyond the ones we experience. read more
Consciousness: Explored and Explained
Saturday, June 5, 2010, 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM
The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College
Consciousness is a terrible curse. Or so says a character in screenwriter/director Charlie Kaufman’s Being John Malkovich. Part theater of the absurd and part neuroscience fiction, the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s work captures the splintering between what we perceive and what we feel as our brains grapple with multiple layers of reality. Neuroscientist Giulio Tononi, one of the world’s leading sleep researchers, casts new light on the science of the mind, probing where and how consciousness is generated in the brain. read more
World Science Festival Street Fair
Sunday, June 6, 2010, 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Washington Square Park
The New York University/Washington Square Park area will become a science wonderland when the World Science Festival Youth and Family Street Fair returns to New York City on Sunday, June 6. This free, day-long extravaganza showcases the intrigue and pure fun of science with a non-stop program of interactive exhibits, experiments, games, and shows, all meant to entertain and inspire. Join us for a day of family fun. Click here for a detailed map and schedule. Some highlights of this year's Fair include: read more
Astronaut Diary: Life in Space
Sunday, June 6, 2010, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Kimmel Center, Rosenthal Pavilion, NYU
Astronauts who've lived on the International Space Station and “walked” in space tell all: what it's like to ride on a space ship, and to eat, sleep, exercise, and even do science—in space. Come hear firsthand from the world’s most intrepid explorers—including astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Leland Melvin and Sandra Magnus—and Dava Newman, designer of an innovative spacewalking suit, about what it’s like to soar upward and leave our home, planet Earth, behind. read more
Icarus at the Edge of Time
Sunday, June 6, 2010, 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
NYU Skirball Center
What if Icarus traveled not to the sun but to a black hole? This 40-minute 62-piece orchestral work is a mesmerizing adaptation of Icarus at the Edge of Time, Brian Greene’s book for children. A re-imagining of the Greek myth, which brings Einstein’s concepts of relativity to visceral, emotional life, it features an original score by Philip Glass, script adapted by Greene and David Henry Hwang and film created and directed by Al + Al. Performed live with narrator Liev Schreiber and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by Brad Lubman. read more