A story entitled, 'Science on Tap'- Learning about universe, climate change over pint of beer, by Press Trust India (PTI), published over the weekend highlighted Pune breweries hosting science workshops.
The PTI story reports, “A bunch of science enthusiasts from Pune, led by climate scientist Anoop Mahajan from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), are on a mission to reduce the gap between science and the common public with their unique outreach initiative called 'Science on Tap.’” There are science-led discussions on medicine, genetics and food of course. The idea is to simplify science and demystify tough theories with fresh draught in a casual, interactive set-up, rather than in a classroom or formal seminar. With quirky workshop names like ‘Fantastic Yeast and Where to Find Them’ one could say the approach is more Hitchhiker’s Guide, far from a thick tome on calculus.
Although the story hasn’t specified names of venues, Koregaon-based bar, Great State Dive is one of them. The bar opened about one and a half years ago and started to host these unique workshops. So far, they have organised the magic of mushrooms with mushroom cultivator Siddharth Anand, the science of machine learning with Dr Namita Lokare and the science of shells and slimes with Arvind Madhyastha, a Senior fellow and convenor of Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation at ATREE, Bengaluru. Apart from these, the bar also hosts book launches, and the most recent one was with Janice Pariat for newest book Everything The Light Touches. Whoever said bars are places to get silly drunk has been proved wrong. With events like this, one would be left high with knowledge as they brim with ideas.