“I hold that the popularization of science is successful if, at first, it does no more than spark the sense of wonder.”

• - Carl Sagan

Wonderfest is a non-profit educational project created and directed by Tucker Hiatt. (tucker@wonderfest.org). Wonderfest headquarters are located in Marin County, at P.O. Box 887, 39 Fernhill Road, Ross, CA 94957. Financial administration and management support are provided by The Branson School, a 501(C)3 institution.

Wonderfest’s broad goals are best described by its mission statement: Through public discourse about provocative scientific questions, Wonderfest aspires to stimulate curiosity, promote careful reasoning, challenge unexamined beliefs, and encourage life-long learning. Wonderfest achieves these ends by presenting series of scientific events to the general public. At most of these events, pairs of articulate and accomplished researchers discuss and debate compelling questions at the edge of scientific understanding.

What kind of discussion and debate?

90-minute presentations — usually described as “dialogues” — may be choreographed by the speakers. They are divided into 3 equal segments: 30 minutes of introductory background remarks, 30 minutes of “debate,” and then 30 minutes of questions from the audience. High school science faculty serve as discussion moderators, and student volunteers offer assistance at each venue.

Why debate?

Controversy heightens interest. Intellectual confrontation, like sports competition, inspires enthusiasm and promotes excellence. Wonderfest dialogues between pairs of researchers reveal the human/emotional side of science, and they entrust the listener with the responsibility of making up his/her own mind.

For whom?

The scientific endeavor has universal appeal. Every inquisitive person, regardless of culture or gender or income, is improved by the intellectual challenge and reward that science offers. Wonderfest presentations reach people of diverse ages, too; they appeal to the student in all of us, no matter how old. After all, if you’re through wondering, … you’re through! Wonderfest events are suitable for students in high school, in college, in the school of hard knocks, and in retirement communities.

Why?

…to celebrate the scientific spirit! The rational investigation of our world is the grandest human adventure, with the most significant long-term implications imaginable. Nevertheless, our science is fragile. It’s a small flame nourished in each of us by skepticism, by humility, and, above all, by wonder.

Wonderfest, P.O. Box 887 (39 Fernhill Road), Ross, CA 94957

Tucker Hiatt, Director tucker@wonderfest.org Tel: (415) 577-1126  Fax: (415) 454-2535