Science Cafe comes to Dalton

Published 2:59 pm Monday, September 26, 2011

The international grassroots movement that brings scientists and citizens together has come to Dalton.

The premise is simple: find a pub or coffee shop willing to host the event, find a scientist who wants to talk about his or her research and get a group of people who love science to come ready to chat and maybe learn something new about the world around them.

In the past decade, science cafes all over the world have sprung up —whether by individuals, museums or universities — to get people talking about current events across all areas of science in a casual, laid back atmosphere. The closest science cafe to Dalton is in Atlanta. There are also cafes in Nashville and Knoxville.

On Oct. 4, Pentz Street Station  in downtown Dalton will host Dr. Anna George, director and chief research scientist of the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute. Her organization is responsible for the current Colvard Spring restoration in Whitfield County. According to the TNACI website, she uses “morphological and molecular tools to study the conservation, distribution, ecology and evolution of fishes, with a research focus on the impact of habitat fragmentation on aquatic organisms.”