War of the Words at Cafe Scientifique

May 2014's Cafe Scientifique Dubai, held at Biorganic in TECOM, saw one of the biggest turnouts in the series' history. An audience spanning diverse age groups, genders and professions stood around, sat on chairs, or sat on the floor, to hear and talk about a topic that captivates most any inquiring mind: space exploration. In particular, planned Martian exploration through the Mars One mission.

The program commenced with opening addresses on Cafe Sci and the background of the mission by founders Rohan Roberts (left) and Raya Bidshahri (right) -- to the latter of whom we are bidding farewell, as she leaves for university abroad.

A bit of light entertainment with bits of philosophy and ethics was up next, provided by Adam Griffin (top) and Chris McDermott (bottom) locking oratorical horns in a debate on whether humans should go on a one-way trip to colonize Mars. With a show of hands, McDermott's argument against the motion seemed to have beat Griffin's argument for it -- much to my surprise.

Closing the event was Dubai resident Mikolaj Zielinski, who is on Mars One's shortlist for a future lifetime mission to land and stay on the red planet. He provided the audience with further information about the mission, including the challenges Mars explorers would face, and possible solutions. Clearly, he is not deterred at all by the outcome of the debate.

EDIT: The Cafe Sci team got Spectrum 7 TV on board to tape the event. Here's what they produced:

Star TOO prototypes Why Cross

This year, local experimental theatre troupe Star TOO is extending experimentation to the development process, staging a preview run of its latest production, Why Cross, aiming to invite and discuss feedback from audience members.

The shows were staged in a warehouse in Al Quoz, within a "majlis" of fabric hung from scaffolding -- a setup reminiscent of that used by Theater Mitu in Odyssey last year -- with audience members seated around the corners.

The play began with a little build-an-object game involving audience members. A series of scenes ensued, each framed in different mythological, historical and contemporary contexts, to address different aspects of the character of Lilith, the original rebel.

The actors used a number of interesting techniques of motion and blocking in this play; memorable instances included the tree, the painting/un-painting (left), and Socrates' trial (right). It was also an audio-visually spectacular experience, thanks to good use of sound and projection, and especially the brilliant implementation and manipulation of lighting.

After the curtain call and awards, we sat ourselves in a circle outside for a not-so-little feedback session.

Mathematics for the masses

Looking at the his large spider brooch and vintage necktie, I knew this NYU Abu Dhabi public talk was going to be interesting at the very least. But while his curious demeanor and deadpan quips did, in fact, do much to entertain, Institut Henri Poincaré director Dr Cédric Villani can talk math to educate just as well. He took us on a journey through the history of modern mathematics, from Riemann to Boltzmann to Kantorovich, illustrating concepts like geodesics, entropy, and linear programming with what I thought were fairly easily-digestible analogies and visuals, and using examples from real life to show how mathematical topics popularly regarded as distant and abstract have actually long been part of the familiar world. He also gave us an first-hand insight into the world of academic mathematics and the lives of mathematicians.