Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and the pink brain hat
https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/04/21/bay-area-gears-up-for-march-for-science-revenge-of-the-nerds/
Bay Area March for Science: Revenge of the Nerds
Science advocates — from Nobel laureates to Lego-loving toddlers — will gather on Saturday in San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Pacifica, Walnut Creek, Hayward, Livermore and Berkeley
By Lisa M. Krieger | lkrieger@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: April 21, 2017 at 7:00 am | UPDATED: April 22, 2017 at 9:15 am
One of the most inspiring speakers in Saturday’s March for Science in San Francisco won’t be speaking, or marching, at all.
Bedridden and silenced by a lethal neuromuscular disease, Eric Valor, 48, is kept alive by science. Science gives him a voice, so he can address the crowd by video from his Aptos home using eyegaze software and a speech synthesizer. And only science can someday end his disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Angered by the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to research, this is what the former surfer, sailor and tech specialist will say: “Science is the only thing that is going to cure ALS.”
Joining him will be science advocates — from Nobel laureates to Lego-loving toddlers — in Washington, D.C., and more than 600 cities across the world, including San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Pacifica, Walnut Creek, Hayward, Livermore and Berkeley. In Los Angeles, the march will be led by an electric Hummer, driven by former NASA astronaut and SpaceX’s Garrett Reisman.
Call it the revenge of the nerds.
While the concept seems simple — who doesn’t love a springtime march? — the actual execution has been tougher.
The scientific community is a congregation of many different allegiances, with disagreements about how to solve the complex and intractable problems that face people and the planet. Some wonder whether activism belongs in science.
And protests in America have historically been driven by outraged radicals, people who reject standard norms. Scientists, in contrast, tend to prefer the quiet discipline of a lab, not the streets.
But faced with a threat, the sprawling community is pulling together as tightly as an ionic bond.
Over time, it’s grown into more than just a march — there are also “Teach-Ins,” science fairs and Earth Day festivals in places ranging from NASCAR-loving Martinsville, Virginia, to an expedition ship in frozen Antarctica.
“It’s a science party!” said biostatistician Christine Blasey, of Palo Alto, who will wear an elaborately knitted cap of the human brain — yarn turned into a supersized cerebral cortex — inspired by the “pussy hats” donned during the Women’s Marches.
“Getting introverted people to the march — that’s huge,” she laughed.
This is a movement of the sensible-shoe’d majority, people who carefully pack snacks, wear sunscreen and reduce their environmental footprint at the marches by buying carbon offsets from nonprofits like The Nature Conservancy.
They’re deeply worried that political leaders are ignoring scientific evidence, aren’t committed to fighting climate change and are calling for significant cuts to national science programs.
“It is important to get out there to impact as much as we can — to make our voices heard and our presence known,” said longtime AIDS researcher Dr. Mike McCune, who will march with his San Francisco family and friends. “This is a vital part of our community, of our society, to have voices be heard and new lessons learned.”
McCune, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco, will moderate a “Teach-In” panel of top UCSF faculty before the San Francisco march.
Stanford graduate student Nina Alessandra Randazzo is going because she worries about the future of greenhouse gas and meteorological data-gathering, which is essential to understand, slow and adapt to climate change. She also fears a reduction in grants for climate researchers.
“Without these large government-funded data collection projects, this sort of research will become practically impossible,” she said. “I view these attacks as not just attacks on my research but also as an attack on our society.”
More than 40 events are planned in California. In the historic Gold Rush town of Quincy, marchers will dress up as their favorite scientist. In the beautiful and fragile desert environment of Mojave National Preserve, marchers will wave placards while sidestepping rare flowers and endangered tortoises. In Pasadena, Caltech students will march from Beckman Hall, named for the funder of the first transistor company, birthing Silicon Valley.
Around a Yosemite fire ring, participants will listen to talks titled “Why does life happen?” and “The microbes within us.”
[more at website]