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| WBUR’s “You’re the Expert” will make the connection between Craig C. Mello, PhD, and three professional comedians who are unfamiliar with his work. |
What happens when you introduce a Nobel Laureate to three comedians? Worcester and the greater scientific and comedic communities will find out on Thursday, Jan. 15, when WBUR’s “You’re the Expert” makes the connection between UMass Medical School’s Nobel Laureate Craig C. Mello, PhD, and three professional comedians who are unfamiliar with his work.
Chris Duffy, host and producer of “You’re the Expert,” said in some ways the show is a bit like the “Daily Show” or the “Colbert Report,” which tackle serious and, at times, dry issues in current events and make them fun and interesting.
“We’re trying to do the same for science and research,” Duffy said, adding that it shows the scientist as a person who is engaged in his or her work and not just as a person in a press release.
Dr. Mello, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine and distinguished professor of molecular medicine and cell biology & developmental biology, received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Andrew Z. Fire, in 2006 for the discovery of RNA interference.
Mello will be the first Nobel Laureate to participate on the show.
For Ana Maldonado-Contreras, PhD, a postdoctoral student at UMMS and host of Science Café Woo, having the WBUR program live in Worcester is a perfect opportunity to showcase the exciting science happening locally. The goal of the show—to educate the public on scientific research in an enjoyable way—fits perfectly with the mission of Science Café Woo, a group that Dr. Maldonado-Contreras helped create a year ago.
The goal of Science Café Woo is to demystify science by bringing together local scientists and the public to talk about how science applies to everyday life. (It’s something that happens on the third Monday of each month in Worcester at the Nu Café on Chandler Street.)
“We want to encourage the community to learn about the science that is happening here and for the scientists to get involved with the community,” Maldonado-Contreras said. “We want to spread the excitement of science and create a consciousness about science that is happening locally.”
The opportunity to have Science Café Woo and the EcoTarium host WBUR’s “You’re the Expert” allows Science Café Woo to broadcast its mission to a larger audience. The show, which will be held at the EcoTarium, will involve three comedians trying “to get to the bottom” of what Mello does all day.
“The show is largely improvisational and the comedians really, truly don’t know anything about what is going to happen or who they are going to be talk to,” Duffy said, adding that he has been reading Mello’s work for months and will, as host, straddle the line between comedy and serious science.
Included on the panel with Mello will be comedians Myq Kaplan from Comedy Central and Netflix’s “Small, Dork, and Handsome”; Jo Firestone from Comedy Central's “Broad City”; and Anna Drezen from MTVu and author of How May We Hate You?.
For Duffy, if the audience just laughs and doesn’t learn, the show has not been a success. Ideally, people leave having a greater knowledge of what is happening in science and having enjoyed the experience.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the live show beginning at 7:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $20 person and $15 for EcoTarium members. Tickets are limited and must be purchased in advance online or by calling Reservations at 508-929-2703.
The event is being sponsored by WBUR; the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; the Walton family; UMass Medical School; and the Lamar Soutter Library Women’s Health Resources Dissemination Outreach Project.
