Our live performance of the Infinite Monkey Cage last night was, I judge, a big success, and I am always on the pessimistic side. I confess that I was nervous beforehand, as I didn’t know if I’d have much to contribute to a stellar panel that included the hosts, Brian Cox and Robin Ince, the polymath Peter Sagal (best known for his NPR Show “Wait wait. . .don’t tell me”), Julia Sweeney, the writer, comedian and vociferous atheist, and my Chicago colleague Paul Sereno, an eloquent paleontologist specializing in the evolution of dinosaurs (and who, because of his many field expeditions to remote places, was introduced as “The Indiana Jones of Paleontology [I later beefed that I wasn’t introduced as “The Indiana Jones of fruit fly genetics”]).
But it all turned out well. Everyone was affable and nice as pie, we all got along, and the conversation, which seemed to take an hour (it was supposed to be half of that) flowed smoothly and, most important, contained some solid biology along with the comedy. Julia and Peter were well up on science, and not only helped Robin and Brian with the humor, but asked their own provocative questions and made thoughtful points.
The showed began with a short movie, most of it taken from Cox’s BBC series, and then there was some onstage give and take between Brian and Robin. This was followed by an vigorous monologue by Robin about evolution, which was hilarious. He ended up reading from Darwin’s last book on earthworms (read it if you haven’t): the part where Darwin plays bassoon and other instruments to worms, seeing if it would affect them (it didn’t). But his side comments on Darwin, and his acting out Darwin’s playing music to earthworms, had us all in stitches. Then Cox gave a mini-lecture on the origin of the universe, lavishly illustrated with slides, and wound up reading Carl Sagan’s famous “pale blue dot” passage.
After that we convened as a panel, talked for about 45 minutes, and answered audience questions (both verbal and tw**ted) for another 15 minutes. Among the topics covered were “Why did Tyrannosaurus rex have such tiny hands, and could it use them?”, “What exactly is the theory of evolution?”, “Why didn’t dinosaurs get brainier?”, “Why do animals have sex?”, “Why is there so much resistance to evolution in the U.S.?”, “Why is there even religion in the first place?”, “How are humans unique in evolution?”, “What do we know about the origin of life?”, “What is the evolutionary significance of male pattern baldness?” (Sagal’s question!), and so on. It was great fun, and since we couldn’t really see the audience (we were brightly lit, they in darkness), it was just like having a chat with a group of smart friends. The conversation could easily have lasted another hour without winding down.
Afterwards there were audience questions. One person tw**ted “Will we see the resurrection of the woolly mammoth in our lifetime?” to me. My answer was simply “no.” Asked to elaborate, I said that first, my remaining lifetime isn’t going to last more than two decades, and second, that there are formidable problems with re-creating a creature from DNA that is badly degraded. I suggested that it might simply be easier to simply select modern elephants to have more hair and longer tusks.
The whole show ran about 2.5 hours—an hour longer than we were told it would last, and that was because we were having so much fun talking about science. Judging by the applause, the audience liked it too. Kudos to Brian and Robin for their expert shepherding of the experts, and for keeping up a good mix of science and entertainment. Thanks also to Alexandra (Sasha) Feacham, the show’s producer, and Natalie Portelli of WestBeth entertainment for making the complicated arrangements and coddling the guests.
Sadly, the San Francisco and L.A. shows this week are both sold out, because otherwise I’d tell you to get your tuchus to those shows. I’m told that Neil deGrasse Tyson missed being live in New York City (Janna Levin was the other scientist), but he Skyped in from JFK airport, where his plane landed during the show (he was delayed by snow in Montana). Bill Nye picked up the slack.
Here are a few photos, and you can find others at the #chimc site on Twi**er, as well as some audience questions that were tw**ted.
Robin Ince and Peter Sagal in the Green Room before the show. Many of the things we chatted about beforehand found their way into the live discussion, including a mention of Ann Coulter:
Brian Cox. Julia and her significant other are reflected in the mirror:
Julia and Robert just before we went on:
Paul and I had our own dressing room; I didn’t use it because all the people, noms, and drinks were in the Green Room. But I had a photo taken because this will surely be the only time in my life I have a dressing room:
Two tw**ts showing the venue:
My own bon mot (see tw**t below): we were discussing what evidence could disprove evolution, and I mentioned that if an animal had a feature that helped only members of another species (and not itself), such as a lion with teats that could be used only to suckle warthogs, that would count as evidence against natural selection, since selection (as Darwin noted) can’t build features useful only for members of another species. Julia then floated a theory (which was hers) that perhaps a virus could infect lions giving them such teats, and I responded that it would be maladaptive, and that animals susceptible to that virus would be eliminated by selection. She then asked, “But why couldn’t a lion suckle both its cubs and warthogs?” My reply is in the tw**t below, which Robin said should be put on an Infinite Monkey Cage teeshirt:
Peter Sagal decried the selling of certainty to Americans who can’t live with doubt, and that there are industries based on denialism, including creationism, that make a lot of money for their proponents. He suggested this is one reason for anti-science attitudes in America. His other reason was that Americans are independent people who founded this country as contrarians, and we don’t like to accept authority, scientific or otherwise. (Ken Miller has also suggested the “rugged individualism” theory for American creationism.) While these may contribute a bit to antievolutionism, I think that the main reason is Americans’ extreme religiosity. The individualism and capitalism explanations can’t, for example, explain why all of American creationism is promoted by religious people.
But the first tw**t below shows what Sagal said when talking about the “cow mutilation phenomenon” that, in the 1970s and 1980s, had a number of spooky explanations, including attacks by aliens in UFOs:
A good time was had by all (I hope).
