EFTA00723403.pdf

FOR PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY World Wednesday, April 14, 2010 Science MEDIA CONTACTS: Festival Joe DePlasco / Johanna Flattery / Sid Dinsay (212) 685-4300; THIRD ANNUAL WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL IN NYC JUNE 2-6, 2010 Stephen Hawking to be honored at opening gala on June 2; World Premiere of new work by Philip Glass, "Icarus at the Edge of Time," based on book by string theorist andfestival co-founder Brian Greene; 40 unique programs throughout the city plus a Street Fair for kids andfamilies in Washington Square Park (NEW YORK) - The best and brightest minds in science will descend on New York City for the 2010 World Science Festival from June 2-6. The highest profile event of its kind in the United States is now in its third year and will feature 40 unique programs in scientific disciplines ranging from astronomy, physics and genetics to neuroscience, robotics and mathematics. The Festival's programs will also integrate traditional arts disciplines — dance, theatre, music and the visual arts - to underscore that science is everywhere. The 2010 World Science Festival kicks off with a gala performance at Alice Tully Hall honoring legendary physicist Stephen Hawking. Among the other highlights of the five-day event: the official New York City introduction of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the powerful successor to the famed Hubble Space Telescope, which will launch in 2014; the announcement of the 2010 Kavli Prize laureates; and the world premiere of Icarus at the Edge Of Time, an orchestral work composed by Philip Glass and based on the children's book written by Festival co-founder and Columbia University physics professor Brian Greene. The Festival will conclude with the World Science Festival Youth and Family Street Fair in Washington Square Park on June 6. This free, day-long public event showcases the intrigue and pure fun of science via a non-stop program of interactive exhibits, experiments, games, and shows, from Web-chats with NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station to meeting scientists with "cool jobs." "Science is the greatest of all adventure stories, a fact that often gets lost in the science classroom," said Festival co-founder Brian Greene. "The World Science Festival is dedicated to bringing science to general audiences in a new way, revealing the excitement, wonder, and inspiration of cutting-edge discovery." "When we started the World Science Festival three years ago, we conceived it as a way of introducing the diverse worlds of science to a broad audience — to take it out of scientific journals and magazines and into the mainstream," said Tracy Day, co-founder of the World EFTA00723403 Science Festival. "We want to show the impact of science on our lives, from the deep laws of quantum physics, to the foods we eat, to what our pets really understand, to why we need to sleep. This year's program is particularly exciting, because it takes us literally out of our world to explore the vast and infinitely engaging cosmos." A complete schedule of the Festival's ro rams and ticket information will be posted on the official Festival website, Details on how to buy tickets will be available in May. You can also go to to "friend" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @WorldSciFest; organizers also will Tweet events and other World Science Festival happenings with the hashtag #worldscifest. 2010 WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS: • NASA, Northrop Grumman and Festival officials unveil the James Webb Space Telescope Named after the NASA administrator closely linked to the Apollo space program, the telescope, which will allow us to peer deeper into the cosmos than ever before, will be officially introduced to New York City during the Festival and remain on public view through the Festival Street Fair. This detailed scale model, at 80 feet long, 37 feet wide and nearly 40 feet high, will give visitors as close to a first-hand look at the telescope as most people will ever get. • Announcement of the 2010 Kavli Prize laureates First bestowed two years ago, the ICavli Prizes are international awards that recognize scientists for their seminal advances in three research areas: astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. • Dr. Sylvia Earle, legendary marine biologist, and Fabian Cousteau, grandson of the famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, guide audiences into the endless possibilities of oceanic exploration, with a look at new technologies transforming how we investigate the oceans. Participants will see never-before-released "making-of" footage from Jacques Perrin's revolutionary film, "Oceans." • Icarus at the Edge of Time will have its world premiere at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall on June 2. This 40-minute piece, which features original music by Philip Glass, film created and directed by visual artists Al and Al, and a script adapted by Brian Greene and David Henry Hwang, is a futuristic re-imagining of the Icarus fable in which a boy travels not to the sun but to a black hole, and in so doing poignantly dramatizes one of Einstein's greatest insights. Icarus at the Edge of Time is commissioned and produced by the World Science Festival and London's Southbank Centre with the Royal Society. Co-commissioned by Associazione Festival della Scienza, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Glasgow's Concert Halls. About the World Science Festival The World Science Festival, co-founded by Brian Greene and Tracy Day, is an unprecedented annual tribute to imagination, ingenuity and inventiveness. It takes science out of the laboratory and into the streets, theaters, museums, and public halls of New York City, making the esoteric understandable and thefamiliarfascinating. The Festival's mission is to cultivate and sustain a general public informed by the content of science, inspired by its wonder, convinced of its value, and prepared to engage with its implicationsfor the future. For more information, visit EFTA00723404