Cormier - Sex, drugs and rock n roll : the science of hedonism and the hedonism of science

ZOE CORMIER is a freelance journalist, science writer and public speaker with a background in biology. Zoe is also the Head of Communications for UK science outreach organisation Guerilla Science. Originally from Toronto, she now lives in London.

S GUERILLA SCIENCE create events and installations for festivals, museums, galleries, and other cultural partners. They are committed to connecting people with science in new ways, and producing live experiences that entertain, inspire, challenge and amaze.

Copyright 2015 by Zoe Cormier

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address Da Capo Press, 44 Farnsworth Street, Third Floor, Boston, MA 02210.

Set in 10.75 point Minion Pro

Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN: 978-0-306-82394-7 (e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014951401

First Da Capo Press edition 2015

Reprint by arrangement with Profile Books

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For my parents.

Because if it were not for their mutual appreciation for all three of these things, this book would not exist and neither would I.

CONTENTS

Sex and drugs and rock and roll

Are all my mind and body need

Sex and drugs and rock and roll

Are very good indeed.

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Ian Dury and the Blockheads

First and foremost: for my friends. There are many forms of love in this world, and the love you have for the people you choose is unlike any other.

For all my friends who have drug tendencies and dependenciesboth the dead and the living: I love you. Please stop. I miss who you used to be. These chemicals are supposed to be treats. Not lifestyles.

For all my friends and family who have overcome their dependencies. I am proud of you, I love you, and I am grateful that you are still here with me.

Of course, for my family: eccentric you may be, but you are never, ever boring.

For my mother, Martha Harron, who is still the best wordsmith I have ever had the good grace to meet.

For my father, rock promoter Gary Cormier, who taught me more about music than any instructor at the Royal Conservatory ever did.

For my grandfather, actor and playwright Don Harron. When I told you I wanted to study science and not literature, you took it in your stride, but said, firmly, Fine. But dont ever forget: You are not a scientistyou are a writer.

For my sister Amy, and your strength, prowess, and invaluable advicein all corners of life. Without you this could not have happened.

For my brother Ben, computational genius and the most generous tech support imaginable. You might detest magnetic tape, but I still treasure the cassette of techno you gave me in 1993. I wouldnt be who I am without you.

For my aunts Kelley and Mary. Everyone needs role models. You are mine.

For Guerilla Sciences Jen Wong, Mark Rosin, Jenny Jopson, Louis Buckley and Olivia Koski. All bona fide and brilliant scientists who chose to transform your empirical skills into careers as entertainers and producers. You are all science rock stars. We have created something that has never been seen before.

For Richard Bowdler, prodigal son of Guerilla Science, who helped found our company in the first place, you uttered the most profound, succinct and inspiring quip on the human condition I have ever heard: We exist.

For my musical pharmacists Duncan Thornley, Kier Wiater-Carnihan, Dan Hartrell, Florian Tanant and Daniel Garber. You enrich my aural landscape as well as my life. Worshipful gratitude to Gemma Wain, Daniel Farrell, Neon Kelly and Rebecca Burn-Callanderwriters and unparalleled punnersfor feeding my insatiable love of words and making the point of writing worth remembering. Ezania Bennett Peter Farrell and Debora Malvezzi: you make life worth living.

And For England. Your raucous music festivals, riotous drug use, and insatiable lust for life provided the inspiration for this book. Plus, your miserable grey skies made it easy for me to stay indoors and write. You can self-denigrate as much as you like, but to me, you are irrefutably beautiful. Thank you.

Six years ago a group of scientists decided to revolutionise how people experience science.

Why? Because science had been left languishing in the doldrums, closeted behind the barriers of privilege, stuffy stereotypes, and obscure jargon meant to intimidate rather than inform. We wanted to set science free and inspire the curiosity and wonder at the world that had so captivated us. We sought to challenge preconceptions of science, and scientists, as unintelligible, dry, dull men in white coats. This was the birth of Guerilla Science: a science collective practising science by stealth, bringing sweet facts to surprised audiences and breathing mind-blowing experiences into places where science was unexpected.

Our playful revolution was born in a bewildering range of venues which became our second homes: abandoned warehouses, Victorian workhouses-cum-psychiatric hospitals, the empty shell of Battersea Power Station, the glitzy caverns of Selfridges, and the inimitable muddy music festival field. We labelled people with stickers proclaiming I am stardust, took them on a safari of the fundamental particles of the universe, led them on an auditory tour of the universe inside our heads, and then on a sonic adventure through our galaxy and beyond. We conducted neurological experiments on agreeable punters on a floating island constructed from hay. We made and dissected jelly brains, feeding them to intellectually hungry diners. We even simulated the experience of being a human lab rat subjected to a battery of sensory tests within a giant maze.

Our mission is to explore science in unique, creative ways and produce experiences that inform, entertain and amaze. Because of what we do, people experience science in unorthodox ways, helping them to discover the unimaginable realities that science reveals to us.

As playfulness is evident in all that we do, the science of pleasure and its importance to our everyday lives makes a fitting book. This investigation of the science of hedonism (and the hedonism of science) presents science as a tool for understanding, questioning and, ultimately, appreciating what it truly means to exist in the first place. It will take you on a journey showing how science has been used to understand ourselves over the ages.