Philippa Stevenson: This cafe feeds the mind, not just the body

It's not often you come out of a bar feeling you've done your brain cells some good.

About 60 people could claim they'd done just that after a spirited session at the Hamilton establishment Brewtique, on Tuesday evening.

But then we were sloshing back the human genome like there was no tomorrow, gulping down a heady mix of genes and proteins, and poking junk DNA with our straws to see if there were any signs of life.

For a couple of hours, Brewtique, with its barstools and bright red couches, became Cafe Scientifique, a comfy place to digest recent research concocted in the world's laboratories and chew over its ramifications.

The formula for taking science out of remote labs and into everyday places - already popular in Europe, North America and Australia - arrived in Hamilton last year thanks to Waikato University's science and engineering school and two of its senior staff.

In eight months, co-ordinators Alison Campbell and Penny Cooke, respectively a biological sciences lecturer and earth sciences research fellow, have hosted five events on topics including drug cheats in sport, fossils and scientific rivalry, and climate change.

The rising popularity of the evenings has prompted three changes to ever-bigger venues.

Drawn by the promise of gaining some insight into the human genome project, the scientifically curious packed out the Bryce St cafe this week.

Over the muted clatter from the kitchen and unperturbed by waitresses weaving through tables, biological sciences professor Craig Cary delivered his rundown of the history of the sequencing of the human genome and its aftermath.

An energetic Cary drew chains of DNA in the air, and cut and spliced them, much as the international scientific effort to unravel our genetic code did during the 13-year project completed in 2003.

It was a rare opportunity to try to come to grips with the unseen basis of our own lives.

We could marvel at the speed with which scientists went from identifying the structure of DNA - the complex molecule that directs the activities of all living cells - to mapping it in different species, including our own. All within 50 years.

And we could again be humbled by the reminder that we share the size of our genome - an organism's complete set of DNA - with mice. We and the rodent have around 3 billion "base pairs" - the side-by-side structures along the DNA strand that spell out the exact instructions required to create a particular organism.

What fascinated most, though, was what appears to be the vast store of useless DNA that we cart around.

While genes get the attention, proteins do the work, performing most life functions and even making up the majority of cellular structures. Less than 2 per cent of the genome codes for proteins and the repeated sequences that do not - often called "junk DNA" - make up at least 50 per cent of the human genome.

Is it really junk, hanging around like perished rubber bands and frayed string that no one's put out for the garbos? Or is its role not yet understood, another mystery in our inner cosmos?

Certainly, few at Cafe Scientifique were prepared to believe we could consist of so much stuff surplus to requirements.

When formal discussion ended after a 90-minute session, the talk remained lively as patrons ordered one for the road or went out into the night.

Campbell was delighted. Involve people in the science of our time and not only are they better able to debate the issues it raises but they also start to take ownership of them, she said.

That seems no bad thing when many of us struggle to use concepts learned 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years ago to understand advances that were unheralded when we were in gymslips or short pants.

I for one will be booking in again to this new-look cafe - next month for a meal of Einstein; in September to sup with volcanoes; and in October to have a slice of Earth's birthday cake.

A diet of reality science promises to be very satisfying.