From May 28 to June 1, the festival will feature a dozen Nobel laureates, along with researchers, artists and writers at 15 venues around New York.

Co-founder Brian Greene, a Columbia University physicist, said the five-day event will meet the need for a major American science festival.

At a press conference Wednesday, Greene recalled letters he had received from high school dropouts and soldiers in Iraq discovering a sense of purpose as they learned about science.

"You see how science can change people's lives," Greene said. "And then you realize that only a few percent of the general public are considered scientifically literate."

Greene teamed up with his wife and co-founder, Tracy Day, a television journalist, to plan a festival that would make advanced science accessible and interesting to the broader public.

Major events include a discussion of quantum mechanics with actor and television host Alan Alda, a talk on human perception with neurologist Oliver Sacks and a lecture on longevity by Pulitzer-winning author Robert N. Butler.

The festival will also feature a street fair in downtown Manhattan, gallery talks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a dance performance at the Guggenheim Museum.

New York University, Cooper Union, Rockefeller University and the City University of New York join Columbia in hosting the festival.

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