The World Science Festival is underway here in New York, with a cavalcade of scientific fun unfolding over the next four days. Tickets are still available for most of the schedule, including these noteworthy events:

• Toil and Trouble… Stories of Experiments Gone Wrong, tonight (Thursday), 7:30-9:00 at The Moth at Symphony Space: Pointing and laughing (and learning!) at the blooper reel of scientific achievement.
• The Brain and Bourne: Neuroscience in the Bourne Trilogy, Friday, 5:00-8:00 p.m. at MoMA: A panel discussion with a neuroscientist and Bourne producer Doug Liman, this one might be a little light on the hard science, but come on, it’s Bourne.
• The Sixth Extinction, Friday, 8:00-9:00 p.m. at Columbia’s Miller Theatre: Name-brand conservationist Richard Leakey, of the formidable Leakey dynasty, joins a bio-acoustician to show off footage of some of the planet’s endangered species. Interesting because: 1. It’s a lot easier to fight for endangered animals when you’ve met some of them, and 2. How many chances do you get to meet a bio-acoustician?
• Science of Sports, Saturday, 3:00-4:30 p.m. at Coles Sports Center: My mother-in-law doesn’t know why I like to watch basketball because, according to her, it’s just “tall guys walking up to a hoop with the ball and putting it in.” There’s a little more to it than that, as you’ll presumably learn at this show-and-tell. Festival materials say there will be a “lively mix of action, audience participation and video,” so be forewarned, you may be asked to exercise.