Three days of science in Saint Petersburg

Science

The conference “Science Languages” at the St. Petersburg Department of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics (RAS) was the first event of the Science Days Festival.

Yuri Manin—a corresponding member of the RAS; an Honorary Doctor of Sorbonne University, the University of Oslo, and the University of Warwick; and a professor at Northwestern University in the USA and the Max Plank Institute for Mathematics—opened the discussion. The far-from-trivial name of his report, “The languages of mathematics and the mathematics of languages,” aroused keen interest.

The discussion continued at the round table “Science Languages” under the direction of Alexey Chernyakov, Cand. Phys. Math. Sci., PhD from the Free University in Amsterdam, and Nikolay Mnev, Cand. Phys. Math. Sci.

The participants discussed the prospects of scientists and humanists returning to a common language, bypassing the erected “Tower of Babylon.”

Sapiens

PROGRAM “BRAIN, MIND, BEHAVIOR”

The lecture of the corresponding member of the RAS Konstantin Anokhin “A window into the transparent brain: The cellular basis of thinking in man and animals” attracted an enormous audience interest. The scientist introduced the latest achievements in neurobiology. The primatologist Marina Vanchatova, a professor at Charles University in Prague, spoke about the recent research connected with instrumental and graphic activity of primates.

The day closed with a showing of rare documentary films from the Lennauchfilm Studio holdings. A sudden appearance of the hero of one of the films—Yuri Artsutanov, a Soviet inventor and the developer of the cosmic lift idea—delighted the audience and spurred many questions, which the hero of the occasion answered to the satisfaction of the excited spectators.

Beauty

This year the festival organizers showed not only that science is interesting but also that “Science is beautiful!”

A photographic exhibition under that name was opened in the Popov Central Museum of Communications.
The works had been selected at the like-named competition of scientific photographs held by the periodical Science and Technologies of the Russian Federation (STRF.ru).

Illusory

Few people had previously heard about the existence of a new museum in Saint Petersburg: Optics for Fun.

People of all ages appreciated the guided excursion through the museum, learning about the secrets of Chinese mirrors and how holograms are created. They enjoyed the playing of the laser harp and the strobolaika.

In addition to knowledge, the world of creating popular-science cartoons in an animation studio especially designed for the occasion was opened to children under the direction of Evgeny Kabakov.

Real

The Science Days Festival closed with a discussion at the science cafe “Brain: Interface between material and ideal.”
Konstantin Anokhin, a corresponding member of the RAS, Doctor of Medical Sciences; Svyatoslav Medvedev, Director of the Institute of Human Brain (RAS); Tatyana Chernigovskaya, a professor in the Philological Department of St. Petersburg State University; and Maryana Bezrukikh, Director of the Institute of Age Physiology, discussed what the human brain is, what anomalies exist including those connected with development of this most complicated human organ, and where feelings are located.