Science Slam: How Knowledge Can Make Our Lives Better

08:57, February 14, 2022

Five young scientists of the university took part in a scientific stand-up battle [photo report]

On February 11, as part of the Science Days at UrFU, a Science Slam standup show was held at the university. Young scientists talked about why you should not always trust historians, whether it is ethical to clone people and what soft skills technicians cannot live without. The winner was chosen by audience, with the measuring the volume of applause with a noise meter.

"There are a lot of interesting things at UrFU. For example, both a historian and a chemist performed, it would seem, what do they have in common? But they are united by their love of science. Science is always like a war - a positive, kind war for the beacon of knowledge to be bright. I am sure that in this battle the five knights of science were able not only to fight each other, but also to interest you in their field of knowledge," said Dmitry Bugrov, First Vice-Rector of UrFU.

Vladislav Ivshin told the audience about how movies and video games construct our attitude to historical events, and Anna Gurarii explained why in the modern world the boundaries between engineers and the humanitarians community are blurring. Galymzhan Mukanov spoke about how to create a digital copy of an internal combustion engine and print medical implants on a 3D printer. Mikhail Bolkov tried to understand the difficult question of whether it is ethical to breed people without genetic diseases with the help of new technologies.

The winner of the slam was Kirill Grzhegorzhevskiy, who talked about what scientists call a discovery and how ordinary people look at their discoveries. The chemist compared each new study of a scientist with a caterpillar that turns into a beautiful butterfly when it achieves a result. And no one but the scientists know how many attempts the researcher had before releasing the butterfly into the world.

"When you realize that your caterpillar won't become a butterfly, maybe you should stop feeding it leaves. But you don't have to stop; you have to be able to start over. Why are scientists doing this? Our knowledge can make better solar panels and solar power can improve our lives," Kirill noted.

The main prize for the winner was a tablet from the Ural Federal University Student Union, as well as branded boxing gloves from the Neon agency. The audience actively supported all participants and asked questions. Each slammer chose the person who asked the most interesting question and gave them a book. In addition to the performances of scientists, the mood on stage was created by the Ural band Blues Bastards.

Reference

The Science Slam project has three main rules: only your own scientific research and projects, no more than 10 minutes per presentation, and the story must be entertaining and understandable to the general public. The main goal of Science Slam is to popularize modern science. The battle of scientists was organized by the agency Neon and the Ural Federal University.

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office
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