For the third time, JINR has taken part in the GEEK PICNIC science and technology festival. Every summer, the organisers gather experts from all over the world – scientists, engineers, artists – trying to get a glimpse of the world’s future. On 21-22 August, for the first time, the science festival was held on a motor ship.
Art and high technologies merged aboard a vessel that cruised along the Moskva River. GEEK PICNIC is an open-air science and technology festival meant to surprise, captivate, and tell the audience about scientific progress and innovation.
Anastasia Rusakovich, researcher at the Sector of Molecular Genetics of Cell, DLNP, introduced the audience to the studies of genetic information and a new approach to the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases known as personalized medicine. In the lecture "On Allergy, Longevity, and SNP", two systems developed at JINR DLNP were considered: the propensity to develop allergic diseases, based on the FCER1A gene polymorphism, and the human longevity, based on the FOXO3A gene polymorphism. The lecture is available here: https://youtu.be/54hXVdjv82o
In addition, JINR specialists gave lectures in the studios of the festival.
In his lecture “The Effects of Radiation on the Organism in Space and on Earth”, Yuri Severyukhin, researcher at the Radiation Physiology Sector of the JINR Laboratory of Radiation Biology, spoke about the basic principles of radiobiology, sources of radiation on Earth and in space, as well as about the danger of radiation, radiation sickness and radiation syndromes, the use of radiation in medicine and radiation safety of orbital and long-range space flights. The lecture is available here: https://youtu.be/80XuHb0C904
Anastasia Golubtsova, senior researcher at the Department of Quantum Groups and Integrable Systems, BLTP, introduced the audience to one of the most mysterious objects in the Universe – black holes, and talked about their connection with the holographic principle. Holographic duality is fascinating, as it allows one to learn about the quantum strongly-coupled system through classical gravity, but in a space-time of higher dimension. The formulation of this principle is inspired by the study of black holes. The holographic duality method has found application in describing the phenomena of high-energy physics. For example, this is how the lower boundary value of the viscosity of the quark-gluon plasma obtained in the LHC and RHIC experiments was predicted. Moreover, in 2019 significant progress was made in resolving the paradox of information loss in black holes. To watch the lecture "Holographic duality and black holes", use the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6OCEp4cNV0
