About science: both written and oral

More and more cycles of popular science lectures are appearing. One of them was organized this fall by the magazine Popular Mechanics. In September, students were told about astronomy, in October - about human physiology, in November - about modern weapons. In addition, several lectures were held outside the cycle, as part of various festivals. We asked the organizers to tell us about their work, first impressions and plans. questions . Sergei Popov’s answered Olga Ponomarenko, PR manager of the Popular Mechanics magazine,

— How did you come up with the idea to start a series of popular science lectures?

— Any information of a popular scientific nature is now in great demand. However, despite the fact that a huge number of lectures are held in Moscow, there are quite a few popular science lectures among them. Why don't we correct this situation?

— How do you evaluate the first results?

— For now, we can only evaluate the preliminary results of the first month of the lecture. At four lectures in the “Threats from Space” series, the total number of people who came to listen to the lectures was more than 1,000 people. We didn’t even count on such popularity, so there weren’t enough seats in the hall for everyone - people stood in the aisles and listened attentively to the lecturers.

— What will change in the organization of lectures in the future? Will the audience reach and scale increase (other cities or just online broadcasts, TV programs)?

— We have many areas for development. For example, we have made the first conclusions and already in November we are moving to another room - a large hall of the 35 mm cinema, which can comfortably accommodate 500 people. The first month the lectures were free, but then we introduced a small entrance fee - 200 rubles. In our opinion, this is a quite reasonable (if not symbolic) amount for such events. After all, organizing lectures is a rather expensive process: hall rental, lecturer's fees and other expenses. In addition, we consider this as a completely viable (in the future) business project. In addition, we plan to organize “tours” of the lecture hall to other cities of Russia and are discussing the possibility of inviting leading foreign scientists to give lectures. By the way, we invite scientists, scientific popularizers, and lecturers to cooperate: if you have something to tell the audience of Popular Mechanics, we will be happy to discuss this issue with you.

We do not yet conduct live online broadcasts (but this is quite possible in the future), however, each lecture is recorded on video and, after editing, is posted on the website - all lectures already given are available, and completely free of charge. TV programs are still a completely different format within a separate project. A good TV program is expensive to produce, but there is no point in making a bad one. Maybe someday we will do this too, but for now there are no such plans.

— Discussion of lectures on the Internet, on the Popular Mechanics website, does not seem too active. How important is this to you? How do you plan to collect and take into account the opinions of listeners?

— At this stage, the most important thing for us is to make the lectures themselves popular; nevertheless, for “PM” this is a new format and project. The first results look optimistic: the hall was always full. Although, of course, we have always been and will be open to any comments, wishes and remarks. Any user of our website can express their opinion on each lecture on our website ( popmech.ru ), in the “Popular Lectures” section, or write an email. We read all opinions and try to take them into account. As for the discussions, this is apparently specific to the audience: lectures are attended by those who want to learn something from the lecturer in person, and not just on a forum on the Internet.

— When choosing lecturers among scientists, you can, to a greater or lesser extent, be guided by scientific merit, public fame (say, they often appear on television, etc.), status (laureates and academicians) or the ability to give a lecture well. What are your priorities?

— For us, of course, the status of the lecturer, his fame, and his achievements in science are important. But first of all, of course, it is necessary that the lecturer was an excellent storyteller. The best lecturers, as a rule, are professors and lecturers from leading universities. They usually know how to reveal the essence of the issue in simple language, captivate and entertain the listener, and strictly adhere to the timing of the speech. But they are also, as a rule, leading scientists in their fields. So these principles, fortunately, do not contradict each other.

— You started with astronomical topics. The second month will be devoted to biology. What topics will be chosen next? How closely does this intertwine with the theme of the magazine?

— The topics can be anything. In November, for example, we have lectures on electromagnetic weapons, fifth-generation fighters, and even sports medicine. We started with lectures related to the topic of the issue, but in the future we do not plan to limit ourselves in this way. After all, lectures are a different format for transferring knowledge.

Photo courtesy of the magazine.