Popularization for academics

Fragments from the conversation of the correspondent of the TRV-HO-HOUSE ALEXEY PAVSKY with the Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a member of the editorial board of the journal of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the student and ally of Lev Landau Semyon Gershtein , which took place in the editorial office of “Nature” in the presence of the deputy chief editor of the journal, doctor of physical education. Sciences of Alexei Byakko .

- Semyon Solomonovich, usually they say that a popularization of science is needed for, so to speak, “simple” people, not for scientists. Do scientists need popularization?

SG : Let me just give several historical examples. How did the famous Michael Faraday enter science? A student of the binderer Faraday went to popular lectures, which was given by a wonderful chemist and physicist Gemfrey Davy. Faraday listened to these lectures, and then asked Davy in laboratory assistants.

In Russia, popularization has always been considered the duty of a scientist - Mendeleev gave popular lectures, Lebedev ... On the one hand, these are noble goals, education, and on the other, this is the attraction of a future shift to science, a completely practical goal. I can tell about myself this story: in 1945 I studied in the ninth grade, came to the hairdresser to get a haircut, and while waiting for the line, I took the magazine from the table. It turned out to be the magazine "Nature", which described the white dwarfs in which the substance is such that all the atoms in it are crushed into each other, and the teaspoon of this substance weighs tons. I liked it so much that I became interested in physics and, in the end, became a physicist. In general, a whole generation of “naturalists” was brought up on Perelman’s books - “Entertaining Physics”, “Entertaining Mechanics” and so on. So any popularization is important not only for young, but also for scientists, or, say, for people engaged in science (Landau did not like the word “scientist”, saying that “scientist” is a cat from a fairy tale), because it recruits young people and allows you to make a choice of a scientific field.

Well, and besides, do not forget about interdisciplinary connections, the importance of which has only been increasing recently. No wonder Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa said that the most interesting discoveries arise at the junction of sciences. In this regard, it is important to know what is happening in other sciences. And in this sense, the magazine "Nature" plays an exceptional role. After all, he was conceived by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov as a magazine, where experts talk about the problems of their science for specialists in other fields or at least for intelligent people with a gymnasium education at least. I myself read with pleasure in "nature", for example, reviews on astrophysicics, which Vladimir Surdin perfectly writes. I have no time to read special magazines in astrophysics, but a high -quality professional review allows you to keep abreast of what is happening in this science.

(The deputy editor -in -chief of the magazine "Nature" Alexei Byakko joins the conversation.)

AB .: There is another aspect of this issue. Popularization is needed so that society and the state see what science is needed for. Here now there is a gap, it seems that our tops are politically not seen. And society also hardly adequately understands.

S.G .: In order to go to a lecture in Dolgoprudny, I got up today at 6 in the morning, turned on the RBC channel while I drank tea. There was a discussion, and some rector-economist participated in it, who stated that our science was incorrectly oriented, it is necessary that it be focused on practical purposes and so on. This is just shows the level of understanding of the very essence of the science of these people who do not understand that without a fundamental science there can be no applied science. Here you feel the lack of popularization.

- Do you think there is a connection that RAS was almost not engaged in the popularization of science and her achievements with all the last events around the Academy?

SG : I think that there is such a connection, and the academy had to be much more engaged in the popularization of science. Although, of course, the text that appeared in the first edition of the law does not justify - this is generally a boorish text, and, of course, I joined the refuseniks, who said that they would not join the new academy. On the other hand, the new president of the Russian Academy of Sciences was going to change the situation with a popularization at the academy.

-And if Fortov will have the opportunity to change something independently-including in popularization-will he cope?

S.G .: I know Vladimir Evgenievich well - from the time when he was a student to whom I gave lectures, and I think that he would cope - provided that he will select a good team of assistants.

-A question for both scientists-are you reading something science and popular?

AB .: I write out Science and Nature . I can’t say that these are purely popular magazines, they are analogues of “nature” in terms of level, but their advantage in relation to “nature” is that these are magazines of the latest scientific discoveries. Unfortunately, we cannot reach the level of the primary publication of the actual breakthrough scientific works. And in Science and Nature there are sections of special articles, and there are - popular. And often a special article is preceded by a more popular presentation of its results.

SG : I read Nature and “Nature” (laughs).

- The magazine "Nature" is now experiencing serious difficulties. He does not have a full-fledged Internet version, a low circulation. Where do you think you need to move the magazine today?

SG : Yes, now real ascetics work in “Nature” (A.B. laughs and says: “Yes, this is” ). I believe that the status of the magazine - “Specialists for specialists in another field” - needs to be preserved, but “nature” needs to be helped. If the state does not aim to lower the intellectual level of the country, but rather its increase, then “nature” must be supported. And not only financially. It seems to me that in the case of receiving state grants, for example, it is possible to set a condition for the adoption of a report on it a popular publication in “nature”.