My professor

Konstantin Popadin,

Ph.D. biol. Sciences, researcher at the Department of Medical Genetics and Development, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva (Switzerland), researcher at the Institute of Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

Summer. Belomorsk Biological Station. We take turns dragging the inflatable boat from Lake Vodoprovodnoye to Verkhny. We lower it into the water and swim up to the floats marking the anchorage sites: the first float, the second, the third, the fourth... At each anchorage we throw a plankton net and take samples: zooplankton, phytoplankton, measure temperature, oxygen and swim further.

It’s easy to say “we’re taking samples”, in fact, this requires its own skill: you need to tie the boat to the float rope, you need to wait until the wind stops spinning the boat, then you need to throw the net strictly vertically down and slowly and evenly lift it, in the end Carefully pour the catch from the iron cup of the net into the bottle, rinse the net and then untie it from the float.

In the middle of the lake there is a tiny island from which we flush the eider from its nest. Sailing past a marshy shore with sundews, A.M. Gilyarov says: “I have long wanted to photograph this shore from the water, so that the blackness underneath would be visible, so that it would be clear that the shore hangs over the lake. Or better yet, draw it! But this will have to be done from a boat - and then you, Kostya, will have to constantly row while I draw . ” I certainly don't mind. I answer: “Whistle for me, Alexey Merkuryevich, when you get ready . ” Having finished collecting samples, we throw the inflatable boat back to Vodoprovodnoye Lake and return to the biological station.

Evening. There are about ten people in the laboratory. Everyone is doing their own thing: someone draws marine invertebrates, someone writes letters (paper!) to the mainland, I finish analyzing samples - how many and what kind of animals live today in Vodoprovodnoe and Verkhnye lakes. And now... a miracle! The first female holopedium gibberum with winter resting eggs was found in the upper lake. They are black and shiny - there is no mistaking them.

Gilyarov asks to use the binoculars and joyfully examines the female holopedium gibberum with resting eggs. Therefore, winter eggs appeared, but we did not see a single male during the entire observation period! Neither in Lake Superior nor in Lake Vodoprovodnoye! Either we overlooked these males, or the females of holopedium gibberum have learned to make resting eggs without males!

If so, then this small discovery is a new beneficial mutation in the planktonic crustacean population, which allows the transition from cyclic to obligate parthenogenesis, completely abandoning the production of males and, accordingly, sexual reproduction. It was a real mystery lurking in these northern lakes. But there were others - how the size of these crustaceans changes depending on the presence of predators - vertebrates, invertebrates. How many years do resting eggs remain viable - five, ten, one hundred? Why do some species have such a bank of long-term resting eggs and others do not? Is it better to produce dormant eggs a little at a time throughout the summer or all at once at the end of the summer? Different strategies, different life cycles, different ways to adapt and survive, game theory, evolution.

It is surprising that in a pair of northern lakes one can find such a large number of mysteries, and the question, after it is formulated, ceases to belong to these two lakes - it becomes broader and more important and the answer to it will help to understand life in general. And at some point you realize that from the evolution of the body size of the holopedium depending on the presence of different predators to the arms race between different countries is one step. The same rules apply everywhere...

We sit down to drink tea in the laboratory. Gilyarov is in a good mood, and therefore he is the center of attention. He tells jokes, recites poems, and not necessarily very decent ones. In general, all the students are his! And students too! But it's time to sleep. Tomorrow early in the morning we will set sail on a ship to look for and study holopediums in Lake Nilm.

About a year later, still on the same beloved White Sea, A.M. comes up to me. Gilyarov says: “Soon there will be a traditional White Sea conference. You, Kostya, should speak. From you - the report, from me - illustrative materials. Agreed?"

- Okay, what are we going to report on?

- Let's talk about our holopediums.

The evening before the report, Gilyarov finds some whatman paper and watercolor paints somewhere and boldly, with large strokes, begins to draw a huge holopedium - one for the entire sheet! It turned out to be a good beast! I don’t fully understand how and where we’re going to hang this and what it’s for in general, but I don’t want to ask. I'm just preparing my speech - population dynamics, females, males, eggs...

The next morning the conference begins, and at some point my report is announced. Let's go out together. Gilyarov silently unfolds his Whatman paper and freezes, playing the role of a living tripod and showing everyone his work of art... At this moment I understand that with such a tripod the sea is knee-deep and that, in general, all the work has already been done. Everyone already liked the report, and all that remained was to play around with this drawing a little. I read the planned speech with discipline, although now I understand that I could not have read it, I could have sung or danced something, for example. Maybe in this case we would look more harmonious. Then I didn’t yet know that I would still have to dance, and also because of Gilyarov and also because of the holopedium.

In about another six months. Large Limnological Congress in Australia, near Melbourne. My first overseas conference. Naturally, at the suggestion of Gilyarov. Somehow it made it and didn’t get lost on the way. I almost died of fear, but I still read my report about holopediums. Everything was going well, but at the end of the conference a party was organized. Everyone is having fun, and the director of one German university asks loudly: “Is there someone from Russia here?” I reflexively crawl under the table, but somehow they figure me out and take me out of there. They ask me: “Do you happen to know Alexei Gilyarov?” I am surprised by this question and say: “Yes, I know, and not bad, he is the supervisor of my diploma.”

They cordially seat me at the table, ask questions, and after some time the conversation drifts to the side, and they tell me that there is a good Russian folk dance - the squat and how great it would be if I could portray it. I refuse, saying: “No, I don’t dance at all, but especially when squatting.” But they answer me so categorically: “If you are a student of Gilyarov, you must be able to dance. If you are Gilyarov’s student, you should be able to do everything.” And in a minute I have to prove this statement, squatted.

Moscow State University. Defense of the candidate's dissertation. Immediately after my speech, the chairman of the council stands up and says something like this: “To be honest, I didn’t understand anything about this work. And most importantly, I did not understand where ecology is here and what the environmental council has to do with it. how this young man got involved in our council...” I don’t understand at all After a minute's pause, he continued: “Well, if you are careful, there is still something of ecology here. Gilyarov! And this is something quite important. Since there is Gilyarov, it means there is ecology, and not just ecology, but good ecology. So my only complaint remains, perhaps, that I didn’t understand anything.”

Gilyarov’s magic extends not only to university directors and chairmen of dissertation councils. It also works great for students, evidence of which I saw every day at the Biology Department of Moscow State University. So, biology department... Gilyarov has just finished his lecture and is returning from the fifth floor to the second to his office walking along the stairs. He is surrounded by a retinue of students: one student is carrying a projector, another is carrying books, and several female students are milling around just for show. And so everyone entered the small office and... no one was going to leave.

They push each other, ask different questions - on the topic and not so much, at first mainly about ecology, then a little further, further, and now the conversation goes about anything - about music, painting, mutual friends, animals, Italy... Students are simply pleased to be here in the office, next to the professor. Drink tea and talk about anything. Moreover, from year to year, enchanted students accumulate, and the evenings after the lecture become very eventful - people come and go, young and not so young, books, music CDs, articles, opinions, and just handshakes are exchanged. Active life is in full swing!

Alexey Merkuryevich, thank you for the days, hours and minutes spent with me.