Scientific fighting in the style of rock

In Novosibirsk, the next Sins-Slam was held. This time he was dedicated to city days of science and did not do without innovations. The organizers for the first time dared to take him beyond the limits of Akademgorodok, located 20 km south of the center of Novosibirsk, and conduct scientific battles in the very center of the city, in the fashionable bar “Rock City”.

The publication of his brainchild Alexander Dubynin (organizer of scientific battles) and Julia Bromshtein (the Oratory coach of the speakers) were satisfied. According to their admission, the battles turned out to be one of the best: it was possible to attract a lot of spectators who attended such events for the first time, the audience reacted actively and kindly, and the speakers did not disappoint.

However, not all spectators were so enthusiastic about changing the scene. Approximately 2/3 of the respondents we had to go to participate in their favorite show from Akademgorodok to the center for traffic jams. Some resembled that such a show not only advertise science, but also consolidate the status of a city of science and education behind the Academgorodok: “You don’t try to take animals from the zoo so that people look at them, no matter how noble goals you set ...” - not the most flattering graduate student ICIG SAS Paul. Nevertheless, the Rock City bar was full, and all tickets were in advance. The organizers a few hours before the start even had to close the registration.

Kardashian index and scientific games

According to the already established tradition, Slam began with the performance “For Wedding”: the winner of the two capitals (St. Petersburg-Moscow) Ilya Zakharov spoke out of the competition before the Novosibirsk. A researcher at the Laboratory of the Age Psychological Institute of RAO and the curator of the Biohab Neuroclaster, “Bioklich” spoke about the life of the scientist in the 21st century: about how social networks, blogosphere and crowdfunding affect the scientific life, how to attract an inquisitive public to solve their scientific purposes and even the weaknesses of intellectual elite. “Our most important weakness is exactly the same as most people: we also spend too much time on the Internet, on social networks, which, of course, interferes with working,” Ilya admits. But it turned out that at first glance, a useless lesson greatly changes what is happening in science. So, for example, large bases of scientific publications for literary reviews began to indicate how many times the article was shared on Twitter or Facebook. Of course, high citation in social networks does not always mean high scientific significance. So the Kardashian index appeared - the measure of inconsistencies between the interest of social media in the scientist and his citation in scientific publications. I entered science and blogosphere. According to the observations of Ilya, scientists today are more actively reading specialized scientific blogs than the relevant scientific journals. To the honor of the latter, it should be noted that they are trying to take this trend in their lives. There are cases when such serious magazines as Nature reprinted articles from blogs on their pages.

The Internet also affects the scientific research itself. “For example, one of the first achievements in working with the Internet for the area that I am engaged in-studying behavior was the emergence of the Mechanical Turk website, a kind of mines, whose visitors could complete a simple task, for example, pass the survey. This made it possible for scientists to save on research, and the site visitors to work out, ”says Zakharov.

Today, the “mechanical Turk” is considered already outdated technology-the Internet helps in research in a different way. So, last year, 700 thousand Facebook users involuntarily became “experimental”: it was monitored how the posts of people who artificially selected positive or negative news were changing.

Last year, the ManyLabs community initiated two large projects: about how the number of social ties affects the temperature of the person and how a joint sleep (just a dream in embrace) affects the consumption of glucose.

In 2014, the crowdfunding platform for scientific research experents was born. Thus, scientists have an alternative to funds (and, according to various estimates, work with papers when receiving a grant occupies 50-80% of the researcher). Since the beginning of the platform work, at least 20 articles have been published in the reviewed journals based on research results, which managed to find money for Experiment.com .

But the most interesting step, in Ilya’s opinion, is not even a search for subjects or financing, but the emergence of serious scientific games. “It changes both the data and the setting of the experiment,” explains the guest of Slama. This year, an international group of scientists, uniting researchers from the University College of London, the University of East England, specialists of the German company Deutsche Telekom and developers from Glitchers, created the game Seahero Quest. This is not just colorful entertainment, but also a full -fledged study that will allow scientists to get new data on the development of dementia and its progression. For a week, more than 500 thousand users registered on the Internet page page. At the same time, the researchers themselves assure that 2 minutes of your game save them about 5 hours of research time. In addition to games, games also appear games that help scientists analyze the data obtained. In 2008, scientists from the University of Washington (USA) created the Foldit game - gamers proposed to try to find a model of protein folding into three -dimensional structures, working with models of real proteins. In 2011, in the scientific journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, an article was published with a full description of this protein and gratitude to Foldit players who managed to make its model. As a result of such games, scientists are given a unique chance of an intellectual brainstorming through a computer game.

Search for the perfect man from the point of view of mathematics

Alexander Galashov, undergraduate of NSU Mehmat, student of the L'Ecole Polytechnique Engineering Program, studies discrete extreme tasks induced by artificial intelligence problems. How to solve problems with a large number of parameters, a large volume of data or unlimited time, he demonstrated to the audience on the example of the search for the perfect partner. “I am a mathematician, and I sincerely believe that mathematics is the queen of sciences. Moreover, I am sure that it is this science that helps a person to be successful and effective throughout his life, ”Alexander began his performance. -I am a mathematician, and I am offended that my friends believe that the mathematics that they give after the 7th grade are not used anywhere. This is a classic phrase: “Well, understand, you are a mathematician. And what are you really doing?” Moreover, the answer “mathematics” does not suit them ... ”In order for the audience, especially the girls, it was clearer, Alexander took the difficult to say a task from life - the search for the perfect partner. “To solve the problem“ Search for the perfect man ”, it is first worth highlighting the subtitle -“ Search for men, ”Galashov suggests. - After that, you should decide on the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the ideal man. For example, the mind, strength, sense of humor, caring and other important characteristics we can evaluate on a 20-point scale from –10 to +10. In addition, a man has quantitative characteristics: salary; the number of hours spent with you; The number of gifts that he gives, etc. For each characteristic, it is worth introducing a rating of importance. ” About 7.3 billion people currently live on Earth, about half of them are men. But in order to cut off even one man and deal with his characteristics, you will need about a week; So, for testing all men of the Earth - about 67 million years. “This is a hard -to -post task,” Alexander explains. And he offers to approach her decision mathematically, or rather, analytically. There are three approaches to solving such problems: an approximate solution, highlighting the subclass of problems and random. “With an approximate solution, we will not look for an ideal man, we will find an acceptable one that you can live with,” the speaker offers students. - Find the minimums of the values ​​of the most important characteristics and look for a man ... Another option is to consider not all men, but only a subclass. “Let's say, only those men who live in Novosibirsk study in the MECHMATE NSU Mehmat and performs at the Since Slaks. It is enough for you to sort out such men and find the most ideal among them, ”the undergraduate of NSU modestly suggests under the loud applause of the hall. I am acceptable from a mathematical point of view and random choice. “Any mathematician will prove to you that if we take a sample from n men from around the world, then the likelihood that among them is a man that differs from the ideal one to rush to 100%!” - assures Alexander.

Nanovolk in sheep's skin

Physician-laser, undergraduate of NSU, researcher at the Labor Laber Labor Institute of Automation and Electrometry SB RAS Fedor Benimetsky told the audience about who ignites in Nanomir, or rather, how to defeat a cancer cell with the help of small particles of gold and nanolazer. He began the performance with the "revelations of the magic word" nano "." Despite the fact that manufacturers of cosmetics, electronics, and even household chemicals strive to use this prefix, Fedor recalled that in reality it means only a billion share of something. So, the Nano Trans -Siberian Railway will be equal to the ant in length ... In its laboratory, Benimetsky is engaged in nanolazers in close cooperation not only with physicists, but also with chemists and with biologists. What is Nanolazer? As it turned out, there is also nothing magical in it: it is a tiny particle of gold, 10 nm in size, surrounded by porous glass, inside which there are dye molecules. When the researchers shine with an ordinary laser on the nanolazer, the dye molecules begin to lumine and transmit part of the energy of gold. Gold, in turn, transfers this energy to the dye molecules again. It is at this moment that all the dye molecules in one nanolazer begin to work as a whole - they shine brightly and on the same wavelength. Biologists managed to prove that the effect not only looks beautiful, recalling a microscopic night sky with green stars, but can also be used to diagnose and treatment of cancer. In order for the nanolazer to get into the cancer cage, it is covered with a special solution (“Like a wolf we put on a sheep’s skin,” explains Slemer). With a low power of “backlight”, nanolazers in cells glow (helping diagnostics), with large ones they explode. Fedor admitted that in reality everything is not as cloudless and simply as in his report. And today researchers are only at the beginning of the development of this method of combating cancer cells.

About the role of speech and cholesterol

Ekaterina Thomas, psycholinguist, candidate of philological sciences, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Macquarie University), studies how language affects our ability to think. “The brain, which accounts for only 2% of our mass, consumes approximately 25% of energy,” Catherine Hall shocks. - The brain of the child at birth is formed only by a quarter. It is not surprising that the first two years of his life, the human cub is completely non -self. But such risks for the species are compensated by the extraordinary plasticity of our brain and the ability to learn all our lives. ”

"At what age does the child already know how to distinguish, say, a melody of native speech?" - Catherine asks at the audience. “From the age of 8,” the male voice shouts confidently. "No! Probably for six months! " - The female does not agree. “From the first hours of birth,” the speaker assures. -The stomach is, of course, not the best environment for linguistic express courses. But you can hear the rhythm of speech through it. At the age of 6 months, the child can distinguish the hard and soft sounds of the native language. ” It is the connection of the development of speech and development of the brain that Catherine studies.

The molecular biologist Daniil Gladkikh, a researcher at the Nucleic acid laboratory of the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine of the SB RAS, told how cholesterol can help in the fight against cancer. Daniel began his report with a provocative question about three letters, known to all (at least the inhabitants of Akademgorodok) from early childhood. Naturally, we are talking about DNA. The speaker compared the human genotype with a huge library in the city center consisting of 46 huge halls. In the smallest hall, the 21st, about 48 million books (pairs of foundations) were laid out. Books in this library in a single copy, and it is impossible to endure them, as in most libraries. But extracts from the "Books" are able to make a RNA molecule. Daniil compared the interfering RNA with “small notes”, by publications on Twitter.

A real splash in the hall produced a miniature about how ordinary and cancer cells react to a request from the body. So, the cancer cage (the speaker itself) in the best traditions of the comedies of the past, under the stormy ovation and surprised screams launched into the body (a selfless friend of the scientist, Ivan) with a piece of cake. In his scientific work, smooth work is trying to disconnect certain genes responsible for the development of cells and their resistance to drugs in a cancer interferring RNA. “This is a standard situation: the medicine works great on the culture of cells, but as soon as we try to enter it into a living organism, nothing comes out,” Daniil complains. “You can’t even imagine what chaos reigns in our blood vessels!” And getting a medicine purposefully into a cancer cell is extremely difficult. But if we cannot get purposefully into the cage by the medicine itself, then we need to attach it to something that necessarily gets into the cage. ”

A molecule of cholesterol was chosen as a conducting cell. It is to it that interfering RNA is attached, which disconnects the gene of multiple drug stability. Daniil Gladkikh was recognized as the winner of scientific battles and received honored boxing gloves, the traditional prize of Sins-Slam.

Photos provided by the organizers of Sins-Slama