Summer: You can't work for rest

A TRV-HOW TO TOMENTED to leading Russian scientists with a request to share the news about how they spend the summer, what they are working on now and what worries them in the scientific and educational field. We publish the answers received.

Ilya Beterov,
cand. physical. sciences, Art. scientific. sore. Laboratory of nonlinear resonant processes and laser diagnostics of the Institute of Physics of Semiconductors of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk):

We have now completed work on the study of the three -partial interaction of cold atoms and sent an article to the magazine. It is interesting here that these resonances in our also published experimental data were paid attention to the French colleagues, and we initially considered them an artifact. Now we were able to accurately identify these resonances, identify in our experimental signals and describe theoretically.

In parallel, I am now finishing another theoretical work on generating confused states with cold atoms. There are quite a lot of administrative cases - our institute, together with the university, will hold a conference in the fall, and in general you need to prepare convincing plans under the 5-100 program and at the same time relate them with a very difficult reality. It is necessary to review articles - it is clear that the Chinese work energetically.

If you write, what worries, then, probably, several pages will not be enough. First of all, the future of our Akademgorodok is concerned. Our fundamental science is good, but it has long been clear that it is not very interesting to finance the fundamental science in Siberia, and besides it, we can still offer little. Some solutions can be found, but this requires coordinated efforts of the scientific community, and they are distinguished by understandable fear that as a result of some ill-conceived actions it can become even worse. The older generation of scientists falls into the position of deaf defense, but, I'm afraid, this will not help to achieve the goal.

General mood - simultaneously a reduction in financing, twisting of nuts in a variety of directions and the concentration of resources in one hand are expected. I am also worried about the possible school reform: on the one hand, clericalization, on the other hand, are ideas on liberal reform, which can finally destroy the core of school education.

The resonant criminal cases that go in the Akademgorodok (the better work of Tiona and less understanding the work of the head of the branch of the geophysical service of the SB RAS) also do not instill optimism. Although, when I read that scientists write about their lives in Moscow or small regional centers, it seems that we should not complain yet. One way or another, the present time for scientists is not the most favorable (and not only in Russia), but far from the worst.

Well, the state of our knowledge is also worried. After a decade of rapid development, some stagnation was outlined. Many hopes have not yet been justified, the tasks were more complicated, and time is leaving. Whether anyone in the world will manage to make a full-fledged quantum register with cold atoms and implement the exact two-cube operations in it-this is a completely Hamlet. However, there is good news from Harvard.

And so - there are a lot of mushrooms.

Leo green,
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dok. physical. Sciences, Director of the Institute of Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

July is a hot time: I just returned from the ESTEC meetings (branches of the European Space Agency in the Netherlands), where we discussed the joint experiment “Prospekt” on cryogenic drilling and detailed analysis of the lunar substance with all the inclusions of volatile substances brought to the moon by comets. The experiment will be at our second lunar landing station "Luna-27".

Immediately upon returning to Max in Zhukovsky, I met with the leader of ECA Professor Verner. We discussed these works and the possibilities of further cooperation in the study of the moon, Mars and other space objects. By the way, in the pavilion of Roscosmos on Max, the layouts of the last Soviet lunar mission “Luna-24” and the first Russian Luna-25 were shown very well. There are only some 40 years between them. I hope that in 2019 we will still fly away ...

Svetlana Burlal,
doct. Filol. sciences, prof. RAS, specialist in comparative historical linguistics, Vedas. scientific. sore. Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

Now I am working on the second edition of a book about the origin of the language. Neuropsychologists shared with me a huge number of materials on neurobiology and in children's speech, which need to be read, so I sit and read them for almost a day on end. But still, I went for a week to a summer linguistic school, gave a lecture on how words go from language to language, and learned schoolchildren to solve linguistic problems. And tomorrow I will go for a week for a summer environmental school, I will read the course on the mechanisms of language changes.

In addition, now I am preparing a scientific afterword for the book Irene Pepperberg about the parrot of Alex, who knew how to speak (it was scientifically proven that he really meaningfully used words, and not just repeated them).

And the Knowledge Society turned to me with a request to prepare a lecture, which another lecturer will then be able to read. I will prepare it, of course, where to go, but the very idea of ​​such a “universal lecture for any lecturer” seems completely wrong to me, because in the way, in the course of the lecture, knowledge goes to the listeners, the role of the personality of the lecturer is great. I would even say that this role is decisive. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to convey this thought to the “Knowledge” society.

The Polytechnic Museum continues to work on the concept of the Museum of Science and its embodiment, and I try to help them as an expert.

What worries me the most? Firstly, the fact that I am not a connoisseur in the field of the theory of solving inventive problems (TRIZ) and I cannot offer a way out of the contradictions that are in the current education system. And there are many of them.

First of all, I would like to note that if the old days were characterized by a lack of information (it was, but not anywhere, but only in specially designated places and not everyone was available) and the one who owned the information, now the main thing is to fight off excessive information. The one who was able to somehow filter the fact that for his work is informational garbage and free up the place for his work is really useful to him in his work is really useful. Unfortunately, modern education is still built on the principle of "let's keep all the information accumulated by humanity in your head."

On the other hand, the idea of ​​“learning to think” in the absence of information in my head (why is it, if there is Yandex ”?) Also does not seem fruitful to me, since valuable thoughts are often born from a mating in someone’s head, it would seem unrelated, pieces of information (for example, a person looked at the car and invented janitors; studying a car without a metronome would not give such a result). And you never know what you need later - I have several stories of the species "How I am now regretting that I did not learn how well, as I do not have enough knowledge precisely on x".

Secondly, I am worried that in order to succeed in some business, I need to gain, as someone calculated, ten thousand hours of class in this matter. So, you need to start as soon as possible. But, on the other hand, those who have a soul achieve the best result to the best result, which means that the matter must be chosen to their liking. And a qualitative choice is made when there is something to choose from, it means that you need to get acquainted with many areas, acquire some knowledge about them, try (just like that, without obligation). And where to get the time to get acquainted and sample when you need to start a set of 10,000 hours as quickly as possible?

As a result, there is a demand for a lecture such as “tell me about quantum physics to preschool children”, “and tell about language changes to those who have not really mastered their native language.” Well, we tell you where to go, but you can’t tell you about all such babies simply because they still do not have all the brain structures to be formed and there is no experience that the relevant knowledge could be planted on. For some things, you need to be able to keep quite a lot in working memory-and not everyone has such opportunities. That is, there is a class in the tenth - but by the tenth grade, everyone has already been dismantled to different early starts, there is no one to caregen out except for full Olukhs.

Thirdly, I am worried about the fact that, on the one hand, more successes are achieved by one who specializes in a narrow area, on the other hand, discoveries are now most often born at the junction of sciences.

Fourth, our education is in a fairly strong degree opposite to science, so people are configured for “knowledge” as a knowledge of some technology. However, there is a fundamental difference between technology and science: technology can be comprehended to the end (“thoroughly”-it is no coincidence that the same root!), And in science, cognition is endless, and this is fundamentally (that is why scientists may not know the answer to some question-and this is not an indicator of their arrears).

Moreover, the technology allows you to get a predictable result, and the better a person has known it, the more predictable the result is; In science, the peak is obtaining an unpredictable result. The more extensive knowledge of the scientist, the more unpredictable the result he can get, and predictable results are not particularly interesting to anyone.

The technology, in general, is one, and you either know it (and do it as it should and get the same predictable result), or not (and then it turns out that it is bad), and in science there can be different explanations - and this is good, because, since the result is unpredictable, it is better to try different paths and watch which one will give the best result.

And people who are accustomed to the type of knowledge that our education offers will certainly expect accurate knowledge, the only explanations and the predictable result. It turns out that the average person learns as if evolution had not touched him, with the very premises that were still among the monkeys. He is most interested in himself and about survival (well, now that survival is practically guaranteed to everyone - about “benefit”). And if it is interesting “pure knowledge”, then in the view of such a person this knowledge will have the form of procedures (“as correctly”) or, more often, lists or numbers that can be measured (“I know all the lantanoids!” - “But I know the reign of all the French kings!”).

Technology is not bad in itself, but the understanding that science is another, our educational system does not give to most people. As a result, the attitude to science for many people is so strange.

In general, what to do is incomprehensible. Therefore, I will not be sad about general problems, but I will go to finish the book.

Alexander Fradkov,
doct. tech. sciences, head. lab. Institute of Problems of Machine Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor of St. Petersburg State University, NIU ITMO (St. Petersburg):

Summer passes violently. From July 9 to July 14, I participated in an important conference -20th World Congress for automatic control in Toulouse. Such congresses are organized by the International Automatic Management Federation (IFAC) once every three years. Congress in Toulouse collected a record number of participants - almost 3500 - and confirmed the importance and prospects of research in our area for the development of many areas of science and technology. It will be necessary to write about the results of the congress.

For me, this congress will also be remembered by the fact that I was handed a diploma to awarding the honorary title of iFac Fellow there. There are more than a hundred owners of this title in the world, now there are three in Russia.

Then I took part in another important conference: the 8th International Conference on Physics and Management, held in Florence on July 17-19. I was lucky to open this conference with a lecture “Cybernetic Physics - 2017”, dedicated to the current state of this rapidly developing new area.

August will be held under the sign of understanding the results of these conferences and the preparation of the 2nd edition of the book "Cybernetic Physics". In the scientific and educational field, a lot is worried about what to fix and how to fix it will also have to think.

Another pleasant event of this summer, which will need to be comprehended, was the unexpected entry of St. Petersburg State University into the TOP-100 of the subject Shanghai ranking of universities in 2017 in the direction of "Automation and Management". This direction for the first time began to be taken into account by this rating, evaluating the scientific results and publications of universities in the fields of science; Suddenly, Immediately St. Petersburg State University, the only one of the Russian universities, got into the top 100 (even in group 51-75 universities)!

Our Department of Theoretical Cybernetics of St. Petersburg State University has a direct relationship to this achievement: more than half of the publications of St. Petersburg State University in the top magazines on our topics for 2011-2015, which are taken into account in the ranking, were born at our department. And they make up about a third of all Russian publications in top magazines over the years. Naturally, we didn’t think about any ratings, we just worked and that’s it, but now we have to draw some conclusions.

Alexander Nozik,
Art. scientific. sore. Institute of Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lecturer of the INT, Secretary of the ONR Council:

Summer is actually a very active time for scientific work. At least if this work is combined with educational activities. Students are resting, and scientific people have a great opportunity to choose all the “tails” on scientific work. The above does not apply to my students. They were not lucky. There is a lot of work, and who does not work, he doesn’t eat, so mine actively refine different projects, at least those of them for which some money are promised.

As for what we are working on, we have to conduct several projects at the same time. Basically, the work is related to modeling. Something for atmospheric physics, something-for medical equipment, something for customs control. The topics are very different and change quickly. There is no special choice, you have to take on that work for which you can get something material (money, premises, equipment), because if senior scientists can still somehow interrupt the salary in science and education, then students need to be fed with something. They can’t live on “one salary”.

Modeling is also a forced choice. To make some kind of tiny experiment on particle physics in Russia now is completely unrealistic. Equipment for these studies is very expensive; To launch some new and promising project, you need starting capital at least several million rubles. In order to get this money, you need to win the RNF grant, and at the current level of competition, a small group with a large number of students cannot do this physically.

Roughly speaking, you can get money for some work only if this work is already half done. Here is the only option-to fasten to some megacacollaboration. But here, firstly, the work is usually routine, and secondly, there is still no money for students even there. Everyone immediately needs qualified personnel. The work related to computer aspects in this regard gives some level of autonomy. There is almost nothing to work, there is quite a lot of work, and there are not so many specialists in the field of modeling and analysis.

In addition to cash projects, of course, there is something interesting “for yourself”. The last three years in my free time I have been developing software for scientific purposes. The problem is that programming as a discipline has largely increased from physics, but if applied programming has done not one, but several grandiose jerks forward over the past 20 years, then scientific programming (at least in physics) was in many ways at the level of the early 2000s (at best).

There are several packages that are actively used and supported, but all this is ideologically - a well -functioning carburetor engine in the car: everything works while you perform more or less standard tasks, but a step to the side - and a nightmare begins with superstructures and patches. Not to mention the fact that the technology is hopelessly outdated. It is very difficult to get some kind of funding for such work, because, strictly speaking, the task is not an object of fundamental research, and most physics experts are not programming experts. In addition, we are engaged in the development of statistical methods of data analysis. There is the same problem as with programming: everyone considers themselves experts in this area, but there are very few real experts.

I don't think anything about the upcoming elections in the wounds. I don’t understand what you can think there. The Academy of Sciences is a completely incompetent structure (in my personal evaluative judgment), which could not cope with its functions, even when these functions were. Now she doesn’t have these functions left, so I don’t really understand how these elections can be reflected in someone. If we talk about the scandal with the elections of the president of the Academy, then there is all the same, but there is one nuance: the intervention of President V.V. Putin in this process looks like pure water rudeness and mockery not only over the academy and academics, but also over the scientific community as a whole.

What is the most worried? Пресловутая «стабильность». Правила игры меняются по нескольку раз в год без какого-либо предупреждения. Политика президента и правительства приводит к постепенному выживанию ответственных людей из структуры командования. Предыдущего министра образования Дмитрия Ливанова многие ругали за его программу развития науки в вузах. К программе действительно были некоторые вопросы, но тем не менее это была программа, и она к настоящему времени начала приносить свои плоды.

Нынешний министр Ольга Васильева вообще не сформулировала хоть сколько-нибудь внятной программы в отношении науки (это закономерно, любая позиция или потребовала бы увеличения финансирования, или выставила бы руководство страны в невыгодном свете). Казалось бы, нет указаний сверху — бери всё в свои руки; но нет, любая инициатива — это шанс попасть под раздачу. Ректоры вузов начали плавно сворачивать все «убыточные» научные программы, ставя под удар ученых, в этих программах участвующих. Делается это всё тихо и без шумихи. Вроде как оно само так получилось, мы не виноваты.

ФАНО тоже не радует. В отсутствие четких указаний сверху они подменяют работу какой-то имитацией деятельности с генерацией кучи бумажек в результате. Больше всего угнетает уровень компетентности чиновников ФАНО в организационных вопросах (про науку даже речи нет). Что можно сказать о людях, которые в XXI веке организуют мероприятия с сотнями участников путем рассылки сканированной распечатки? Что может быть простительно для пожилых научных сотрудников (и то не всегда), совершенно непростительно для серьезной организации с немаленьким бюджетом, которая вроде как должна специализироваться на организационной деятельности.

Сергей Нечаев,
doct. physical. Sciences, Vedas. scientific. sore. ФИАН, директор российско-французского Междисциплинарного научного центра Понселе:

На летней конференции в Греции (на Родосе) я рассказывал коллегам про узлы в ДНК, и мне показалось, что демонстрация с веревкой помогла бы наглядней пояснить смысл. Я пошел в ближайшую лавку, торгующую всем подряд, и среди ласт, солнцезащитных очков и всевозможных кремов нашел скакалку. Я заплатил и попросил кассира: «Ручки отрежьте, пожалуйста». Он спрашивает: «А как же вы будете прыгать?» Я говорю: «А зачем прыгать?» Как-то разговор после этого зашел в тупик, и я ушел. В ближайшем местном ресторане, получив ужин, я стал ножом отпиливать под столом ручки от скакалки. Подходит официант и спрашивает, заметив мои интенсивные движения руками: «У вас мясо жесткое?» Я говорю: «Нет, мясо отличное, а вот ручки жесткие — отрезать трудно». Он ничего не сказал и ретировался, после чего подошел хозяин и сказал: «Извините, мы закрываемся».

А сейчас в Ницце мы организовали летний детский лагерь, и я с удовольствием вожусь с детьми и рассказываю им о принципах отрицательной обратной связи, запускаем ракеты с кока-колой, уксусом и содой и т. д. Кроме того, я пытаюсь показать детям, что физические вопросы присутствуют повсюду, даже по дороге на пляж: почему люки в асфальте круглые, почему у пальм растительность только на макушке, почему галька плоская… Ну и посложнее: что такое броуновское движение, что такое «янус-частицы».

Егор Задереев,
cand. Biol. Sciences, Vedas. scientific. sore. Института биофизики СО РАН:

Я занимаюсь подготовкой к 13-й Международной конференции по соленым озерам, которая пройдет с 21 по 25 августа 2017 года в Улан-Удэ ( http://icslr2017.ru ). Организатор конференции — Международное общество по исследованию соленых озер, несколько академических институтов СО РАН и Бурятский государственный университет. Встречи любителей соленых озер проходят каждые три года в разных странах мира. В этот раз местом форума станет Россия. Только что вернулся из столицы Бурятии, где идет подготовка к конференции. Ну и, конечно, веду постоянную переписку с ее оргкомитетом и будущими участниками.

Соленые озера — удивительные природные объекты. Спектр научных задач и практических применений кардинально отличается от пресных озер. На первом месте — микробиология (в том числе экстремальная, с выходами в астробиологию), использование растворенных солей в промышленных целях, экосистемные перестройки под действие ключевого фактора — солености. При этом соленых озер на планете примерно столько же, сколько и пресных, а количество ученых и научных статей – в несколько раз меньше.

Мы шутим, что для исследователей морей и океанов соленые озера — всё равно озера, а для пресноводных экологов — это что-то более близкое к морским экосистемам. В итоге исследования соленых озер находятся между двух больших областей науки и получают меньше внимания. Для предстоящей конференции мы выбрали слоган «Исследования соленых и пресных озер: в поисках точек соприкосновения». Будем выходить на общие интересы и объединяющие водных экологов тематики.

Andrey Kalinichev,
профессор Высшего национального института горных наук и телекоммуникаций (Institut Mines-Télécom Atlantique, Нант, Франция):

Я до конца июня преподавал, теперь еще нужно будет проверить 14 курсовых магистерских работ и выставить оценки. В середине июля съездил на 16-ю Международную конференцию по глинам в Гренаде. Там я организовывал специальную сессию по молекулярному компьютерному моделированию глин и других природных наноструктурированных материалов. Эта область исследований в последние 10–15 лет очень быстро развивается, и мы даже организовали двухдневную предконференционную школу для молодых ученых, чтобы удовлетворить растущий интерес.

Любопытно, что среди восьми преподавателей этой международной школы трое оказались бывшими россиянами (из Великобритании, Швейцарии и Франции), но в самой России такие методы исследований развиты пока мало, и среди 27 слушателей было довольно много западных и восточных европейцев, несколько японцев и китайцев, трое из Саудовской Аравии и ни одного россиянина.

В августе еще предстоит Гольшмидтовская Конференция в Париже — самое представительное ежегодное мероприятие для геохимиков со всего мира. Там я тоже организую подобную сессию по многомасштабному моделированию взаимодействия растворов с поверхностью минералов.

Между этими двумя поездками — допишу несколько статей и возьму отпуск на пару недель, когда к нам приедет дочка с внуками.

Что касается РАН и ее возможного нового президента, то нужно сказать, что своей пассивностью в последние 20–25 лет руководство Академии само привело ее к нынешнему плачевному состоянию. На мой взгляд, среди кандидатов в новые президенты РАН только Алексей Хохлов мог бы быть в состоянии вывести Академию на некую разумную траекторию развития. Боюсь, что именно поэтому ему такого шанса не дадут, как ранее не дали и Владимиру Фортову. Очевидное нежелание руководства страны иметь независимое самоуправляемое научное сообщество — другая сторона того, что происходит с Академией. Эта сторона от нее, конечно, уже не сильно зависит.

Алексей Моисеев,
doct. physical. Sciences, Vedas. scientific. sore. Специальной астрофизической обсерватории РАН, сопредседатель Совета ОНР:

Лето я провожу так же, как и весь остальной год, — за работой, пытаясь найти время на прогулки с дочками, благо институт стоит между рекой и горами. Так как наша группа занимается изучением слабых внегалактических объектов, то мы редко ведем наблюдения короткими летними ночами. Сейчас у нас пора работ по модернизации аппаратуры, подготовка к интенсивным наблюдениям на шестиметровом телескопе БТА осенью-зимой.

За счет полученного в этом году гранта РНФ мы строим новый прибор, надеясь вскоре заняться на новом уровне исследованиями ионизованного газа на периферии галактических дисков. А пока анализируем и готовим к публикации накопленный ранее материал. Лето — время студенческих практик, читаю лекции студентам и школьникам, работаю с практикантами — в этом году много сильных и интересующихся ребят.

За выборами в РАН я не слежу, будучи полностью разочарованным в их значимости для организации российской науки.

Ирина Левонтина,
cand. Filol. sciences, Art. scientific. sore. Institute of the Russian Language. В. В. Виноградова РАН:

Лето получилось трудовое. Сижу на даче, не поднимая головы, отвлекаюсь только на домашнее и изредка на сельское хозяйство. Мы сейчас готовим к печати очередной выпуск нашего словаря («Активный словарь русского языка» под общим руководством акад. Ю. Д. Апресяна), а словарь — дело кропотливое. Кроме того, заканчиваю еще один совместный с коллегой большой проект. Идет и работа по конкурсу молодых ученых МГУ. Ну и так, текущие обязательства.

Так что, увы, этим летом не дойдет не только до отдыха, но и до двух работ, которые больше всего хотелось бы закончить, — научной книжки о русских частицах (которая должна стать докторской диссертацией better late thаn never) и замысла подготовить издание двух моих популярных книжек под одной обложкой и со словоуказателем. Благодаря моим прекрасным читателям там накопились кое-какие дополнения и уточнения — но пока руки не доходят.