This is related to the fact that in recent years, fundamental changes have been taking place in the life sciences. Artificial intelligence algorithms help predict the spatial structures of proteins (and drug molecules) with increasing reliability; gene editing techniques are accelerating the progress of gene therapy; RNA biology is becoming a crucial field, and microbiome research is changing the way we look at the causes of disease. It becomes clear how our well-being and even mental health depends on the microorganisms living in the body.
Bacteria can be more and more efficiently “harnessed” to the activities needed by humans. They produce medicine, destroy harmful waste and can even heal cracked concrete. What’s more, by studying the remains of bacterial ostracods, geologists reconstruct the course of Earth’s evolution. Extremely resistant to environmental effects: heat, radioactivity, etc. the study of extremophile bacteria may reveal whether life came to our planet from outer space or was born on Earth, from components brought by comets and meteorites. You will learn more about these topics on September 17. In the Life Sciences Center of Vilnius University, where we will celebrate the International Day of Microorganisms.
How do scientists and biotechnologists manage to make better use of bacteria and viruses, modify them, create gene therapy instruments and methods, new proteins? You will see this in the state-of-the-art laboratories of TEVA Baltics, Thermo Fisher Scientifics Baltics, and Northway Biotech. An excursion to “Bio City” awaits you, where Europe’s largest biotechnological city complex is being built. It will also house a gene therapy center. Employees of the Ekspla company will introduce prototypes of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine products developed in Lithuania, using nanotechnology. And will explain how breast cancer and other pathologies are diagnosed accurately and very early with lasers. VU researchers will reveal why vampires should fear accelerated protons.
Science festival in Kaunas
September 13 from 10:00 a.m. morning – Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) prepared a program of various scientific fields in KTU “Santakos” valley and adjacent faculties. Visitors will see what robots are capable of, how nanostructures are formed to fight bacteria, and what art therapy is used for. You will get acquainted with the creation and modeling of 3D and 2D animation. How our biodiversity is changing the way we approach and design buildings. Where does electricity come from in the human body? You will find out what lives in fuel, filters and brake pad dust. You will visit the Young-Lab, a laboratory for young researchers. It is a creative space adapted for student collaboration activities. At the KTU Faculty of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, you will learn how to choose your studies. In total, several dozens of excursions, lectures, experiments in laboratories have been prepared for you.
A researcher from Vytautas the Great University (VDU) will present the limits of invisible creativity and how the microworld changes art and science at the Lithuanian Museum of Education. You will visit the exhibition “Scents of History: from Cleopatra to Napoleon” in this museum and participate in the mission of the “Museum on Wheels” project at LDK. We will invite you to excursions in the renovated Lithuanian zoo, the Lithuanian Museum of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy, and you can experiment in the laboratories of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences.
Not just life sciences
Not only biology or microbiology lovers are welcome at the science festival. For example, astronomers from Vilnius University (VU) will show what we can see with the naked eye or everyday simple devices. Will share news about the search for life at the edge of the solar system. Specialists from the Department of Human and Medical Genetics of VU will tell you what methods are used to assess the risk of obesity, which poses an increasing threat to the health of the Lithuanian population. Every year, for more than 10 years, in Lithuania about 50% cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of all deaths, and obesity is one of the most significant risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Meanwhile, in the Kaunas Picture Gallery, a branch of the National MK Čiurlionis Art Museum, you will learn about rainbow silkscreen printing and the installation “Black Hole” donated to the gallery by the artist Ay-O. you will try the screen printing technique. You will hear about the connections between the sea and the cosmos, which are evident in the work of MK Čiurlionis. A magical journey with ultraviolet light flashlights in the Botanic Garden of the VDU will help you understand how plants are able to attract insects, and what signals emitted by plants say “stop!” hydra tentacles writhe and a green moon shines.
STEAM centers at the Science Festival
Most engineering industry companies in Lithuania lack specialists. A network of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) education centers is helping to solve the problem. This is one of the most modern methods of educating schoolchildren. All ten Lithuanian STEAM centers and VDU STEAM specialists will participate in the program. Šiauliai’s technical creativity and Klaipėda’s student self-expression centers, which carry out similar activities, will also join.
For example, the VDU STEAM center will introduce bioart, a creative form combining science and art that helps students create unique works using microscopic images. In the Klaipėda University STEAM Center, students will learn about probiotics and their importance for the body. You will learn to make a microbiological smear and describe the variety of bacterial forms. At the Technical Creativity Center in Šiauliai, visitors will learn about the components of blood: plasma, red and white blood cells, platelets and make a blood model, while at the KTU Panevėžys Faculty of Technology and Business, they will try to escape from the escape room to the present without using smartphones and computers.
In Taurage, Marijampolė, Alytus, Telšiai, VU Šiauliai Academy Center and Šiauliai Didždvaris Gymnasium, the most curious are waiting for a comprehensive introduction to microorganisms. The “Mobile Bioclass” will visit the Lazdija district, where students get to know real scientific instruments and try out the latest methods of molecular biology.
Therefore, a rich autumn harvest of science news and curiosities awaits everyone who wants to, and the organizers invite you to register for free events at mokslofestivalis.eu.
2024-09-02 08:09:15