”If you are flying to an international congress of anthropologists or literary critics, the reason you will probably get there—the reason you don't plummet into a ploughed field—is that a lot of Western scientifically trained engineers have got their sums right. Western science, acting on good evidence that the moon orbits the Earth a quarter of a million miles away, using Western-designed computers and rockets, has succeeded in placing people on its surface. Tribal science, believing that the moon is just above the treetops, will never touch it outside of dreams.” - ”River Out of Eden - A Darwinian View of Life”/„Un râu pornit din Eden – Codul genetic, calculatorul și evoluția speciilor” by Richard Dawkins, translation by Elena Marcela Badea and Dan Oprina,Humanitas, 2014.
Join us for a night dedicated to scientific literature, for an incredible journey in the history of time and cosmic space and in the history of life; we will be led by two contemporary British researchers, who have managed to turn science into a real rock-star: Stephen W. Hawking and Richard Dawkins.
We will be reading Isaac Newton's thoughts, one of the most famous English scholars who deciphered gravity and we will also try to understand the theory behind the fundamental Higgs particle, which knows a distance of 300 years from the Newtonian theory.
Our distinguished guests are Alexandru Mironov and Cristian Român, esteemed writers and science journalists.
Alexandru Mironov
Alexandru Mironov has carried out an extensive activity to popularize science and science fiction, by working as a correspondent of the Romanian Television and Radio Networks and as the anchor of the weekly science show “Science and imagination” on TVR1. He has published 16 volumes and is the author of nearly 4000 articles related to science. He has re-established and coordinated the "Știință și tehnică" (”Science and Technology”) magazine. He is currently a member of the editorial board and continues to write articles for the same magazine. He coordinated and presented the weekly show "Deschide cartea" (”Open a book”) on TVRM and he is currently running the show "Digipedia" on Digi World Romania.
Cristian Român
Cristian Român is an aviation engineer and, starting 1992, has become a science journalist for the ”Science and Technology” magazine, with which he still writes. In his articles, apart from the subjects related to aerospace technology, he tackles themes related to physics, cosmology, astrophysics etc. He was the anchor of the shows ”ST Chronicles” and ”The Sceptics Chronicles” aired on TvH and he is currently hosting a weekly show dedicated to science and technology on RadioLinx. He is also the author of the book titled „Ultima aventură - Universul”/”The last adventure: the Universe”.
Our discussions and readings will be from the translations of the following publications: ”Brief history of time - from the Big Bang to Black Holes”/„Scurtă istorie a timpului – de la Big Bang la găurile negre”, ”The Theory of Everything - The Origin and Fate of the Universe”/„Teoria universală – originea și soarta universulu”i by Stephen W. Hawking, ”River Out of Eden - A Darwinian View of Life”/„Un râu pornit din Eden – codul genetic, calculatorul și evoluția speciilor” by Richard Dawkins (Humanitas Publishing House, 2015, 2015 and 2014) and ”Natural Philosophy”/„Filosofia naturală” by Isaac Newton (Herald Publishing House, 2015).
British Council readings and discussions will begin at 19:00, in the Memorial Library of the ”Dimitrie Leonida” Technical Museum. Entry is free!
Starting 23:00, we will be screening „Order and Disorder: the Story of Energy” (Nic Stacey, 2012, 60', Romanian subtitles) next to the Library, in the Conference Room, a mind-blowing documentary in which professor Jim Al-Khalili investigates a strange set of laws that link together everything from engines to humans to stars, while trying to find out what energy is all about. It turns out that energy, so critical to daily existence, helps us make sense of the entire universe.
This year, the European Literature Night will be hosted by the Astronomic Institute of the Romanian Academy and by the "Dimitrie Leonida" Technical Museum, in Parcul Carol.