“At the largest fun open-air science festival in the Czech Republic, on Vítězné náměstí and the adjacent Technické Street, children and adults can try out what it's like to be a researcher, racer, firefighter, pilot, doctor, soldier or perhaps an inventor. Visitors can touch everything, try everything,” Tamara Mašatová from the organizing team invites you to visit.
The world of colors will be presented at the stand of the PPG company, which produces paints and varnishes. People will learn how colors are made, what they are used for and how the eye actually perceives the entire color scale. The Prague Museum will reveal Prague through time. “It will demonstrate the dating of finds using comparative typology and add experimental archaeology: crushing grain on original prehistoric crushers,” describes a member of the organizing team. Biologists from the Institute of Microbiology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic will then show that mushrooms are not just mushrooms, that they can be harmful, but also useful.
"What happens when a mutation in DNA disrupts its regulation? Cells can start dividing uncontrollably: the company M.G.P. will show how cancer develops. That a car can have eyes on the back of its head and sonar - this is how a combination of cameras, radars and lasers works. The company Valeo will show that again," continues the organizer.
The Merkur building kit has been successfully developing creativity and technical thinking for over 100 years. "Come and play with Otto Wichterle's famous lens machine, for example," the organizers further invite.
The Institute of Chemical Technology will demonstrate that plastics are not only made of oil, that one day the medicines we rely on may not work, and that is what will feed civilization in the future. “It is difficult to get people excited about natural and technical sciences using textbooks. That is why thirteen years ago we were at the birth of VědaFest, where children were given the opportunity to take various technologies into their own hands. And many of them are solving fundamental problems of humanity today – what will we build from, what will we eat, what can we treat ourselves with – together with us,” said the rector of the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague, Milan Pospíšil.
CTU will surprise with mathematical experiments: a hydraulic model of a slalom track, a space rover, an electric formula and a railway simulator. It is also organizing a workshop that will show that architecture is both a science and an art. In the off-line zone, visitors can then try out how to do without a mobile phone and the Internet, how to search for information in a book or find their way with a paper map.
"The science of the future begins today. A completely new chapter of scientific knowledge is beginning to be written right now. At CTU, we are very aware that mathematics will play an increasingly important social role in the coming era. It helps to better understand the functioning of advanced artificial intelligence. That is why it is so crucial to bring the hidden charm of mathematical sciences closer to the general public," said CTU Rector Michal Pěchouček.
The program in the tents is complemented by a program on the festival stage throughout the day. In addition to chemical shows, visitors will also see the championship of dog detectives and assistants.
The program also includes lectures for schools. Students can try out electromobility in practice, find out how cars see and hear with the "sixth sense", how microbiologists use seemingly incompatible materials for recycling, or what the path from DNA to the patient is. Registration for this accompanying program has been ongoing for some time on the website, where there is also additional information about the event.