The Meltingpot Forum takes place in parallel with the Colours of Ostrava festival on 17-20 July in the Lower Vítkovice area. INFO. The organisation and production of The Big Bang Stage is the responsibility of Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering of CTU (FJFI), the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University (MFF UK) and the Big World of Technology - Dolní Vítkovice.
The Big Bang, the Higgs boson and lightsabers
"The Big Bang Stage will be heavily occupied by particle physics this year. We will show that the production of the Big Bang or the lightsaber is not just literary licence," promises another of the organisers, Martin Rybář from the IFF UK. In the lecture May the (Strong) Force Be With You, he and Daniel Scheirich will show that the current CERN can do all this in its own way.
If anyone is setting the rules of the game in the field of particle physics, it is the European particle physics laboratory CERN. "Its director Fabiola Gianotti will give a lecture on Saturday on the Gamechangers stage, where she will present the goals and mission with special emphasis on the Higgs boson, its role in the early universe and its significance for our own existence," says one of the organisers of the event, Jaroslav Bielčík from CTU FJFI.
Nuclear physicist Dana Drabová, chair of the National Nuclear Security Administration, will speak about Robert J. Oppenheimer. She will review the life and work of the man who not only led the development of the first atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project, but later faced many complex human and ethical challenges. By the way, Dana Drábová will also be a guest of Petr Horký on the Europe stage.
What's it about? Nothing!
Big Bang is not just about lectures: in the physics theatre we will show you that you can do a lot of interesting experiments with nothing (i.e. a vacuum). We will play with light, both visible and invisible, and you can look forward to slam poetry in a scientific coat or Raw Art Wrestling - a duel between two teams of illustrators, where illustrations will be created in front of the audience using graphic tablets.
Under the direction of scientist Steven Goldfarb, a unique project has been created in which you will hear melodies based on data from high-energy collisions of cosmic muons or protons in the Large Hadron Collider.
Physics teachers Vít Boček and Tereza Fürstová have prepared twenty experiments that will engage all the senses. If you like satire, you can have fun with the mystifying discussion programme of the Citizens' Advice Centre "Unsolicited advice: there may be an experiment", where you will learn, above all, nothing of substance!
How to hunt in the depths of space
The four-day programme will also include a hunt for dark matter with young scientist Marek Matas, we are preparing a great debate on the challenges of cosmology and you will face a barrage of information about radioactive radiation - when to be afraid of it, when not and how it is useful to mankind will learn from physicists Ondřej Kořistka and Pavel Váňa, a different perspective will be offered by the dean of FJFI and nuclear chemist Václav Čuba.
Samuel Kováčik, a physicist and popularizer from Slovakia, is preparing lectures on time travel and the physics of beer. He will talk about the habitation of Mars and simulations of galaxy collisions, and astronaut Meganne Christian will talk about her experiences at ESA and the Concordia station in Antarctica. The resonant topic of AI will be discussed with Click (BBC) presenter Spencer Kelly and in an interactive performance "How to steal an election?" with Innovation Hacking.
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