Café Scientifique events provide relaxed settings in which we can talk about the latest thought-provoking science issues. These take place in cafés, bars and restaurants and other non-academic venues. What's more, you don't have to be a scientist or science student to take part. Café Scientifique is about the science of life and how it shapes our world. Because of this, everyone is welcome.
Here is a list of topics we have recently held Cafe Scientifique on. To make sure you don't miss our next event please check when and where our speakers will be presenting again.
With the entire media panic lately over the safety of foods we now reach for the labels of products we put on our table more frequently than ever and pore into them with concern. What are we going to find next? Е250, Е451, Е330... and many more mysterious codes, concealing even scarier compounds and additives. Emulators, stabilisers, antioxidants, flavour enhancers, acidity regulators – what’s the difference, what do we have to know about them? And what else will the future offer – will food industry catch up with space technology to add even more complicated, unusual numerical combinations?
Bozhidar Stefanov completed his studies in Computational Chemistry at Sofia University. He is now working on his Masters in nanotechnology and doing research in the field. A finalist of FameLab® Bulgaria 2010, he has written articles on popular science and reported science items on Bulgarian National Radio.
Presenter: Magda Bozhkova
Moderator: Stefan Nikolov
Drizzle, rain, sleet, hail, snow. Nothing special about any of these types of rain, is there? We've seen them all. But then, there's the performer previously known as Prince singing to "Purple Rain" - is that fiction or fact?
Perhaps the answers are in the hands of science, so do come along to talk about "Strange Rain" with physicist and meteorologist Magda Bozhkova
Magda Bozhkova holds a physics degree from Sofia University and works at the Aerospace Monitoring Centre as meteorologist. Magda was finalist at the Famelab 2008 competition and has taken part in many science communication events.
Presenter: Assoc. Prof. Valeri Golev / Moderator: Nikola Karavasilev
Find out more about the history of telescope, its influence on contemporary scientific views of the world and what these views have to do with the modern pseudo-scientific nightmares and fears of the general public…
Assoc. Prof. Valeri Golev is Head of the “Astronomy” Department of the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” and Deputy Chairman of the Union of Bulgarian Physicists, Member of the Management Council of the Union of Bulgarian Astronomers and… Founder of the Sofia Science Fiction Club “Ivan Efremov”
Presenter: Magda Bozhkova
It was Mark Twain who said, "Everybody is talking about the weather but nobody is actually doing anything about it." On the other hand there are the meteorologists who claim they understand climate just a bit better than Red Indians did. Then there are the politicians who consider themselves experts on the topic. So who is right then? Come to our Café Scientifique to hear the opinion of a meteorologist who does not subscribe to political correctness but instead will give you scientific facts.
Magda Bozhkova holds a physics degree from Sofia University and works at the Aerospace Monitoring Centre as meteorologist. Magda was finalist at the Famelab 2008 competition and has taken part in many science communication events.
Presenter Venelin Kozhuharov
The greatest experiment of the 21 century involving international scientific teams from all over the world brings both fear and hopes. Join us to find out more from somebody who has been working at CERN for the past few years and will help us bust some of the most apocalyptic myths and become more aware of what results scientists are expecting
Venelin Kozhuharov is an assistant professor in Nuclear Physics at Sofia University. Venelin has been working for several years in CERN and won Famelab Bulgarian 2008 with his talk on dark matter.
Presenter Bozhidar Stefanov
Hydrogen is the most common element in our universe - you can find it anywhere, during combustion it produces nothing but water, it is extremely light and each kilogram of it is a lot more efficient than gasoline. It is the perfect fuel - only it isn't a fuel at all. Do come along to find out why not, and when we may actually start using it.
Bozhidar Stefanov is finishing his undergraduate studies in computational chemistry at Sofia University. He was a finalist in Famelab Bulgaria 2009, author of popular science articles and does science reporting for Bulgarian National radio.
Presenter: Ivaylo Slavov / Moderator: Magda Bozhkova
It was Mark Twain who said, "Everybody is talking about the weather but nobody is actually doing anything about it." On the other hand there are the meteorologists who claim they understand climate just a bit better than Red Indians did. Then there are the politicians who consider themselves experts on the topic. So who is right then? Come to our Café Scientifique to hear the opinion of a meteorologist who does not subscribe to political correctness but instead will give you scientific facts.
Ivaylo Slavov graduated physics at the Sofia University. Currently he works as a meteorologist at TV-MET, a private meteorological office developing forecasts and presentations for the media. Ivaylo is a science communicator from Forum Democrit and a jury member of the FameLab science communication contest.
Magda Bozhkova also holds a physics degree from Sofia University and works at the Aerospace Monitoring Centre as meteorologist. Magda was finalist at the Famelab 2008 competition and has taken part in many science communication events.
Presenter: Matt Parker (UK) / Moderator: Nikolay Vitanov (BG)
The number Pi has obsessed people for thousands of years. During the third century BCE, Archimedes developed new methods to calculate Pi to five decimal places, starting a mathematical challenge which still continues today. In January 2010 a new record of 2.7 trillion digits was set using the latest computer algorithms. But why is the number Pi so interesting? Matt Parker will look at the history of Pi and explain why after millennia of technological advances, this one number is still so important to our modern way of life. He’ll also reveal why his birthday appears at the 30,560,847th decimal place of Pi.
Matt Parker is best described as a Stand-Up Mathematician who does everything in his power to make people excited about mathematics. Based in the Mathematics Department at Queen Mary, University of London he travels around the UK and internationally to talk about mathematics to both schools and general audiences. Matt also writes and presents for newspapers, online publications and film. He was voted winner of the Audience Award at the NESTA FameLab 2009 Final and was the support act for the 2009 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. Around all this, he finds time to work as a stand-up comic in comedy clubs around London and the UK. Matt’s favourite number is currently 371.
Nikolay Vitanov is a senior science associate at the Mechanics Institute of the Bulgarian Science Academy (BSA). He has a PhD in Physics from the St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia, a PhD in natural sciences from the Bayreuth University in Germany and a PhD in mathematics from the Mechanics Institute of BSA.
Presenter: Nikola Karavassilev
We must have all wondered at least once in our lives if there was something out there among the stars – some form of life remotely resembling us, humans. This issue has troubled the minds since ancient times and people have come up with all sorts of images of aliens. Nowadays it is still one of the most discussed, important questions science is faced with. Researchers from different areas are busy looking for extraterrestrial intelligence. Unfortunately there are just as many speculations too which add to the uncertainties.
Come to the Cafe Scientifique to discuss what in fact defines life as we know it and what it takes for its existence. We will trace the development of our understanding of life beyond our planet and what has been done to date to detect signs of it. We will also speak about what is the evidence of alien visits to Earth and while we're at it we will bust a few of the most popular myths about them. And eventually we will get closer to the answer of the Question – have they really ever been here?
Nikola Karavassilev is a fourth year student of Astrophysics at Sofia University. He is also the leader of Bulgaria's National Astronomy team and operates the 2-meter telescope at the National Astronomical Observatory of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Rozhen. Nikola was one of the finalists of Famelab 2009.
Presenter: Nikolay Vitanov
Nikolay Vitanov is a senior science associate at the Mechanics Institute of the Bulgarian Science Academy (BSA). He has a PhD in Physics from the St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia, a PhD in natural sciences from the Bayreuth University in Germany and a PhD in mathematics from the Mechanics Institute of BSA.
Talk Summary
You’ve hardly thought of anything in common between physics, mathematics and the public processes or the national security. Don’t miss the opportunity to meet an extraordinary scientist who can show you our society through different eyes.
Presenters: Milena Agopyan and Stefan Nikolov
Milena Agopyan is an engineer-meteorologist at the Plovdiv Regional Centre of the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology. She is heading the Clouds and Rain Microphysics Laboratory. Milena is a finalist of the British Council science communication contest FameLab 2007.
Stefan Nikolov is a junior expert-physicist at Paisiy Hilendarski University in Plovdiv. He is finalist of the British Council science communication contest FameLab 2008.
Talk Summary
Why ice is lighter that water. Why is water liquid? How can one walk on water? Let an engineer-meteorologist and a physicist tell you more about the liquid we can’t live without
25 January 2010, Plovdiv
Presenter: Ivan Hristov, neurobiologist at the Institute for Neurobiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Talk Summary
Have you asked yourself why we sometimes look and don’t see anything? And why in some cases we have the feeling that someone with their back to us is looking at us with amazing persistence? As a true scientist-detective Ivan Hristov will introduce us to the mystery of the long way that visual information has to go through the various departments of our brain before he can tell us about the incredible findings about that part of our gray matter which perhaps is more important, or at least as important as our eyes in the process of "seeing".
Come along for coffee and let Ivan Hristov, neurobiologist at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, to open your eyes to the work of scientists in the field of visual information processing! You will hear things that you would not like to see!
18 January 2010, Plovdiv
Presenter: Dr. Zornitsa Kamenarska, pharmacist at the Centrе for Molecular Medicine at the Medical University in Sofia. Zornitsa Kamenarska graduated Pharmacy and completed a Ph.D. in Biochemistry. She specialized in Israel, Italy and Japan. In 2007 she won the Audience Award, Second Prize and the Prize of the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria at the British Council science communication competition Famelab.
Talk Summary
Only injuries caused by accidents are not genetic in nature. In all other diseases, more or less, is seen a genetic component. Dr. Zornitsa Kamenarska from the Molecular Medicine Centre will tell us all about what the role is of modern genetic testing in diagnosis, monitoring and effective disease treatment, on which diseases the geneticists in Bulgaria work as a priority and what the patients’ benefits are.
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