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Indian Express

First time in India, science breaks down walls between researchers, ordinary people

As with every good talk, this one began with an anecdote that was also a joke. It involved a scientist, a frog trained to jump on command, a cruel experiment that is repeated on many other frogs and a final, eye-opening conclusion — that frogs without legs are deaf. Shraddha Bhurkunde from IISER Pune was quick to clarify to a packed house at the Orange Art and Book Cafe in Aundh that this was a fictional narrative. What came next, however, were true stories, as far as science knows, about real-life events that led to the end of dinosaurs. Dinosaur doomsday unfolded through games, storytelling, banter, humour and scientific sleuthing. Bhurkunde's session inaugurated a one-of-a-kind event, Pint of Science festival, on a thundering, rainy Monday in Pune. Pint of Science is a concept that breaks down the wall between the people of science, such as researchers, and the rest of the population. The event is the concept of Dr Michael Motskin and Dr Praveen Paul, research scientists at the Imperial College London. In 2012, they invited people affected by Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, among others, into their labs to tell them about their research. A year later, the first Pint of Science festival opened in a pub, creating an informal space for some of the biggest names in science to 'explain their ground-breaking work to lovers of science and beer'. In the past 10 years, it has reached 27 countries. Now, for the first time, it is in India, with Pune, Delhi and Bengaluru being the selected cities. In Pune, the second venue is Doolally Taproom in KOPA Mall. The force behind bringing Pint of Science to India is Debarati Chatterjee, a theoretical astrophysicist at IUCCA who is an expert on analytical and numerical description of compact stars (neutron stars and white dwarfs). 'We have a wide spectrum, covering everything from astrophysics to neuroscience to AI to astrobiology and chemistry. I was really happy to get in touch with very well-known speakers in so many disciplines and came to know so much breakthrough work that is happening. I was really happy that there are so many women scientists who have come forward to support this outreach which will inspire a lot of young people,' says Chatterjee. Hamsa Padmanabhan from the University of Geneva took the audience, which included several Class VI students, through 'Lessons from the Earth's deadliest extinctions'. 'During its 4.5 billion-year-old history, our planet has been witness to at least five major extinctions. Of these, the most destructive one was called the Permian Triassic Mass Extinction, which took place around 252 million years ago and destroyed about 96 per cent of all marine and 70 per cent of all terrestrial species. But how did such a large-scale wipeout take place?' she said. As she spoke about how 'a sharp rise in carbon dioxide levels in the millennia leading up to the extinction, possibly triggered a global warming runaway and made conditions hostile for life', it was only a matter of time before it became evident that humans had learned nothing from the past. Sneha Rode went from Earth to Mars and back and forth and carried the audience along with captivating data, images and quizzes. Earth vs. Mars: The landform showdown changed ideas and challenged preconceptions about the similarities and differences between the blue and red planets. There were valleys and craters and a deep scar on the face of Mars and the fascinating Olympus Mont, the largest volcano in the solar system, which makes Earth's Everest look like a baby. Though it was late and raining, people still gathered around Rode as the venue buzzed with geology.