A Special Place for Blog Lovers with a Touch of Science!

Image credit: humoropedia.com

Love for Truth

To go out of your comfort zone, to become more or less skeptical, to seek reason, or reconciliation between rational intentions and irrational instincts is a lifetime dedication. Love of truth may not lead you to happiness but it's arguably the only path to achieve wisdom and thus a happier state of mind. We cannot deny the importance of such endeavors. For us is as crucial to take care of our bodies as to sustain our mental and emotional health. So, never stop following your dreams and aspirations even though they may face you with the greatest difficulties in your life. Listen to your inner voice and you will find the support you need because you are not alone. There are the Truth and all the others who search for it. 

"I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth - and truth rewarded me. " 

- Simone de Beauvoir

The Stinker - the official mascot of the Ig Noble Prizes

Image credit: Improbable Research

A Prize That First Makes People Laugh, and Then Makes Them Think

We have all heard about the Nobel prize - the grandest dream achievement of every scientist. But exactly 30 years ago the scientific world started celebrating the work of those who deal with the smaller and sometimes absurd-looking questions about the life, universe, and everything. Since then, every year on the First Annual Awards Ceremony the Ig Nobel Prizes are given to scientists who first make us laugh and then make us think.

photo © by Stephen Schmidt

"Being a poet is not a vocation; it's a dedication of one's life to the beauty..." - Janet MacFadyen

Last month, we presented to you some of the beautiful poems written by Janet MacFadyen. Her imagery fascinated our minds and we asked her to do an interview for our audience and share a bit more about her world, inspirations, and challenges. Now, you can enjoy her insightful answers as well as two poetic excerpts from her book Adrift in the House of Rocks.

Image credit: gettyimages.com

The spirit of early Humanism

"Now you must cast aside your laziness,"
my master said, "for he who rests on down
or under covers cannot come to fame;
and he who spends his life without renown
leaves such a vestige of himself on earth
as smoke bequeaths to air or foam to water.
Therefore, get up; defeat your breathlessness
with spirit that can win all battles if
the body's heaviness does not deter it.
A longer ladder still is to be climbed;
it's not enough to have left them behind;
if you have understood, now profit from it."

― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

In 2021, we mark seven hundred years since the loss of one of the symbols of literature and Humanism, and arguably the greatest and most influential poet of the Western world - Dante Alighieri (c. 1265 -1321). This year's edition of our conference SWS Florence will present to you the Special Scientific Session: Dante Alighieri – the Medieval father of Humanism. We invite you to join us in our journey through the Magical World of the Italian Renaissance!