On 20 October, students from the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences of Voronezh State University gave their talks at the Atomic Energy Information Centre in Voronezh. They presented the results of their research as a stand up at a popular-science talk show Science Talks, a project run by the centre.
The first speaker was Anastasia Dubovitskaya, who gave a talk on “Genome editing for dummies”. The audience learned about CRISPR/Cas-systems and about a technology that can be used for genome editing in order to treat genetic diseases.
Igor Blazhenov talked about the most unusual eating habits of animals, such as a butterfly feeding on sadness (Gorgone macarea).
“This is called lachryphagy, it means that the butterflies of this type feed on tears of other animals. It’s important to say that they do absolutely no harm”, said Igor Blazhenov.
Arina Tsvetkova gave a talk “What is so interesting about alternative splicing?”. The explained to the audience what an alternative splicing is - a process of editing RNA molecules that allows a single gene to code for multiple proteins.
Sofia Lepisova gave a talk on “Light at the end of the tunnel or mind tricks” where she attempted at describing one of the most mysterious phenomena - surviving death.
“There is a logical explanation to the fact that people experiencing clinical death see light. When there is a lack of oxygen, our peripheral vision stops functioning, so we only have tunnel vision left”, said Sofia Lepisova.
Daria Paimetieva gave a talk on “Immobilised enzymes and their applications in industrial biotechnology”. She also talked about CRISPR/Cas-systems and pointed out that this is a good way to make bacteria produce enzymes which we need in large quantities. Such enzymes are often used in industrial biotechnology.
At the end of the Science Talks show the most active guests received souvenirs from the speakers for good questions, and everyone left with new knowledge and a lot to think of.
Text by: Polina Kobeleva
Photo: official VK group of the Atomic Energy Information Centre
