The Primorsky Aquarium serves as one of science festival venues
All-Russian Science Festival “NAUKA 0+”, the world’s largest science popularization project, is annually held from October through November on more than 400 venues in 80 regions of Russia. In most regions the 2020 Festival is being conducted online. In addition to Moscow, seven regional cities have been selected to become centers of festival activity, and one of them is Vladivostok. The online format allows participants to remotely connect to different parts of the country and learn more about their scientific potential.
This year the NAUKA 0+ Festival marks its 15th anniversary. The project is run under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, and in 2011 it gained a nationwide status. Openness and accessibility to the general public are key features of the Festival and contribute to its attractiveness to people of all ages. This autumn’s first “scientific” weekend of the NAUKA 0+ Festival resulted in 7.5 million online participants.
In Primorye the festival activities took place on October 17 and 18. Any person could take part in popular science sessions, at which speakers included both prominent scholars and lecturers who are at the start of their careers in science from Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service, Far Eastern State University, the Primorsky Aquarium and the Quantorium Technology Park.
A series of more than 20 online lectures was given via Google Meet and Zoom on October 17. It featured two lectures delivered by the Primorsky Aquarium staff members: “Equipping the Eyes. Optical instruments and more” (Vadim Pokrovsky, Specialist at the Exotic Animals Department) and “Typhoon Maysak: Harsh Influence of Physical Environmental Factors on Plants” (Arkady Bezdelev, Head of the Grounds Management Department).
The events held on October 18 can be attended at any convenient time. The online format is a new reality for museum halls and science educational exhibits that is here to stay, and virtual and video tours become responses to the challenges of the 2020 lockdown period. At the NAUKA 0+ Festival the Primorsky Aquarium presented two tours of this kind - “From the Basement to the Penthouse: Structure of the Tropical Rainforest” and “Life in a Drop of Water: Journey to the Microworld”.