Face to face with science: Basque students chat with Nobel Laureates in Donostia

The top@DIPC Zientziarekin solasean! gathering took place today, Thursday, at the Eureka! Zientzia Museoa in Donostia / San Sebastián, where high school and sixth form students and teachers met with the pioneer in the interface between DNA nanotechnology and cell biology Yamuna Krishnan (The University of Chicago, plus the Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Jean-Marie Lehn (Université de Strasbourg), and the Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine Jack W. Szostak (The University of Chicago). After outlining their passions for science, their personal careers and experiences in their scientific work, the guest speakers answered questions put to them by the students attending the event.

Around 240 students and teachers from 36 schools from across the Basque Country participated in this fifteenth edition of these gatherings organized by the DIPC. This is an event that has always been hugely welcomed by the education community. The event kicked off with a short introduction by Garbiñe Etxezarreta, Head of the Kutxa Fundazioa Project and Amaia Esquisabel, head of Science Policy in the Basque Government’s Department of Science, Universities and Innovation. The students then took the floor and, for an hour and a half, had the opportunity to put their questions to the guest scientists.

Yamuna Krishnan commented that one of her greatest joys in pursuing science is observing something she did not expect to see. “Oh, how strange! That’s an excellent formula for discovery.” For his part, Jean-Marie Lehn addressed the young people by insisting that they should participate in “the science that is shaping the future of humanity. Every discovery begins with the curiosity of people like yourselves”, he added. Lastly, Jack W. Szostak commented that “science is the search for truth, often in areas of great uncertainty, confusion and conflicting theories, which means that we must always be prepared to dump our favourite ideas when faced with fresh evidence”.

The Prince of Asturias Award winner Pedro Miguel Etxenike, emeritus professor of the University of the Basque Country (EHU) and president of the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), chaired and led the gathering this year, too. In his closing remarks, Etxenike addressed the crowd of students attending the event and stressed that “although they may have seemed very distant at first, you have seen that they are just like you and that by working enthusiastically, you can be like them”.

Telefónica, one of the DIPC’s patrons, collaborated once again in the gatherings and awarded the prize for the most interesting, original or disruptive question. The award-winning student was Aiora Larrasa-Domínguez of the La Salle school in Irun for the question: “If you could collaborate with any scientist in history, living or dead, who would you choose and why?” According to Telefónica, the question deserved the award “because it makes us reflect on the individual figures who have contributed to the history of science, and makes people see science as a continuous, collective process in which new discoveries and ideas are underpinned by previous contributions”.

The main aim of the top@DIPC Zientziarekin solasean! gathering is to encourage the vocation for science and technology subjects among Basque youth and also to awaken a passion for knowledge. It is organized by DIPC, and has the support of the Department of Science, Universities and Innovation of the Basque Government, the Kutxa Fundazioa, as well as Telefónica.

Full information about this edition of top@DIPC Zientziarekin solasean! and previous ones is available on the DIPC website.