Popular Lectures in March

In March, Popular Mechanics magazine will hold two session in its Popular Lectures series.

On March 3, physiologist Vyacheslav Dubinin will deliver the lecture “The brain: why do we want to be like others?" and provide insight into why we are so eager to ape and parrot others – from imitating other children in the sandbox, to our parents and heroes of film and television. Among the other questions that will be answered: Why do most of us feel empathy when others experience sorrow or pain and why do some of us even celebrate other people’s successes? Why do we feel sympathy for some people and not for others? How are the mirror neurons of the cerebral cortex connected to all of this?

The lecture on March 17 will focus on the inventions of Nikola Tesla and the stories surrounding this scientist who left behind many riddles and unanswered questions. What gave birth to the legends about him? Which of his inventions has made the most tangible contribution to science? Tesla’s transformer reveals the incredible beauty of electrical discharges, but is it true that there is no practical application for it? Is it true that the largest U.S. electrical plant at Niagara would not have been possible without Tesla’s research in field theory? Did Tesla really discover how to teleport energy and what was the Tesla Tower designed to do?

Tickets cost 350 rubles and are available on the door just before each lecture, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Moscow’s Digital October center located at Bersenevskaya Naberezhnaya 6, building 3.