For the third time, JINR has taken part in the GEEK PICNIC science and technology festival. Every summer, the organizers gather experts from all over the world – scientists, engineers, artists – trying to get a glimpse of the world’s future. On 21-22 August 2021, for the first time, the science festival was held on a motor ship. Art and high technologies merged aboard a vessel that cruised along the Moskva River. GEEK PICNIC is an open-air science and technology festival meant to surprise, captivate, and tell the audience about scientific progress and innovation.

Anastasia Russakovich, a researcher at the DLNP Sector of Molecular Cell Genetics, introduced the audience to the studies of genetic information and a new approach to the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases known as personalised medicine. In the lecture “On Allergy, Longevity, and SNP”, two systems developed at DLNP JINR were considered: the propensity to develop allergic diseases based on the FCER1A gene polymorphism and the human longevity based on the FOXO3A gene polymorphism.

In addition, JINR specialists gave lectures in the studios of the festival.

In his lecture “The Effects of Radiation on the Organism in Space and on Earth”, Yuri Severyukhin, a researcher at the Radiation Physiology Sector of the Laboratory of Radiation Biology JINR, spoke about the basic principles of radiobiology, sources of radiation on Earth and in space, as well as about the danger of radiation, radiation sickness and radiation syndromes, the use of radiation in medicine and radiation safety of orbital and long-range space flights.

Anastasia Golubtsova, a senior researcher at the BLTP Department of Quantum Groups and Integrable Systems, introduced the audience to one of the most mysterious objects in the Universe – black holes – and talked about their connection with the holographic principle. Holographic duality is fascinating, as it allows learning about the quantum strongly-coupled system through classical gravity, but in a space-time of higher dimension. The formulation of this principle is inspired by the study of black holes. The holographic duality method has found application in describing the phenomena of high-energy physics. For example, this is how the lower boundary value of the viscosity of the quark-gluon plasma obtained in the LHC and RHIC experiments was predicted. Moreover, in 2019, significant progress was made in resolving the paradox of information loss in black holes.