Voices from art and science converge to highlight how creative thinking and empirical inquiry can combine to reveal new perspectives on pressing global challenges.
At Davos 2026, the session “When Artists and Scientists Talk” made the case that art and science are not rival domains but complementary creative systems that help society act on complex truths. Astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan framed the challenge: the “artificial dichotomy” between disciplines limits discovery and public understanding. Sleep scientist Caroline Lustenberger argued that complexity without translation breeds mistrust: scientific knowledge “if it doesn’t reach society, it has no impact,” and art can make future consequences feel present. Artist Thijs Biersteker emphasized affect as the bridge: “Facts don’t move people; emotions do,” describing how beauty can serve as a “gateway” to data, as in his real-time deforestation installation. Former CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti linked artistic practice to scientific method—experimentation and iteration—and to scientific judgment itself: Dirac’s maxim that “a theory with mathematical beauty is more likely to be correct than an ugly one.” Actress and philanthropist Nomzamo Mbatha underscored language as infrastructure for progress, warning that weak literacy undermines comprehension of any curriculum, including science. The panel converged on a prescription: build interdisciplinary “collisions” earlier in education and research, treat communication as design—not an afterthought—and address an “imagination crisis” by uniting “facts and feelings.”
Good morning everyone. It is my real pleasure to welcome you to this wonderful panel of conversation, ongoing conversations, and hopefully future conversations between scientists and artists. My name is Priya Natarajan. I'm an astrophysicist and cosmologist and professor at Yale University. I work on exotica in the universe, dark matter, dark energy, black holes, sort of the invisible universe. But I have had a real enriching collaborations myself with artists. Several artists. Notably, I have worked with the British sculptor Antony Gormley. And I think that you are in for a treat to hear from the panelists today about their experiences with collaboration. But before we get started, I'd like to give you a brief introduction to our speakers. Our panelists today are Fabiola Gianotti, the physicist and director general of CERN. And in Geneva. As you know, it's one of the most collaborative international scientific organizations. Pardon? Former director general. I'm sorry. Yes. And, we have, the artist, Heiss Biersteker, who is the founder of the Woven Foundations. And if you're from the Netherlands, and if you haven't seen his installation piece already, you should go down to zone C to see this wonderful piece giving us a real time look at forestation, deforestation and the rapid, changing pace. And then I'm delighted to have, Nomzamo Mbatha, who is an actress and founder of the Nomzamo Lighthouse Foundation from South Africa, and she's a young global leader. And Caroline Lustenberger, who's the head of the sleep lab and works on research and development, and a co-founder of a company called Herencia Solutions. She's on the faculty at Etihad in Zurich. So I want to start by kind of backgrounding many of you know that there's been, you know, science and art are fundamentally creative endeavors, but as a culture, we've somehow cleaved them and separated them into two very distinct kind of activities. And they are unique ways to interrogate and understand the world. They have different approaches, but they have a lot to learn from each other, and they have been actually interacting with each other in subtle and unsubtle ways. And I think this artificial dichotomy needs to be broken. And I think the wonderful panelists that you have today will sort of show you from their own experiences, as well as the sort of insights they have gained into, their professions be at art, be it science, from talking to each other. Personally, for me, I have found that collaborating with Anthony gave me a new perspective. Not only the similarities in the creative process, but also, a new approach of a more introspective, reflective approach to my science. And I think it's made me a better scientist. So I would like to start off with a question that I would like to pose. Maybe I start with Caroline. And the first sort of, you know, what can artists and scientists learn from each other? And can you share sort of a concrete example where you think you had an unexpected insight from collaborative work?
So first of all, thank you that I'm here. It's beautiful to share, like the panel with all of you and that all of you are coming to this panel and listen to that. I think there are multiple things we can learn, but I will touch on two things. So science is inherently complex by design, right? I mean, nature is complex. Humans are complex. The truth is complex. And this doesn't necessarily help when we want to, you know, communicate that to society. And I believe we can learn from the artist and also work actually with the artist. Let them help us to make this complexity understandable. I think this is absolutely key and actually speak more to human language when it comes to science, especially when I started as a PhD, was all about these numbers and graphs and these complicated presentations. And I had the feeling not even the scientists sometimes understood what I was saying and talking about. And yet if we bring it more into the human language, like touching different senses, not just making people understand, making people feel the things, I think this is absolutely profound and helps us to actually bring the knowledge to society. The second thing is, you know, I don't see so much of a separation when I think about neuroscience. I also don't just see art as a form of communication, or as many people actually say, decoration in a way, which I think is the wrong way to say, but I think it's also part of brain health. Right. I see that so often we are so much in our heads. I mean, a lot of our, like, worries that we have in our heads, the fights we have, the demons we have, they are all in our heads. We're so like and especially as scientists as well, a lot in our heads. But many people, it's one of the biggest sleep culprits that we actually have. And yet we know also from science that being actually actually being part of art. So actually observing art, music, but also yourself doing art, I mean, you don't have to be an artist, right? You do crafts, you can do things. It's actually very good for for mental wellbeing and coming back to the moment and not only being your head actually do that. And I think that's absolutely important as well to to enforce mental health.
Yeah. You raise some very important points. And I think you're right that for neuroscience that touch points are very, very close. And I think also fundamentally as humans we are wired to respond to storytelling. Exactly. And so I think if we can use both science and art, you know, that's a wonderful way to reach people. So I would like to ask you now for your own sort of experience and insights from collaborations. And I know that you actively collaborate, with scientists across disciplines.
So it is amazing to work with scientists. And I think what we do is to help them bring their work to the general public. I think because facts don't move, people emotions do. And I think that's the part where we can help science as artists, as storytellers. We need to sit down and figure out what's the emotional triggers to bring that science into society. And I think arts and cultures are the catalyst of doing that. And working with scientists, which is the most amazing thing that we always do, because we sit and we go to the data and it's dry, and after a while I'm like, oh, wait, you mean this? That resonates with me. And I can tell that to my daughter. I can tell that to everybody, because this is the part that will make your research big. And then we build art installations around that. And I think that's the, the key. Like, how do you get that complexity of science into a compelling worldview and a compelling shape? And I just love that process because.
Lapping it all up, as you're saying, how wonderful it. is to scientists. Yes. So, Fabiola, I'd like to turn to you. I know that you are an extremely accomplished pianist. Other than being a world renowned physicist. So, I think you probably have a very unique perspective in terms of music and the role that music has played in your life and your work.
Yeah. Thanks for the for the very good question. Thanks for having me on, on this panel. So, since you asked for a personal perspective, I have a background in humanities and music. So when I was at high school, I studied humanities and then music at the conservatory in parallel. And then I decided to undertake a professional activity in physics and many things. Many, many people would ask me how it comes that you moved away from humanities and music to into physics. I said I didn't move away from anything. I work in the continuity. So there are very, very strong relations, as we know, between arts and science, not only because they are both, among the highest expression of human curiosity, creativity, ingenuity and humanity. Desire to explore the unknown, uncharted territories, but also in the method both artists and scientists are familiar with experimentation and iteration as necessary. Step toward achieving the goal. Let me come back to the concept of complexity to illustrate the strong links between physics and music. So Carolyn and I said, nature looks extremely complex. Look at the species, the universe, extremely complex. Same thing in music. Symphony by Brahms is an extremely complex thing. Yet in both cases, this complexity is based on simplicity. If you look at the fundamental constituents of the visible universe, these are three particles up quarks, down quarks and electrons. Everything we see is the combination of these three elementary things. Likewise, music is combination of just seven notes. So there are many, many commonalities. And there is a very profound relation. The the fabric of nature is really anchored to principle of beauty and simplicity like its music.
Beautifully said. So, Nomzamo, you come from the performing arts again. You know, the performing arts really move us all. And I was curious about your take and your experience in collaboration with scientists.
Morning, everyone. I'm so privileged to be on the stage with every one of you. I think for me, I always lean towards what Maya Angelou said, which is it is the artist's duty to reflect the times. And so we use the vehicle of storytelling to paint that picture, to give science a language. And I do find that sometimes we have these very, very high level conversations. But if you don't have the language, then it won't be able to translate. And so our duty as artists is to give the most complex of, of of things language and language is at the is at the very center of it. And so when you give it a language, you're able to craft it into a story. And for me, I've been privileged to be able to not only tell stories that are pre-dated, but also stories that are modern. I find that especially now, at the very core of society, we do need art as an escapism. We need art, to to help us step back, to look within. How many times have you thought of a song or heard a song and it gives you an exact emotion as when you first heard it. It takes you back to a place, to a time, it takes you back to a person and a feeling. And so I do think that when it comes to the merging of, of your science and, and the arts, the very core of it again is language.
Now, I think that is, so prescient of you that, you know, science has its own language, which has its power, but it also has its limitations. And therefore finding the vocabulary, sort of the semantics that will allow and expand the reach. You know, increasingly, we live in a society where anything and everything we do is percolated by science and technology, and we have to engage. And I think finding the the multiplicity of languages to translate sort of important scientific ideas so that they are available for everyone to access is just so important. And I think it's becoming ever more important, especially as we are starting to talk about going beyond human intelligence and starting to look at artificial intelligence. You know, I think I want to come back to a point that all of you touched upon, in different ways, is the concepts of beauty and, beauty reflecting beauty through art, seeing beauty in science. And I'd love to hear your thoughts about how the sort of storytelling and interpolating, if you will, between these various kinds of creative capacities. What, how how do we get this? We clearly get a very effective form of storytelling. So I'd like you to speculate a little bit more about, you know, what are the ways in which this kind of interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary storytelling could actually impact the world? Caroline.
Okay. Yes. So, I mean, scientific knowledge, if it doesn't reach society, it has no impact. Right? I think it is very important. This is something I learned a bit the hard way. I was very naive and I started science. I thought like, oh, we create this knowledge and then people use it, then we create it. Right? And this is not the case. And I think one problem is the dialogue bringing it to the society, bring it to the community and the public. And we need to build a bridge between science and society. And this bridge is to build understanding and also trust. I think a lot of times also when it comes to AI, I mean, we had the Covid pandemic, right? We realized there is a lot of distrust, and I think it also stems from a problem and complexity is not clear. And people feel overwhelmed. They don't trust it as well. So I think it's very important to do that. And I think one important part is, again, the storytelling to to show the beauty of the science, to show how you actually can use this knowledge and empower people and make them somehow like, you know, being able when I have this knowledge, I can do more. I can do something with that, right? Empower me. And all the very important example I have, I think, in health, but also when it comes to climate and so on, the knowledge we have often are like behavioral changes that we need to do where we don't directly see the consequences. Yet it's something that goes into the future. And so for people, they our brain is often not living in the far future. It's like in a short time. So what is needed in this regard is in a way that people feel this right now, the consequences are, and art can actually also make that happen to see the reality how it is in the future.
Fabiola.
Maybe, maybe I can add that, emotions, beauty, storytelling are often associated to science communication, but not so much to scientific discovery. And I think that actually they are central to the way science progresses, advances, take emotions. Emotion is the fuel of intuition. And of course, many breakthrough actually begin with a an emotional thinking more than a certainty. Einstein famously said, imagination is more important than knowledge, and imagination is very much close to our emotional sphere, pretty much as it's close also to our rational thinking beauty. We see beauty everywhere, in nature, in the universe, and in the, beautiful species and plants, animals and everything that surrounds us. But there is something more profound. If you look at the fundamental equation that governs the elementary particles, their interaction. So the building blocks of nature and the visible universe, they are based on symmetry principle. So aesthetical principle. And a very famous physicist, Nobel laureate, British physicist Paul Dirac, one of the developers of quantum mechanics, used to say a theory with mathematical beauty is more likely to be correct than an ugly one. So this is really shows the power of, of of beauty.
So yeah, I would so I'm curious to sort of ask you both about, you know, is there a way in which you see, art helping and sort of accelerating sort of creativity and breakthroughs in science and innovation? What sort of arc do you both see?
I mean, if you look, if you look at the the famous films of Christopher Nolan, who really loves to center science in, in most of his films now, some films they translate and some films we all leave the theater scratching our heads, thinking, what was that.
All about? Inception, right?
100%.
Not interstellar.
Interstellar. But you look at his latest offering, which was Oppenheimer, which was a brilliant film, and it was centered on science. It gave it beauty, it gave it access to the person who loves art, who loves, film, but was able to access science in a very, very different way. And I and I think of even Stephen Hawking's film as well, where it was talking about his life. We were offered science through that as well. So I do think that in most cases we are so interconnected because without engineering we can't build cameras. Yes. And without building cameras, we can't film without engineering, without science, we can't build studios. And the latest, engineering, sound engineering sort of boards to be able to, to make music instruments. So it's so interconnected when you really think about it, that we're not really in silos, in certain instances. But I think for us it's important as, as artists to be able to not only tell the human story, but tell how science informs who we are. Yeah.
And I think building on you, when you talked about the imagination, I think that's the most powerful part, because I believe something really simple, like if something is unimaginable, it becomes unactionable. And if you want the action coming out of the science, we have the power to speak to that emotion. And taking that science, taking away the barriers. We can take away the complexity and using beauty as a tool of almost as a honeytrap to get people into the gateway of science, like the work that we did here at the forum, where you can see this beautiful sculpture of leaves that are disappearing and reappearing, and the moment you read that one line saying, every leaf is 100m² of forest lost, then people are like, oh! And then they dive in real time. So we take the satellite data and it translates real time into sculpture. And it's this way where you use beauty not to alienate people, not to scare them off. I mean, people are numb by numbers. They're they're scared of headlines. But using beauty as a gateway to science, I think that that is the key. And that's what helps us.
Yeah. And I think you've all made this point very beautifully, from your particular vantage points that, you know, sort of the creative leap that you need to make in science for a breakthrough. And the inspiration for that creative leap comes from all kinds of directions. And I think that art and engagement with art, music and with aesthetics in general gives you that catalyst. For sure. And I think you one reads about all these accounts of discovery from scientists, right? Where they talk about, you know, dreaming about it, visualizing it in some way. And this idea, very abstract idea, suddenly they are able to make it more concrete with that sort of leap. So I think part of what has happened in the academy. Right. So I'm also a deeply interdisciplinary person. I have an unfinished PhD in history and philosophy of science. I say that very quietly, unfinished, but whatever.
We'll hold you to it.
Yeah. That's right.
So I think that in the academy and in university education, for example, or even in high schools, right. We need to integrate the disciplines much, much more. So I'd love to hear from all of you how we can sort of what kind of interventions we can do in sort of, you know, formal educational systems that we have for young people coming through sort of high school so that we don't actually shut out and quench this kind of new, bursting, sort of creativity.
It's. Yeah.
I want to take a shot.
Yeah. So, today we find ourselves in a in a paradox. On the one hand, much of education education today teaches very specialized and very narrow, narrow, yet deep skills. Because this is what technology demands us right now, you have to be super specialized and super expert in a very narrow domain. On the other hand, the world and technology are rapidly changing, so today's skill may not be adapted at all to tomorrow's challenges. So what the new generation needs is an education that gives them, well, which promotes curiosity, which promotes, open minded and which gives them the tools and the capability to adapt to, to a changing world. So that's why it's very important to bring together humanities, arts and sciences, to give people this kind of, you know, open and broad mind that will allow them to adapt to the changes in society and in the, of course, in the, in the work, that society needs.
Yeah, I love that. And the only thing is to create a dialogue, create those spaces. Because as an artist, scientists are really intimidating. And scientists, sometimes artists are really intimidating. I mean, we all drink coffee. Like, that's a good starting point. Yes. And in that sense, like creating that space where you create these interdisciplinary collisions, learning from each other, but also feeling comfortable and creating that trust bond that I will take care of your science and bring it into a way to the world. That's understandable, but that is also scientifically correct. I think building that trust bond, that is something that they need to start educating on as much.
As possible. And I think, you know, it can start very early for children. Yes.
So I definitely I love that question because it takes me back to what just happened in South Africa about a week ago or two, essentially the grade 12, which is your final year, and the results were announced and the reporters went to a particular school, an all boys school, and it's a top performing school. And they went to the two top learners who had excelled in their academics. And they were asked, so what are you going to study? So what's next? Right with college? And a clip went viral because the young man who was the top performing student said, I got accepted into Harvard. I'm going to be doing dramatic arts, but I'm also going to be doing a commerce course. And the discourse on social media was absolutely fascinating, because when you mention the arts, it's almost like it's a hobby. Yeah, it doesn't really contribute to much, right? It doesn't match up to your science. It doesn't match up to your equity funds and all kinds of things and the commerce of the world. But it was interesting to see how people were so judgmental that he wanted to actually take up dramatic arts, along with studying towards a Bachelor of Science in Commerce or something. Right. And so I do think that the narrative has to shift about holistic learning, but also the holistic human experience that you look at. Even an Einstein who was also an artist.
Yes, absolutely.
At the very core. And so how do we how do we as a society, when it comes to the academic lens, offer those kinds of things to say? There's a holistic element to the human experience, and you are allowed to be like Fabiola. Excellent. And piano and also excellent in the science field.
Right. I mean, I think it would be great if, you know, this was not an extremely unusual. Of course, it goes without saying that you have to be Uber talented right along multiple dimensions to have that. But I think, as you know, as it has been pointed out, you know, you don't actually have to be a concert level pianist or violinist. It's something that you can do, enjoy, as a form of self-expression, as a form of personal enjoyment. And that gives you sort of, you know, like a creative vaccine. You know, every time you do that. And Caroline.
Yes, I mean, I also wanted to add, I think there is a movement, at least in Switzerland, I see that which I don't think is so great because I remember the discussion about being artist and scientist. You know, I remember I mean, don't go into art. You will not make money, you will not have a career. I mean, I probably shouldn't also have chosen science because you're also not making money.
Exactly. But for a career. But.
What is what I see also in schools now, what happens is they will use crafting things and add more things for our brain. You know, languages, mathematics. Of course, this is all important.
And makerspaces, right. They're a big thing.
Now that is crazy. And I think this is going the wrong way. Right. It's going the wrong way. And what I also think and you touched upon it this, this interdisciplinarity. But what is interesting on the science level, we often think about interdisciplinarity with other science fields in engineering and then molecular. And then you already think, wow, great. I am so like interacting with people. And then you realize this is very narrow, right? I mean, you have to go across sectors, including art to really make a difference. And there is this holistic picture and I really, really think it has to start at home very early, and not just when we have students. It has to be part of of our culture and our education.
Yeah. And I think part of what is going on is our educational structures are fairly ossified and they are very, very, clearly defined even at stages where they shouldn't be early stages when you're in school. And I think that, I remember this brings to mind, you know, I'm an alum of MIT, and, they had a committee a few years ago before the pandemic, on a task force on the future of education at MIT. What would it look like? And so the charge was in 50 years, what would it look like? And I was insistent that in 50 years there won't be departments, there would be vertices, there would be vertices where disciplines and knowledge collide. Of course this is a dream, right? I don't know, I mean, universities are quite slow to change. The academic sector was going to take its time. But I think part of the problem with the way university education and the faculties and departments are structured, it's really hard to promote interdisciplinarity in a fundamental way. We don't know how to evaluate interdisciplinary people. So, you know, promotions, tenure evaluation, even grants, is very, very hard given how we have set things up already in a rather inflexible way. So I think we need a lot more flexibility. So before I close, I just want to very quickly do a sort of a quick question. And I want to open up to questions from the audience. I just want you all to speculate a little bit. You know, given the state of the world right now, sort of lots of global problems, many of which are going to require probably a combinations of science, technology as well as human spirit and the arts to deal with these challenges. What is your kind of mantra for what would be an effective collaboration between science and art to tackle one of the big global problems? Just a quick fire round. I don't know, vice.
I think, I think we need to realize that we're not only into a climate crisis, a political crisis, a biodiversity crisis. I think we need to realize that we're in an imagination crisis, and that is something that needs to be teached all over the speaking to the imagination, creating these collaborations and finding ways to use culture as a catalyst. Because, as you said, universities and science are slow and the speed of culture can bring it rapidly to move societies. But we need the facts and the feelings to unite.
Nomzamo, your quick take.
Let me throw it to Caroline, okay?
Yeah. Okay. Okay.
So let me take the sleep sleep research perspective here. I believe we are in a time where we are not resting anymore and we are time. Everything goes so quickly. And there is this famous saying of Blaise Pascal. He was mathematician, philosopher in the 17th century, saying most of human troubles stem from our inability to sit quietly with ourselves, having the time to imagine, to think and to rest about it because I don't know the worst decision I did in my life, and probably the worst studies and, and, and method stuff was when I did it in a rush and I wanted to just finish it and not thinking about it. And I think we need to slow down again and, and, and have time for dialogue and have time to do that. I think that's.
Thank you. And Fabiola.
So let me let me introduce it by, mentioning that at CERN we have been running now since 2012, a program which is called Arts at CERN, which has the goal of promoting dialogue and cross-fertilization between scientists and artists through initiatives like resident artists, commissioning and exhibitions. And so and since then, since 2012, we're hosting something like 250 artists and, you know, supported more than 30, artworks. And what you can see there is the focus on the long term perspective. So I think it's important to not lose, you know, in a world that is rapidly changing with many crises, it's important to focus on the long term perspective and on the enduring values and objectives that survive to the various crises. And that can be really transformational for society.
Great. Thanks.
I think for me, it's, going back to the narrative to be able to continue to be a vehicle and a bridge between the high level conversations and the breakthroughs in which a constantly happening in science, to be able to build that bridge, to take it to civil society by using language as that vehicle, I think it's important, I've seen the power of language. Part of the work that I do outside of storytelling is that I'm also, the founder of the Nomzamo Lighthouse Foundation. And our focus this year is really around literacy. There is a huge crisis in in South Africa where young kids are not reading for meaning. And so if there's no comprehension, yeah, there's no full understanding of anything. They're unable to absorb the curriculum in school. And if you're unable to absorb the curriculum in school, you cannot understand what mathematics is saying to you, what science is even saying to you, or what English is even saying to you. And so to be able to strengthen those bridges and strengthen those vehicles by the use of language, the use of narrative, and the use of storytelling.
That sounds really powerful and potentially transformative. So I think we're all trying in our various domains. Right? So at most universities, including mine, where I direct the Frankie program in science and the humanities, there are some explicit attempts that are being made. I think we it's very clear that we really have to accelerate those attempts for conversation and collaboration. So, I would now like to invite you all to ask questions. So please raise your hand. There's a microphone that's roving good.
Thank you so much for this wonderful discussion. I just wanted to go back to your example of that young man and the response of this society, like, often, like, art is beautiful and everything, but it doesn't deliver anything concrete, like as a product that would help society as such. And in the pandemic, we had this example of we need science right now, we need this product that is the vaccine for for humanity. Yet everyone was like at home listening to music, watching movies while performing. Artists were losing their jobs. And like, I just wanted to know what. What's your perspective on that? Will? Was that changing to to like how people see see arts or nothing will change in that aspect.
Thank you for that. That's that's a provocative one. And I feel provoked. We have something that we call the creative economy, and I'm very privileged enough to be an executive producer and also a leading actress in perhaps the biggest television series in South Africa since we started production in 2022. We're now doing our third season and our final season. We've been able to employ over 20,000 people. That's a huge investment in a country that's struggling with unemployment. And the reason why we're able to even go to your season three with those kinds of budgets is, number one, having private sector as a very key partner, it's important to have those kinds of stakeholders who are going to contribute towards the creative economy, but also to be able to provide entertainment. I don't know about you, but there were many stars that were born during Covid. Everyone was making banana bread, recording themselves, sharing it on the internet. We all got very creative in the kitchen. Yes, in fact, I'd like to dare say that the Covid pandemic forced stillness within us.
Yes.
We could not care less about anything that we cared about when things were normal. We were then looking within. We found beauty in each other. We found beauty in community. And how we we came up with that community was through creative things. We were having Wine Wednesdays on FaceTime and sip and paints. Right. And so I do think that it's important for us to remember that there's there's something that we call the creative economy. There's a reason why Hollywood exists, and Hollywood is worth billions of dollars and contributes towards the GDP of the world. And so when we when we speak about whether it is commercially viable, let us remember that those, those numbers count for something. And, and every single one of the people who contribute towards the creative economy, they do it from passion. They do it because we love it. But also, I love the fact that at 8:30 p.m. on a Sunday, families are sitting around the television having family time, which is very rare because we're competing against what Netflix is calling the second screen.
Right.
And so when we are able to create that family time, we're able to create escapism. And this is also how Bollywood came about. It was the essence of escapism. And so I hope that answers the question.
Yeah. I mean, I think if I may confess here that I broke Netflix during the pandemic, honestly, I think there was nothing left that I hadn't.
Seen everything. Yes. But but.
But I also think that the pandemic was transformative. Right? Remember, it was also a time when the air in Delhi was incredibly clean. Everybody was home, right? I mean, it was transformative for the environment as well. But I think there was a question here.
Yes. Thank you very much. Scientists here. So I wanted to ask you one question, talking about the language, because we as scientists have to really communicate by publishing all the time using language, most of it English. And we really have to translate very complex findings into this nice, cohesive story, which often is not nice and it's not cohesive one. We have to translate it to the story, to other scientists later on. Of course, we have to communicate it even to the to the more public. So where to get inspired? You know, how to translate this very complex things, which we find out and then we don't understand every piece into the cohesive story, which is simple and still true.
Yeah, yeah.
Please, Fabiola.
Go for it. Oh, sorry.
If I may. Actually, this is something where we scientists can. We can learn from artists. They are able to transform complex things into emotions. And what is important. Also, when we communicate science is to communicate emotions. Not just the equation, not just the result, but the beauty of what we have discovered, the utility of what we have discovered. Physics, like science in general, is beautiful and useful. So it's a we can learn from artists. But of course it's a continuous effort that we scientists have to do to make complex, concepts simple and compelling for the public. As I said before, science is complex, looks like complex, but nature is very simple at the most fundamental level. So we have to try to, communicate that simplicity, and to share with humanity, to share what we do with humanity, discovering science, and not just for us scientists. It's for everyone. And so the beauty and how how beautiful is it to, you know, to make progress in knowledge, how beautiful it is for humanity in general.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Please.
And I feel your frustration.
Yeah.
I feel like I want to do this. I have to do this, and I want to just say. This is not your job. You're a scientist. Like, you need to focus on what you do best. And just like you collaborate with everybody, you reach out to people who do that and will help you through the system and give you a voice. Make your work simple, accessible, relatable, personal, and I the pressure on scientists to do all these things that's unhuman. If it's your hobby, if it's your passion, do it. But if not, just seek the other people out because we love you and what you do, and you can use us for what we do to translate that.
Yeah, yeah. Okay.
Okay. Very quickly. So, I, I understand that things are complex and we touch upon that. And at the same time, I'm always thinking, what is the message we want to give to people that they can really use to change something, and they don't need to know all the details. One important thing, and I think I love this idea, but I also think we are sometimes a bit too late with with collaboration, we always do something and then we think, okay, how can we outreach? We should start very right.
And afterthought rather than.
Yeah, so by design, think how when we start the studies like interact with artists and scientists. And I love this. I mean self-awareness that we are limited in what we can do, but others can do other things much better. So let's collaborate and work together to make this happen. And that's I.
Mean, I think that it also is helpful for scientists to learn to communicate a little bit better. You know, we have.
Yeah it does. I said this very quietly and.
In a measured fashion. But but I think, you know, we are there are now lots of efforts to teach scientists to be more effective speakers, be more effective writers, to be able to write in different formats for different audiences. I think that's important, too, because I think in science, we have all locked ourselves into a very particular kind of language and jargon, which, you know, even for us, our inside our community is sometimes daunting. Across subfields, the work doesn't become as intelligible as it ought to be. So I think there was one more question that we have time for. Yeah.
That was great. Just on the continuation of that, it's all about time at the end. And as a scientist, we we talked about it. You need to know so much. You need to even do project management. You need to do whatever. So how can we best use our time to or what would be your idea to make these collaborations happen? Or you can't do everything right.
And also, I mean, I think, what is great about your question is, you know, what's the starting point? Do you start? Collaborations should obviously not be an afterthought. But then how do you integrate these collaborations into the process of science? Right. And the practice of science. So I like to, you know, very quick takes. We just have a few minutes, a few seconds left, actually.
Two things. One of the greatest lessons of gravity had an apple at the center of it. And we all remember the story of the apple. I think the second thing is, it's to use what is around you. I don't think that scientists give themselves enough credit, because for some of the greatest discoveries that happen at a very, very high level, still impact communities and communities are able to receive it and implement it in their lives. So don't, don't, don't, don't overlook some of the great things that you're able to communicate.
Bring it down as quick as possible to how it will impact your neighbor or anybody that you love, and tell them that little story. So the moment you say, what are you doing? And you explain it, that's the moment where you know that it resonates with you. And just before you release a research or just when you're like, oh, wait, it's going this way, then you take it and communicate like, I discovered this and let them practice on them, like use them. So that's just that. Before releasing your research talk, start talking to them.
Okay. So I think it's a wrap. And thank you everyone for this wonderful conversation. And let's look forward to more sort of inspiration for all creative, innovative and diverse. Thank you so much to the panelists and the audience for being here.