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During an interview, a journalist asked Albert Einstein if he could explain the Law of Relativity in a simple way, so that he could understand it. Einstein replied: —Can you explain to me how to fry an egg? The journalist looked at him strangely and He answered: —Yes, of course. And Einstein replied: —Well, do it, but imagining that I don't know what an egg is, or a frying pan, or oil, or fire.
Assuming that this anecdote—of the many attributed to Einstein—is true, and considering that in reality the journalist did not achieve what he was looking for, the truth is that the dialogue demonstrates that science and humor are a powerful duo, and if it is right used, it can be useful for those who do not belong to the scientific world to understand some of its phenomena. Even Galileo, a great popularizer of modern science, already knew this, who with satirical humor wrote “Dialogue on the two greatest systems of the world: the Ptolemaic and the Copernican” in 1632, to explain and reflect on the movements of the Earth, the tides and other topics. The informative value of this work is not only based on the fact that Galileo wrote it in Italian - a language accessible to anyone who knew how to read at the time, and not in Latin, the scholarly language of that time - but that he structured it based on conversations of three characters: Salviati, inspired by Galileo himself and who defended Copernicus' theory (the Earth revolves around the Sun); Simplicio, who defended Ptolemy's theory (the Earth is the center of the Universe) and who is said to be inspired by the then Pope Urban VIII, and Sagredo, who represented the common man of his time, who did not know which theory to believe. Galileo's effort was as valuable as it was brave, since he also risked having his postulates considered heresy.
Since then, fortunately, the dissemination of science is less risky, but something has not changed: the use of humor continues to be a valuable resource to communicate it. Today, proof of this is “Big Van, scientists on wheels”, the Spanish group of scientific stand-up comedians that for three years has been dedicated to disseminating science to the general public in a fun way. Made up of 20 researchers from different areas, Big Van—a name inspired by the TV series but mixed with its itinerant spirit—was in Uruguay last week to participate in the 1st Open Science Forum of Latin America and the Caribbean (Cilac), organized by UNESCO. Within the framework of that forum they made presentations, gave a workshop to teach scientists how to communicate, and were hosts of the Science Slam Festival also organized by UNESCO, in which local stand-up comedians competed. As if they were stars of the scientific world, the group brought together many of their Uruguayan colleagues with the same success as on their first visit, in 2015, when the first festival was organized. From that instance, the first Uruguayan group of science stand-up comedians was born: Bardo Científico.
And the Big Vans know what competitions are, as they met at FameLab, an international science monologue competition that was held in Spain for the first time in 2013. Since then, from that pioneering group of 12 researchers They soon became one of the phenomena of current scientific dissemination, expanding in number and also outside the stages. Currently, in addition to his monologues and workshops, Big Van's work is present on the Internet (www.bigvanscience.com), Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and in several books published both in groups and individually. Microbial fuel cells, the famous hadron collider, the force of gravity, black holes, binary code, prime numbers, derivatives, cryptography, immortality and even how to measure the diameter of the Earth with a stick selfie are some of the topics transformed into humorous monologues.
Visiting Montevideo, four of the 20 members spoke with the gallery. Eduardo Sáenz de Cabezón is a mathematician, professor in the area of Computer Languages and Systems at the University of La Rioja and researcher in computer algebra; Alberto Vivó is a biotechnologist, master in Nanotechnology, researcher in Bioenergy; Oriol Marimon is a chemist, molecular biologist and doctor in Biophysics, and Helena González Burón is a doctor in Genetics and Cancer Biology. The four, with little seriousness, talked about humor and the dissemination of science.