Scholars in Search of a Better World: 20 Tales from Poland
The book is the story of people of science and the passion with which they explored the world in search of the better one. The publication was created on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Can the world become a better place through science? The answers are sought by contemporary Polish authors who, in short essays, bring us closer to the often dramatic and strongly entangled in history fates of eminent scientists. These are 20 scientists representing various scientific fields and living across the centuries. They were united by their passion for research and inquisitiveness in learning about the surrounding world. This is a peculiar picture of the history of Polish science against the background of the history of the country and international changes and breakthroughs. For they were participants in, and even causal agents of, these events.
They are not only well-known heroes, always associated with Poland, such as Nicolaus Copernicus, Ignacy Łukasiewicz, Stefan Banach, Jan Hevelius, Jan Czochralski or Maria Skłodowska-Curie. The pantheon of Polish science is also made up of those less recognisable, such as Maria Zakrzewska, a physician of Polish origin, who, despite the restrictions imposed on women, revolutionised the training of nurses and doctors in the United States; Józefa Joteyko, a physiologist and psychologist, successful abroad, but rejected in Poland by the ossified scientific community; or Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, a heroic nurse and legendary organiser of palaeontological expeditions.
The writers and writers invited by the Polish Academy of Sciences have tried in various forms to bring the researchers’ profiles closer. The book includes essays, short stories, a transcript of a family discussion, a memoir by the main character’s son and even… a fairy tale.
The stories were created by: Maciej Hen, Stefan Chwin, Wojciech Nowicki, Łukasz Orbitowski, Sylwia Chutnik, Krzysztof Siwczyk, Mikołaj Łoziński, Izabela Morska, Andrzej Muszyński, Inga Iwasiów, Paweł Goźliński, Ignacy Karpowicz, Kaja Malanowska, Piotr Siemion, Weronika Murek, Wit Szostak, Maciej Miłkowski, Łukasz Zawada, Piotr Wojciechowski and Joanna Bator.
What came out of the combination of two elements – the figures of eminent scientists and contemporary writers – was a unique blend. As Olga Tokarczuk, winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature, writes: ‘Their [the authors’] individual and unique point of view reveals completely unexpected perspectives to readers, showing scientific discovery as part of a cultural and social wider context. Thus, the figures of the scientists become less distant and their achievements – even if not fully understood – closer to life’.
The entire book is complemented by original illustrations. They present the scientists in an original and contemporary way. The biographies of male and female writers, in turn, are accompanied by cartoon miniatures. The author of the illustrations is graphic artist and illustrator Agata ‘Endo’ Nowicka.
The publication is available in two language versions: in Polish (download PDF) and in English (download PDF).