Do you have in mind a question you would like to ask researchers? Now is the time for it as researchers from three European universities compete in a playful Science Battle to solve puzzling questions. Send us a question and come follow the search for answers at the first EC2U Science Battle on September 24th.
Science Battle is a game like event to show the public in a concrete way how researchers tackle a new research question and to demonstrate the process of research. Game was created year 2016 at the University of Turku, Finland and now it will expand as a battle between European Campuses of City Universities (EC2U) alliance.
On the first round, on Researchers’ NIght of 2021, the battle is between Universities of Pavia from Italy, Poitiers from France and Turku from Finland. Year 2022 battle is between Universities of Coimbra from Portugal, Iasi from Romania, Jena from Germany and Salamanca from Spain. On third round the battle will be between of the winners of previous years.
In 2021–2022, the game will be conducted online as well as on-site if corona restrictions allow. The final will be held on the home campus of either finalist.
Send us your question
The Firs EC2U Science Battle features three six-member and multidisciplinary teams of researchers. Teams are locked in a glass cube for three hours to resolve questions submitted by the audience. Each competition venue has a host. There will be also one or several judges, who will arbitrarily award teams points for wit, entertainment, reasoning, finality, and the audience will be able to give additional points according to their own preference.
The public has a significant role to play in the implementation of the event. Questions to researchers are compiled from suggestions received from the public. The public can follow the work of researchers enclosed in glass cubes from the outside or via internet. The audience may also help teams and ask more questions.
Research teams are multidisciplinary, and questions can be anything. In the previous Science Battles researchers have wondered, among other things, why stars and other celestial bodies like the earth are almost round, whether it is ethically better to eat insects than meat, why water pipes freeze more easily when the frost eases, why man is so selfish, how many balloons are needed to lift an 80 kg person into the air, how to control eutrophication in the Baltic Sea, and what is the most decisive factor in the fight against cancer.