We believe that nature belongs to everyone, and therefore its study is a shared responsibility for women and men. But the figures show that society still tends to steer boys towards science, and girls are often encouraged to take other directions. With this annual event, we want to show that studying and researching science is gender neutral. To this end, we organized a Girly Afternoon, a two-hour programme, which attracted 35 secondary school girls.
After registration, those interested visited different research places in groups. One of these was the laboratory of the Ultrafast Nanoscience Group, a cleanroom area. Anyone wishing to enter must wear a hair cover, a cleanroom lab coat and cleanroom footwear. This is to protect the equipment, as even a strand of hair or a speck of dust can affect the measurements. Donning cleanroom attire was already an adventure for our guests, but it was what they found inside that was really exciting.
One of the displays showed a special creature. It soon became apparent that the supposed monster was in fact the magnified head of a fly, especially its compound eyes. The other image presented a section of the eye, where the tiny hexagonal eyes were distinguishable. The resolution of the latter image is close to the range, the nanoworld, in which our nanophysicists work. A nanometre is the billionth of a metre. How small is that? The diameter of a human (flaxen) hair is 0.05 millimetres, or 50 micrometres. Our physicists produce shapes 250 times smaller than that, roughly 200 nanometres. The tiny shapes produced by this special process can be used to study extraordinary physical phenomena.
Some of our guests got acquainted with radiation protection and laser safety and visited the isotope laboratory. Everything in our biology laboratory revolved around zebrafish embryos. The students learned why these fish are excellent subjects for experiments and were also told about the experiments conducted on them. During the demonstration, traditional and automatic pipettes, petri dishes and other interesting items were shown around.
Event participants could also observe the movement of fish embryos under a microscope. In the chemistry laboratory, they could witness the encounter of Easter and liquid nitrogen. At minus 196 degrees Celsius, the researchers froze lettuce leaves and, with the help of the guests, crushed them into small pieces (the shreds were placed under eggs painted with dye extracted from plants). Our colleagues poured nitrogen on an inflated balloon, which first collapsed and then slowly regained its original shape. They also discussed why a clean tissue frozen with nitrogen does not break and what happens when liquid is spilled on a tissue waiting to be frozen.
After the lab visits, our researchers invited the girls to an informal chat in the Focus, our Interactive Visitor Space. Vera Horváth, head of the outreach centre and organizer of the Girly Afternoon, asked the students to describe what it takes to be a good researcher.
The answers included traits like smart, creative, hardworking, cooperative, open-minded. When asked if there are any qualities that are unique to men, the girls could not come up with any. In other words, it is not a lack of ability that explains why many more men than women have won Nobel Prizes. Vera Horváth also mentioned an interesting fact in Hungary: more women start PhD studies than men, yet more men than women obtain their degrees.
The discussion also touched upon the activities of theoretical physicists and who can be a role model. According to our colleagues, it is usually the supervisor, but you can also learn a lot from your fellow students. The prospect of working abroad can also be tempting, as you can challenge yourself outside your comfort zone. The students also asked if female colleagues at the institute had been discriminated against because of their sex. There has not been any such case; on the contrary, many women hold senior positions at ELI ALPS.
Anna Lili Kovács, specializing in biology and chemistry, came from Kossuth Lajos Secondary School affiliated with the University of Debrecen. It was her physics teacher who drew her attention to this event. Anna Lili had been considering research as a serious career opportunity, but seeing the zebrafish as an example of the exciting topics that can be studied at such an institute, she feels her future is sealed. She says they have been experimenting in chemistry classes, and she is looking forward to doing dissections in biology classes in the next academic year. Diána Kelemen, from the same school, responded to our invitation being a student specializing in mathematics and physics. In the physics classes, it is mainly the teacher who does the experiments, but Diána would be happy if they could take over occasionally. She usually fulfils this wish of hers in the physics club. For both students, independent experimentation is important, which is why it was a particular experience for them to have the opportunity to try their hands at it at our institute.
Thank you for coming, and we look forward to seeing you and other secondary school students with similar interests at our next event!