Why Ice Cream Tastes Better in Hot Weather: HSE's Science Republic Takes Part in Popular Science Festival at VDNKh
In early June, the Science Republic initiative of the Centre for Student Academic Development presented popular science projects at the Science and Ice Cream Festival at VDNKh. On June 5, 13, and 14, HSE University ran an extensive programme of events, from lectures to intellectual games. The events took place at the BIOTECH Museum, Museum of Urban Economy of Moscow, and Smart City pavilions.
Discovery: The Neurobiology of Taste
The festival opened with the lecture ‘Why Ice Cream Tastes Better: The Neurobiology of Pleasure and the Illusion of Taste’ by Ksenia Naumova, researcher at HSE Centre for Cognition & Decision Making. The lecture was held at the BIOTECH Museum in Pavilion No. 30.
Guests learnt why ice cream tastes better in hot weather (the temperature contrast enhances the neural signal), how food packaging and naming change its taste even before the first bite, and why hunger is the best spice from the point of view of neurobiology. The lecture culminated in a live experiment: the guests sampled ice cream in different conditions and experienced how the taste of the same product varies depending on the context.
Ksenia Naumova
‘Participation in the festival has been a valuable experience of scientific communication for me. Such events allow researchers to share their work with a wide audience and show how fundamental research is related to real-life issues. I really enjoyed seeing guests' interest in neuroscience and food perception research. Science festivals help us form a culture of scientific thinking and make modern research more approachable and understandable to people,’ said Ksenia.
An Intellectual Tournament, Games, and Discussions
The following weekend, the scientists held a rich programme in two pavilions at the same time. The Museum of Urban Economy and the Demographer student community hosted an intellectual game in the format of the game show What? Where? When? Teams competed in their knowledge of relevant scientific facts and research.
Moscow residents and guests had an excellent opportunity to see the academic environment from a new perspective through scientific games. Scientific curators presented the game ‘Science Hat,’ in which participants explained scientific concepts through associations and gestures, as well as the game ‘Sociological Imagination: Stranger Society.’
‘I am happy that despite the bad weather and heavy rain at VDNKh the day before, interested guests came to our site. Dozens of people took part in the game, and everyone showed amazing creativity, finding ways to explain complex scientific concepts through familiar everyday associations. I liked seeing the participants’ sincere excitement. I believe that this introduction to science will help them take the first step towards closer interaction with the academic environment,’ says Ulyana Kalenbet, host of the game, scientific curator and resident of the Science Republic.
The evening programme switched format from games to discussions.
Anna Safonova
‘My colleague Antonina Novikova, doctoral student of the Doctoral School of Psychology, and I talked about scientific theories in psychology that contribute to human well-being. We were pleasantly surprised by the great interest and engagement of the audience. The guests learned how we can measure happiness, whether it depends on money, and which components of our lives are important for well-being. The festival gave us an opportunity to share research, and this kind of application of knowledge for the benefit of people is one of the key values and reasons why we are engaged in science,’ said Anna Safonova, research assistant at the Laboratory for the Psychology of Salutogenic Environment of the Faculty of Social Sciences.
The festival culminated in the lecture ‘The Chemistry of Envy in the Kitchen of Life.’ Using a culinary metaphor, Natalia Baluyeva, resident of the Science Republic, practicing psychotherapist, and master in positive psychology at HSE University, explained that envy is not a vice, but a signal: a mixture of annoyance, admiration, and a sense of injustice that indicates what is truly important to us. Natalia analysed two ‘recipes’ for envy—benign, which motivates us to grow, and malignant, which pushes us to sabotage and resentment—and proposed a simple procedure: recognise the feeling, understand what you really want, and take one small step in this direction. The main conclusion of the lecture is that envy is inevitable, like salt in the kitchen; it can spoil a dish if you overuse it, or enhance the taste if you add it in moderation.
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