Science, Rationally

 "Science, ethics and culture should be part of the public sphere, and they should be presented in an engaging manner," says Lyubomir Baburov from the popular science platform Ratio, shortly after the end of the most recent forum in Sofia Tech Park, which featured international speakers, and shortly before biologists and astrophysicists gathered for an event on the roof of Muzeiko, which was followed by a meeting with Dr. Clara Nellist from the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Ratio celebrated their first decade earlier this year, and in addition to their many events, the platform is increasingly known for its podcast. According to Lyubomir Baburov, co-founder of Ratio, there are more and more Bulgarian podcasts with good production values, but he considers their project a special case because it gradually gained importance with time among their other activities.

Images are from Ratio Forum 2022 – spring / Photographer: Mihaela Yaneva

"Our podcast has changed radically from its inception to today. At first it was just an addition to our main activities – we have invited interesting speakers to do an event for us, and we just chat with them before or after. Then 2020 happened, and all fifty events we had planned for the year were effectively scrapped. We started to adapt to more online content.”

The team started Ratio Weekly, in which they discuss current scientific topics, or “crazy stuff,” as Lyubomir puts it – for example, sneaky photosynthetic sea slugs. "We ventured beyond the natural sciences with our Vox Nihili series, where Stoyan Stavrou and I discuss topics related to ethics, law and philosophy. Then came the inter alia series, where Vasil Lozanov created a distinct space for conversations about culture and the arts."

 

Recent episodes have discussed how climate change affects summers, whether we can trust the claims that Google has created a sentient artificial intelligence, and criminal cases solved with the help of science.

With more than 300 episodes under their belts, they have observed that experimenting with the format doesn't distract from the core concept, but helps them avoid getting stuck in a rut. "In the beginning, we were very worried that listeners wouldn't be able to keep up at this rate of production. It turned out that as long as our content is high quality, it will find its audience. People don't necessarily listen to every single episode – listeners look for the topics that work best for them."

For their live events and online content, they work with a huge amount of information, some of which is subjectively shaped by projections and guesswork. Has it gotten easier or harder to separate credible from fake information over the past ten years?

"The more important thing is to rely on a solid process for acquiring and validating information. Fortunately, we have close contacts with many people in the sciences, including within our organization. We use them as a content validation tool. And although over time we have built up a certain amount of confidence in navigating information flow, the important thing for us is to always treat any information as penultimate. When news of a new discovery comes out, we should, on the one hand, cover it and talk about it, but on the other hand, be ready to replace it with newer data in our content. For example, it may turn out that the news covered a discovery more sensationally at first, and its applications are actually very limited. So we always approach it with a certain amount of skepticism."

Their 2022 program is full until the end of the year, and sometimes includes three events a month, with a larger forum coming up on November 19.

As the podcast evolves, so do the topics of their live events. "This year we also started paying attention to topics related to our new narratives on the podcast: literature, ethics, culture and art. The goal is for our organization to cover more topics from the intellectual realm – again, in an accessible way. The aim is for Ratio events to serve as a viable alternative to concerts, film screenings or other pleasant ways of spending your free time."

 

This year, Ratio also began organizing events where science and business can meet, which they say is prompted by how these fields are developing in our country. "Bulgaria already has quite a few specialists with great potential in institutes, startups and other organizations. To realize this potential, there must be an easy way to form groups in which to communicate ideas and realize collaborations. Here, our job is to act as kind of solder, to bring these people together in one place.”

What lies ahead? The team is busy working on topics that, for one reason or another, they haven't managed to cover. "Our current phase is about going into greater detail, not necessarily general topics. When we talk about going into detail, there are many, many things that would be interesting to cover: aspects of material science, symbolic AI, texture as an element of nutrition and the like. And these are just some topics that are on our agenda for the coming weeks."