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SCHOLARS IN SEARCH
OF A BETTER WORLD:
20 Tales from Poland

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which falls in 2022, the Academy published a book "​Scholars in search of a better world: 20 Tales from Poland". It is a story about people of science, about the passion with which they got to know the world and about the difficulties they faced.

We have selected twenty prominent figures connected with Poland, who lived through the ages and represented various scientific disciplines.

The idea is unusual in that the fates of the characters, often dramatic and strongly entangled in history, were brought closer to us by contemporary Polish writers.

The result is a unique, polyphonic story about science and its history, as well as an encounter with contemporary Polish literature, with the sensitivity and inventiveness of authors who have returned to the formalized world of scientific theories the feelings, emotions, desires and imaginings of their characters.

20 SCHOLARS

"Twenty well-known contemporary authors have taken on the interesting and important task of writing the profiles of twenty Polish scholars. Their unique and individual point of view gives the reader some quite unusual perspectives, showing scientific discovery within the broader cultural and social context. Through this approach, the scientists become less remote figures, and – even if we cannot understand them fully – their achievements are brought closer to our lives."

Olga Tokarczuk

Nicolaus Copernicus

“There are more important things than intimacy beetween two people.” “What things?” In reply, she pointed at the sky, sparkling with stars. “Those things,” she said. Rheticus was not sure if she meant her beloved’s work, or simply Providence…
Maciej Hen

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Johannes Hevelius

Any scientist might have envied him his collection of more than three hundred volumes on astronomy and the exact sciences, and the fact that he had his own publishing house, where he published his scientific works to an excellent standard…
Stefan Chwin

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Ignacy Domeyko

But in Chile he left a far greater legacy: a mountain range in the Andes was named after him, as were a town, schools, libraries and squares, a chemical compound that he discovered, and the skeleton of a tyrannosaurus...
Wojciech Nowicki

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IGNACY ŁUKASIEWICZ

Then one day he appeared at dusk in the main street of the city, carrying before him a lamp of a kind that no one had ever seen before, made of steel and glass.
Inside danced an extraordinary, bright flame that refused to go out....
Łukasz Orbitowski

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Maria
ZAKRZEWSKA

I have not been idle. Ever. Before the age of thirty, I had founded this country’s first hospital for women and children that was staffed entirely by women. By then I was an experienced midwife, so I could share my knowledge with others. My colleagues underwent practical training and instruction at the hospital…  
Sylwia Chutnik

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JAN NIECISŁAW
BAUDOUIN DE COURTENAY

de Courtenay was opposed to systems in every possible incarnation. He paid for this attitude with a stretch in a Russian fortress. He was driven to it not by madness, but by an uncompromising moral attitude that made him an advocate of what we would call human rights…Krzysztof Siwczyk

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MARIA SKŁODOWSKA-CURIE

The life of Maria Skłodowska-Curie has a well-established, practically undisputed trajectory. The daughter of two teachers and the youngest of five children, who lost her mother at an early age. Departure for France, higher education, marriage to the like-minded researcher…
Izabela Morska

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MARIAN SMOLUCHOWSKI

What could life have been like in Cieszyn in January 1915? Was the room large or small, hot or cold? Did they heat up the professor’s stove to stop him from freezing? Did they put him in a uniform, the man who was Einstein’s sparring partner, or were things more relaxed?
Andrzej Muszyński

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FLORIAN ZNANIECKI

When I ask myself where I could meet Florian, I see the writers/academics who move from scholarship to literature in search of a language that can bring them/me closer to recognising reality…
Inga Iwasiów

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Józefa
JOTEYKO

Holding a pile of papers, Józefa approaches the lectern. The lecture hall falls silent. She is trying not to feel stress, and to forget about the fact that the only Pole to have lectured at the Collège de France before her was Adam Mickiewicz…
Mikołaj Łoziński

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RUDOLF WEIGL

An epidemic never ends — it just lies in wait, lurking deep inside furs and in warm blood. It has its preferred species, favourite routes it follows with them, special hiding places that you have to discover…
Paweł Goźliński

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BRONISŁAW MALINOWSKI

And [he] created a new form of anthropology. Language is the key; a lack of prior assumptions is the door. You must cross the threshold and beyond it learn the rules that apply there…
Ignacy Karpowicz

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LUDWIK HIRSZFELD

Until recently, armed with vaccines, (…) convinced that world cataclysms belong to a chapter in history that would never be repeated, we listened to stories about epidemics from the safe distance…
Kaja Malanowska

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JAN CZOCHRALSKI

He owed all his successes in the years following the first war to Metal B. And that was an alloy. In other words, a harmonious mixture of various substances, a perfect mixture, one of a kind...
Piotr Siemion

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Stefan
BANACH

He taught himself mathematics and foreign languages; he worked in a bookshop and supported himself by tutoring. The First World War passed him by: he is short-sighted (…). He loves mathematics but is not particularly interested in a career…
Weronika Murek

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ROMAN INGARDEN

The young man in the first photograph will never grow old. The old man in the second photograph has never been young. Neither of them will die, even though the photographs can be destroyed…
Wit Szostak

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Alfred Tarski [Teitelbaum]

“To tell you the truth…” Tarski replied. “To tell you the truth…” “Alfred simply didn’t want to worry you,” his brother Wacław interjected. “Isn’t that the truth?” Truth, he thought. In the everyday meaning of the word… In everyday language…
Maciej Miłkowski

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STANISŁAW ULAM

His part in the shaping of the modern world may seem rather quiet, but it is impressive, so one could take a broad swing and present Stanisław Ulam in ninety-two (…) picturesque scenes…
Łukasz Zawada

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LESZEK KOŁAKOWSKI

Out of this irremovable fracture in the human world leaps the devil, and today I feel a profound spiritual affinity with Kołakowski’s belief in the existence of metaphysical evil. Is it possible to eradicate evil? No…
Joanna Bator

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Zofia
KIELAN-JAWOROWSKA

When she wielded a spade in the Zoology Museum courtyard, Zofia Kielan was twenty years old. She was dogged and devoted to her chosen scientific passions — and her refined character, polished at home, in the scouting movement and during the Uprising, enabled her to achieve a very great deal.
Piotr Wojciechowski

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Authors

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

Joanna Bator

Editors

Jerzy Duszyński

Concept, editor

Anna Plater-Zyberk

Concept, lead editor

Eliza Kącka

Editorial

Agata ​"Endo​” Nowicka

Illustrations

Anna Piwowar

Graphic design & layout

Translation: Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Eliza Marciniak

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