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1. Introduction
One of the main features of the new millennium are topics related to the environment and climate change. Even though there are still theories that climate change does not exist, and that the situation should not be taken seriously, at the end of the last century, the international community finally began to give importance to this phenomenon, seeing the urgency and necessity for changes in this field. However, even after many decades, regulations and international agreements, the major powers are abusing their position to violate the agreements and acts that they willingly acceded to, creating catastrophic consequences for climate change. One of such potential abuses is the willow project. 2. What is the Willow project? ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project is a massive and decades long oil drilling venture on Alaska’s North Slope that has been exploring and drilling for oil in Alaska for years. Willow was proposed by ConocoPhillips and originally approved by the Trump administration in 2020, originally approved to construct five drill pads, but later reduced to three. The area where the project is planned holds up to 600 million barrels of oil. That oil would take years to reach the market since the project has yet to be constructed and now that the Biden administration has given the Willow project the green light, construction can begin. However, it is unclear exactly when that will happen, in large part due to impending legal challenges. Earthjustice, an environmental law group, is expected to file a complaint against the project soon and will likely seek an injunction to try to block the project from going forward. 3. Negative impact on the climate change It is estimated that this project will emit 239 million metric tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere over the next several decades, which would be equivalent to the emissions of 64 coal-fired US power plants. Therefore, there is a good reason why environmental organizations have named this project a “carbon bomb”. In contrast to that, President of the United States has obliged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 compared to 2005 with the goal of achieving a net zero emissions economy by no later than 2050. Therefore, by approving the project, this plan would be highly jeopardized. Activists also state that Willow project is making no sense for the health of the Arctic or the planet, and they are supported both by local communities and law firms who already filed suits in regard with this case. One of their claims is also potential climate effects to the threatened species, including polar bears that reside in the region where the Willow Project would be constructed, stating that project violates several federal laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). 4. Can the Willow project be a good thing? While some focus on the negative aspects, others see this project as a great opportunity. Some Senators of U.S. congress can feel Alaska’s future brightening because of it. These thoughts come mainly from the fact that this project will create thousands of new jobs, also generating billions of dollars in new revenues, improving quality of life on the North Slope and across the state. To understand this point of view, one has to know that Alaska’s economy is heavily dependent on oil extraction. Nearly 85% of the state budget comes from oil revenues. For that reason, one can understand the potential importance of this project especially for the state of Alaska, which is currently pumping less than a quarter of the oil it was moving in the 1980s. Also, it is important to add that, even if the President’s administration wanted to react, their hands are potentially tied due to existing and valid leases in the area with ConocoPhillips. They determined that legally, courts wouldn’t have allowed them to fully reject or drastically reduce the project. If they had pursued those options, they could have faced steep fines in addition to legal action from ConocoPhillips. 5. Do we have a solution? Environmental groups and ConocoPhillips are each racing against the clock. Construction on Willow can only be done during the winter season because it needs ice roads to build the rest of the oil project’s infrastructure. If environmental groups secure an injunction before then to stop or delay the project, it could delay construction for at least a year. And since the project needs to be fully constructed before the oil can be produced, it could take years for the oil pumped out of Willow to reach the market. How can you help? Immediately after the Willow project became known to the public, activists created a petition on the change.org website called "Say no to the Willow project". This petition has more than 5 million signatures so far. If this article convinced you that Willow project can be fatal for the environment and future of our planet, you can sign the petition at this link: https://www.change.org/p/joseph-r-biden-biden-administration-and-conocophillips-say-no-to-the-willow-project.
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The exhibition Mileva: “We are one rock” was opened on New Year's Eve in the Museum of the City of Novi Sad, at the Petrovaradin Fortress, and presents the public and private life of the scientist Mileva Marić Einstein through the combination of art and science. Mileva Marić Einstein, Serbian physicist and mathematician, was born on December 19, 1875 in Titel, and died on August 4, 1948 in Zurich, Switzerland. She attended the Girls’ High School in Novi Sad, and graduated from “Realka” in Sremska Mitrovica in 1890 as the best in her class in physics and mathematics. She was only the fifth woman to be admitted to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in 1886, where she met her future husband, Albert Einstein. Mileva and Albert were married in 1903 and divorced in 1919. What is still controversial is Mileva's contribution to Einstein's scientific work. It is known that Mileva's average in physics at university was 5.5, just like Albert's. Mileva and Albert did work together, but one of them was denied recognition for their joint work. Unfortunately, due to the lack of documents that would confirm this, modern science does not recognize the genius of Mileva Marić and her significant contribution to science to the extent that it should. What is interesting is that in Novi Sad, on the street Kisačka 20, the family house of Mileva Marić Einstein, where Mileva and Albert lived for some time, was located. The house was built in 1907 and renovated in 2019. There are stories that, while they were staying there, Albert was nicknamed "the goofy son-in-law of Marić" because of his unconventional behavior and long, disheveled hair. Due to the scarcity of information about the life of this great scientist, we can learn about her based on the letters that Mileva and Albert exchanged. It was in these letters that the artist Dušan Jovović found inspiration for this exhibition. The exhibition consists of 12 units, and the space is divided in the composition into "light" and "dark" and they form one inseparable unit. The entire exhibition involves a combination of different types of art and technology such as 3D animation, digital sound, hologram, as well as sculpture, graphic design, drawings and paintings. We invite you to visit the exhibition, which is open for the next 3 years, and in this way pay tribute to Mileva's character and work, which certainly deserved it. Each room has a certain significance or represents some aspect of Mileva's life. According to the author of the exhibition, the dark tunnel at the very beginning of the exhibition represents a metaphor that marks the entry into the "bright mind" of the scientist. In the middle of the first room there is a white bicycle, which was characteristic of Vojvodina and was important for this scientist, because she had difficulties with walking. When you sit on it and turn the pedals, "Mileva's perspective" opens before us. The closer we are to the end of the exhibition, the more we move away from the light, which marked the productive period of her life, and get closer to the darkness, which represents that part of her life filled with suffering due to divorce and illness. The firefly in this exhibition carries the meaning of life, new possibilities and infinity, and the author of the exhibition found the inspiration for that metaphor during Mileva’s stay in Titel, at the moment when she watched the choreography of fireflies above the Titel hill, and one of the rooms in the Museum is dedicated to this very moment. The reason for being fascinated by this exhibition is not only because we see in it a combination of art, science and new technologies, but because we can experience different emotions by observing different aspects of Mileva Marić's life. What stirs the emotions is not only the narrative of Mileva's life, but also the combination of warm and cool colors, light and dark, and projection. The projection of water and the waves moving on the ceiling and the waterfall descending to the rock form a magical image that leaves the viewer mesmerized. The exhibition came to life with its interactivity, the grand piano in one room conveys with its notes the feelings that Mileva felt in difficult moments, and her hologram speaking in Serbian and German gives us the impression that she is in the room with us at that moment. From this exhibition, one can learn a lot about Mileva's life from a more personal perspective, rather than from a biography, documentary or any book. The melancholic atmosphere, the rich symbolism of the exhibition and the importance of this scientist as a person, as well as her work, will definitely remain etched in our memories after visiting the exhibition. Also, the exhibition invites us to view Mileva not as a victim, but as a brave and brilliant figure who opened a scientific window to the expanses of space. We invite you to visit the exhibition, which is open for the next 3 years, and in this way pay tribute to Mileva's character and work, which certainly deserved it. Authors: Teodora Šiklošić and Katarina Klisura Central European Exchange Programme for University Studies CEEPUS enables students and professors from various higher education institutions accross Serbia to participate in academic mobility activities. The CEEPUS program has been carried out successfully for almost thirty years and up until now, it includes as many as fifteen member states of Central Europe: Austria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and the Czech Republic. Although the program also enables teachers to apply for mobility activites, as already indicated, it pays more attention to students’ mobility, thus enabling them to attend courses at academic institutions abroad, take exams, improve their domain-specific and soft skills, conduct scientific research, get in touch with foreign students and much more!  A few times a year, several foreign higher education institutions make mobility calls when students can apply for a program that is related to the field that they are studying in their home country. This is an open call, so all students across Serbia have the opportunity to apply by filling out a form in which they express their interests and educational goals that they would like to achieve within the program. Hereby candidates can also declare whether they would like to participate in full semestral activities, such as attending courses and passing exams to achieve ESPB points, or whether they would want to participate in shorter academic exchanges lasting up to three months, which are generally realized to conduct research and/or work on a master's or doctoral thesis. The application process also involves a submission of a short autobiography and motivation letter. If the applicants pass the selection, the country in which the mobility program is being carried out provides a complete student scholarship for the specified duration of mobility. The scholarship paid a sum of money for a stay abroad, as well as accommodation in a student dormitory, meals in a student canteen and health insurance. I had the opportunity to participate in this mobility program. I spent a month studying in Croatia at the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Rijeka. After I received the information that I had been accepted to the program, with my mentor from my home faculty, dr Kaja Damnjanović, I contacted professor dr Igor Bajšanski who happens to be interested in the same research field as the two of us. During my month-long stay, the three of us have conducted research in the field of complex cognition called "Confident and with good reason?" Relationship between judgment of task-solving ability and final judgment of confidence on syllogistic reasoning tasks". We presented that research the following year at the "Empirical Research in Psychology" conference, where we won the award for the best poster presentation.  In addition to the fact that this exchange enabled me to improve professionally and conduct scientific research work in the field that I am interested in, for which I was later awarded, it first of all brought me a handful of friends from Croatia, with whom I still stay in touch to this day and who I look forward seeing to. I highly encourage all interested students to read more about open-call applications regarding CEEPUS network mobility for 2022/2023. year via the following link https://www.ceepus.info/default.aspx#nbb, and I also encourage them to apply for one of the programs via the following page
https://www.ceepus.info/default.aspx#nbb. Good luck to everyone!  This year we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Nadežda Petrović. This lady which we can see on the 200 dinars banknote is a very talented painter. However, Nadežda Petrović was very versatile, so she dealt with art criticism, photography, pedagogical work, women's emancipation, but also political and national issues. She had done many important things for the Serbian people and giving her life for them. She died of typhus at the age of 42, and contracted it while working as a nurse in the war. She volunteered because she felt it was her duty. She healed many wounded soldiers, but in the end she could not help herself. Serbian society was patriarchal at the beginning of the 20th century; women's needs were disregarded. The Serbian Civil Code provided for the authority of the husband over his wife. Within the framework of property law, the incompetence of a married woman was particularly highlighted. A married woman was equal to a child. Maybe that is why it is not surprising that Nadežda broke off her engagement and wrote in a letter to her mother that she was happy because she did not get married.  "I am not looking for love, husband, man or heart and respect, I will live only for myself and my parents. (...) There is no question of my marriage anymore, I want to be a painter, not a wife (...) if you really want me to be happy, then you will only expect me to be a painter, not a bride." ( Munich, 1898)  She was an important figure during the founding of the Circle of Serbian Sisters. This organization brought together women who carried out numerous societal actions. Some define this association as humanitarian, others emphasize the patriotic element, and some historians see a feminist moment. In those years, Nadežda put a lot of effort into organizing the First Yugoslav Exhibition, in which artists from Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Bulgaria took part. Although Nadežda Petrovic's paintings were in line with the most contemporary art trends in Europe, critics in Serbia did not respond well to them. Nadežda did not care much about it. She was a woman with great confidence and courage and she believed in what she was doing. Exhibition NADEŽDA PETROVIĆ. MODERNITY AND THE NATION at the National Museum of Serbia was organized in Nadežda's honor. This exhibition is open until April 15th. I highly recommend you to visit it and find out more interesting information about this great artist and heroine. Author: Jelena Čolović After a three-year break due to the bad epidemiological situation, the 61st Congress of Students of Biomedical Sciences of Serbia with international participation was held from April 25 to 29 this year. It is the largest student congress of its kind in our country. Every year, the Congress gathers students who present their scientific research papers in the field of biomedicine. With the help and through cooperation with the mentor, they decide on the field and subject from which they want to write the paper and start research. Organized by the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Belgrade, this year's participants were 13 faculties with over 1000 students. For four days, as long as the congress lasted, the central part of the day were sessions in which students exhibited their works. Between them, students had the opportunity to participate in over 15 workshops on various topics every day, where they could hear useful advice and stories from professors and doctors. This year's participants were also our scholarship holders Mladen Hadži Makunčević from the Medical Faculty of the Military Medical Academy of the University of Defense in Belgrade and Aleksandar Milenković from the Medical Faculty of the University of Prishtina with a temporary headquarters in Kosovska Mitrovica. Scholars share their experiences with us. Mladen Hadži Makunčević: "My work dealt with the most common symptomatology and the way of dealing with the consequences of acute abuse of non-standard psychoactive substances. Due to the growing presence and abuse, in this way psychoactive substances without standard tests for drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines, are negative. I presented the data of my institution, which is also the national center for poison control. " Mladen Hadži Makunčević: "My work dealt with the most common symptomatology and the way of dealing with the consequences of acute abuse of non-standard psychoactive substances. Due to the growing presence and abuse, in this way psychoactive substances without standard tests for drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines, are negative. I presented the data of my institution, which is also the national center for poison control. " Aleksandar Milenković: "Due to the devastating statistics that follow the Republic of Serbia in the last few years in the number of cervical cancer patients, my mentor Prof. Vitković and I tried to prove the connection between HPV infection and premalignant and malignant lesions at the cellular level. The main goal was to apply scientific facts for the purpose of prevention, early diagnosis and saving women's lives. I believe that the subject of my work is molecular biomarkers, the future of preventive medicine. The Congress brought me new knowledge, experiences and acquaintances, which is the most valuable part of it. " See also photos from the event below. |
AuthorFellows of Studenicca Foundation Archives
October 2024
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