“Curiosity is powerful,” said Outreach Scientist Damian Pope to a crowd at this year’s SNF Nostros conference. “Humans are innately curious. It’s in our DNA. It’s powerful and will help us solve humanity’s most pressing problems.”
The power of curiosity was central to Perimeter Institute’s offerings at this year’s SNF Nostros Conference in Athens, Greece. Put on by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, one of Greece’s largest grantmaking institutions, the conference hosted concerts, talks, panel discussions, and more, all under the theme of “Humanity at the core.”
Perimeter brought four interactive exhibits to the event, collectively called “Think Like a Scientist” which encouraged participants to learn more about fundamental aspects of our universe, including light and gravity.
Perimeter also held a one-hour interactive talk called “Universal truths, human futures,” featuring Pope and Asimina Arvanitaki, who holds the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Aristarchus Chair in Theoretical Physics at Perimeter.
During the talk, Pope demonstrated the curious effect polarized lenses can have on light and the implications for science. Arvanitaki then took participants through a history of humanity’s curiosity, from an ancient etched bone artifact that may have counted days in the lunar cycle to current ways of using math to explore the universe.
“Physics allows us to understand our place in the universe,” Arvanitaki said during the talk. “And mathematics is a very concise way to compare a huge range of objects at very different scales.”
2026 is the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s 30th anniversary and its tenth year of generous support for Perimeter. The Foundation funds Dr. Arvanitaki’s chair and research program and have been instrumental in enabling the Institute’s educational outreach efforts.
Perimeter would like to thank the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for inviting us to this year’s conference and for their continued support of curiosity-driven fundamental research.
About PI
Perimeter Institute is the world’s largest research hub devoted to theoretical physics. The independent Institute was founded in 1999 to foster breakthroughs in the fundamental understanding of our universe, from the smallest particles to the entire cosmos. Research at Perimeter is motivated by the understanding that fundamental science advances human knowledge and catalyzes innovation, and that today’s theoretical physics is tomorrow’s technology. Located in the Region of Waterloo, the not-for-profit Institute is a unique public-private endeavour, including the Governments of Ontario and Canada, that enables cutting-edge research, trains the next generation of scientific pioneers, and shares the power of physics through award-winning educational outreach and public engagement.
