The 3rd Silesian Festival of Science, whose motto this year was “energy”, ended in Katowice. During the Festival, Prof. Henryk Skarżyński, the special guest, delivered a lecture entitled “The role of hearing in the development of the modern society.” The scientific event, whose mission is to co-create the knowledge society, was attended by a number of distinguished guests: Prof. Johannes Georg Bednorz, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, Nicole Stott, engineer, astronaut and NASA aquanaut, Mirosław Hermaszewski, airman and astronaut, Prof. Jerzy Buzek, politician, chemist and professor of technical sciences. 

During his lecture, Prof. Henryk Skarżyński shared his knowledge and experience on the model of the care of the deaf and hearing-impaired that is being developed in Poland from scratch and covers early diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation, and presented the history of the establishment of the World Hearing Centre. This world famous institution, which came into being as a result of the transformation of the Cochlear Centre established in 1993 into the World Hearing Centre, has recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. The 25th jubilee of building and developing the Centre’s identity coincided with the centenary of Poland’s regaining its independence. – We are honoured that the “Polish school of otosurgery” created at that time as a result of our achievements has significantly contributed to the promotion of Polish science and medicine in the world. I am glad that for over 25 years it has been able to help patients with hearing and speech disorders so effectively “- said Prof.  Henryk Skarżyński, the originator, initiator and director of the Center, during the lecture.

Today, the Centre is the showcase of the Polish medicine, and the achievements of Prof. Henryk Skarżyński, the originator, initiator and founder of the institute, and his team have from the very onset been recognised and awarded by representatives of the highest Polish authorities. The International Centre of Hearing and Speech, and then the World Hearing Centre was visited on numerous occasions by representatives of the government, parliament and foreign delegations. The institute in Kajetany was also visited by First Ladies. Everyone stressed that it is unique on a global scale, and the conditions it provides to its patients should be a model to be followed by other hospitals. The numerous guests were especially impressed by the fact that the Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing earned a very high position in Poland and abroad over such a short time.

In the second part of the lecture, Prof. Skarżyński was persuading the audience that hearing is the basis of communication, which underpins the development of modern society, and it ensures access to information and information exchange.  – There is a lot of information that we have to absorb in today’s world, select quickly, as no one can remember everything, and then process. The modern man lives faster and they believe that they think faster too, that’s why fluent thinking is so important. As we live faster, we expect a fast exchange of information – at school, at work, in the office, anywhere. We have less and less time, so exchange of information and our reactions are crucial. We participate in various events and it is hard for us to imagine that we could not listen to the music around us, words and other sounds. These events, images are printed into our memory and come back to us in our thoughts. After all, to think is to speak in thoughts, and the basis for the development of speech is hearing – added Prof. Skarżyński.

The Festival agenda also included: a talk with the special guest – NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, a meeting with Mirosław Hermaszewski and Prof. Johannes G. Bednorz, winner of the 1987 Noble Prize in physics for discovering high-temperature superconductivity in metal oxides, and a lot of interesting events in six fields of knowledge – exact sciences, natural sciences, technical sciences, humanities and social sciences, medicine and health, and art. The 3rd Silesian Festival of Science KATOWICE also offered over a hundred and fifty stands, tens of lectures and workshops.

The Festival was organised by: The University of Silesia in Katowice, the City of Katowice, the Silesian University of Technology, the Medical University of Silesia,  the Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice and Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa.