Between fear and hope. Part 1: science

Louise O. Fresco and Ronald Plasterk talk to Michaël Zeeman about science as a possible source of optimism. In Dutch.

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Information

Date and time Saturday 19 January 2008 20:00 tot 21:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - grote zaal

A test tube? A revealing line of poetry? Moving music? In a programme lasting all evening in the main hall of the theatre, prominent figures from the world of art, culture and science talk to Michaël Zeeman about the question: what do they see as the imagination of hope? The guests each bring an image they derive hope from and illustrate their choice. A tryptich with six modern words, images and sounds of hope – which one will convince you?

Part 1 science: for a long time science was at the centre of of the faith in progress. But can it still fulfil its glorious role? Louise O. Fresco, writer (of among other books The Utopists) and brightest person in in ther Netherlands, opens the programme with a column. Together with Ronald Plasterk, natural scientist and Dutch Minister of Education, she will try to answer the question as to what extent science can still be a source of optimism. In Dutch.

Line-up

Michaël Zeeman

(Marken, 1958-2009) was a poet, a writer and a commentator, with a regular column on the Forum page and the book pages of the Volkskrant. Zeeman was the editor of the arts section of the Volkskrant and from 2006-2007 its Rome correspondent. In 2006 he and the writer Abdelkader Benali published an exchange of letters, exchanging ideas on politics, life, love and literature. In 2002 Zeeman received the Gouden Ganzenveer (Golden Goose Quill) for his merits for Dutch literature. Zeeman became well-known in the 1990s as the host of his monthly book programme 'Late at night after a short walk', later to be renamed 'Zeeman with books'. In 1991 he published his first volume of poetry, Beeldenstorm (Iconoclasm), winning him the C. Buddingh Prize. His second volume Verhoudingen (Relationships) appeared in 1995. In the same year he published short stories entitled De Verduistering (The Darkening). He died in 2009.
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Ronald Plasterk

(1957, The Hague) was appointed Minister of Education, Culture and Science in February 2007 for the Dutch Labour Party in the Cabinet of prime minister Balkenende. Plasterk is a biologist, specialised in molecular genetics and has won various prizes in biology, including the EMBO-award for Communication in the Life Sciences in 2002 and the Prix Louis D of the Institut de France in 2005. Between 1993 and 2003 he was among other things professor at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Universiteit van Amsterdam and the Universiteit Utrecht. Before his appointment as minister Plasterk was director of the Hubrecht Laboratorium, Nederlands Instituut voor Ontwikkelingsbiologie (KNAW) in Utrecht. As a columnist for tv, de Volkskrant and Intermediair Plasterk was noted for his outspokenness. A number of his columns were published in Leven uit het Lab (Living from the Lab) (2000)
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Louise O. Fresco

(Meppel, NL, 1952) is a writer, agricultural scientist and columnist. In her novels De Kosmopolieten (The Cosmopolitans, 2003), De Tuin van de Sultan van Rome (The Roman Sultan's Garden, 2005) and De Utopisten (The Utopians, 2007) idealism, power, and friendship play important roles. Subsequently, she published Nieuwe Spijswetten (New Laws for Food, 2006), Hamburgers in het paradijs. Voedsel in tijden van schaarste en overvloed (Hamburgers in paradise. Food in times of shortage and abundance, 2012), Kruisbestuiving. Over kennis, kunst en het leven (Pollination. About knowledge, art and life, 2014) and various others works among which Verraad, Verleiding en Verzoening (Treason, Temptation and Reconciliation, 2010, with Helen Westerik). Fresco's Paradijs (Fresco's Paradise, 2013) is a six-part documentary TV-series broadcast by Human, published with an accompanying text. In 2014 she was appointed chair of the executive board at Wageningen University and Research. Her latest novel De Idealisten (The Idealists) will be published late January 2018.
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