The Urania Scientific Theater — or, TED:1899

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Cinema UraniaAt TEDGlobal University, TEDxDanubia host Csaba Manyai just introduced us to the Urania Scientific Theatre, a Budapest society devoted to sharing ideas from science and knowledge … starting in 1899. He reads us an excerpt from their founding document — and wishes us the same as TEDGlobal begins:

“The Urania Theatre aims to be a place where scientists teach, artists delight, writers inspire and ennoble their fellow human beings — and all three foster the spirit of interconnectedness and belonging to a community. It cannot and will not be satisfied by simply disseminating astronomic and scientific knowledge. The Urania embraces all fields of human knowledge and all branches of explorative enterprise in order to pass them into the hearts and minds, using the tools of enjoyment and enchantment. Because the nature of the human soul demands that we must not ignore or belittle the beauty of knowledge, but on the contrary, we shall exploit and utilize it in order to awaken genuine interest through which knowledge can, in fact, spread. The Urania cannot aim to be a place of profound and deep exploration of any individual subject, but it will aim to develop interest for real truth and understanding. Where this interest has taken root, the search for deeper understanding develops and follows by itself, as naturally as a spring gives birth to life.”

Photo by Truus, Bob & Jan too!