On October 1, Manege hosted a lecture by Anatoly Nikolayevich Zaytsev on the topic “From the future to the past: Homo invisibilis to Australopithecus afarensis”.
At the lecture, parallels were drawn between the future and the past, as we headed back 3.7 million years, learning about the oldest traces of humanoids ever found on the Earth. We discussed the past, the present, and the possible future of the area of Laetoli (Ngorongoro, Tanzania), touching on geology, anthropology, the animal kingdom, and the conditions under which work was done by researchers on scientific expeditions.
The speaker, Anatoly Zaytsev, is a professor at the Department of Mineralogy at St. Petersburg State University, a doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences, winner of the A. P. Karpinsky prize in the field of mining and the geological and geographical sciences (Government of St. Petersburg and the Russian Academy of Sciences), and the recipient of grants from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the EU’s Marie Curie Program. An indication of the significance of Zaytsev’s contributions to science can be found in the name of one of the most recently discovered elements – anzaite (Ce4FeTi6O18(OH)2), taken from the first letters of his given name, patronymic, and surname.
Anatoly Zaytsev is an expert in the field of mineralogy, geochemistry, and the petrology of carbonatite and associated alkaline rocks. He has 35 years of experience in the world of science, including the study of natural features in Russia (Kola Peninsula, Aldan, Ural Mountains), Europe (Germany, Italy), Canada, and Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, Namibia). In the year 2000 Zaytsev became interested in researching ancient dormant volcanoes (Sadiman, Kerimasi, Mosonik, and others) and the active volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai in Northern Tanzania (the Ngorongoro area and the nearby Gregory Rift). The findings from this work in East Africa are based on materials obtained from 14 expeditions.
You can watch this lecture on our YouTube-channel.
General Partner for the exhibition – SIBUR.
Partner for Manege’s educational program – The Mikhail Bazhenov Foundation.