Conference Cycle “Improbable Duets – Biochemistry in Dialogue with the World”

The seminar series “Improbable Duets – Biochemistry in Dialogue with the World” sets out to explore the cross-disciplinary nature of knowledge between Biochemistry and various other fields of Learning. Coordinated by Prof. José Artur Brito and Professor Marta Carepo, within the scope of the Master’s in Applied Biochemistry, this initiative brings together, over six ninety-minute sessions, a series of meetings that invite reflection and dialogue between seemingly distant fields.

The format will be in person and is intended not only for Undergraduate students in Biology, Biochemistry and related areas, but also for participants from other scientific programmes, the humanities and the wider academic community.

The main purpose of this series is to promote interdisciplinary thinking, encouraging participants to recognise and exercise the capacity for dialogue between different fields of knowledge. It aims to stimulate critical reflection on the role of Biochemistry in society, culture and contemporary thought, moving beyond the traditional boundaries of Science to place it in conversation with philosophy, art, politics, gastronomy and many other languages of human expression.

At the same time, it seeks to value creativity and scientific communication in unconventional contexts, showing that knowledge gains new life when it is infused with other ways of thinking and feeling.

Each session, or “duet”, brings into dialogue two guests, one from the field of Biochemistry or the Natural Sciences and the other from a contrasting field, such as philosophy, religion, music, literature or the visual arts. From this unlikely conversation emerges a shared space where scientific rigour and cultural imagination intersect and challenge one another.

“Improbable Duets” therefore aims to create a meeting space between science and the humanities, revealing the universality of the questions that drive knowledge and the profound connection that exists between all ways of understanding the world.