Scienceville: Sorry, Jules Verne, it just sounds better...

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A little boy named Leo is sitting on the rocky shore, astonished by the blueness and strength of the water hitting majestic mountains. Like a legendary battle of liquid and stones that keeps going on and on until water smoothens the rock and clears the way for her new conquests. The way of the water, the difference in stones, insects, animals, all captivates Leo's mind. He notices little shells in the mountains beside him and questions how they got there. He stares at the water and wonders how such gentle thing could shape the strongest stones. He looks at the birds and desires to fly. He spends hours and hours learning, researching, and thinking. His mind always travels the worlds of his ideas, where he is free to fly, despite gravity. This boy eventually creates a prototype of the first flying machine, explains hydraulics, creates the first engine, and draws the first anatomy book. Driven by curiosity, liberty, and his mind.

A passionate young scientist by heart named Greg is always rejected and misunderstood by the community. He, who became a monk to be able to study, spends hours on end watching divergencies in generations of plants and bees and becomes a father of scientific current most used branch of biology – genetics. After each rejection, he always says, "My time will come!" and works and waits. Always driven by passion, belief, and confidence.

The biggest rebel of all, we'll call Nick. A little boy sits beside his mother in a neatly taken care house, and watches his mother, athis woman without a basic education or ability to read, creating a mechanical eggbeater, along with other household appliances to ease up her every day work. She gives our Nick a spark, which grew into fire when he meets another woman named Electricity. A fire, which blinds him from all but ideas, passion and hope to bring the ease to the world. This fire bestowed on us AC power, radio and hydroelectric power. Born into storm created a lightning to light them all.

A little dreamer girl Ada, trapped in a cage of illness, finds her refuge in dreams to fly. She spends hours learning birds’ anatomy, experiments with feathers and silk, and wires, and paper. She imagines how she flies above the mountains and hills, and little valleys, how she follows the river right to the sea and beyond, and how she sees the change of the seasons by colors of the woods. She didn’t fly, but she allows the entire programming world go beyond any imagination, by creating the first computer program. Driven by imagination, hope and a great desire to live.

Imagine all four of them living in the same city, no, a village. A village surrounded and protected by hills. A village connected to all the biggest cities in the world by the fastest trains you can imagine, or maybe now it's a teleporter, it changes too fast... Imagine each of our heroes as any other scientist here has a home and a family in a village, which we'll call: Scienceville. Some of you may find this name familiar, it is because Jules Verne once described such city, though it was called "Frankville", I believe his ideas worth mentioning, remembering and applying.

But let's go back to our Scienceville. A village looks like a hermit, as any good scientist does, yet connected to everything. You won't see anything familiar in this village, all new inventions get applied right away. The village is powered by hydroelectricity thanks to a river passing by, and the electricity is shared wirelessly, as our friend Nick desired. Each and every house looks weirdly different, there are all made specifically for a scientist living there, and, of course, each house has a laboratory in the cellar. Like this one on the right from the bar made entirely of recycled plastic – a three floored house, entirely covered with all the rarest plants in the world. I wouldn’t get too close on your place, some of them do bite. It's a house of Alex von Humboldt, a sweet but pretentious guy. Some even say, that some of these plants he made especially weird (together with our friend Greg, of course), just to show off. Or look at that one right in the back, all glowing, belongs to a couple Curie, don't worry, not radioactive, not anymore, at least.

All the scientists live here with their families. And their kids grow up and study here. And they are taught to love science and art, and nature, and everything that surrounds them. How can you not love science, when you see new inventions popping out on the street every single day. You can even see a kid sometimes, opening up these new inventions on the street, to understand how they work. Of course, they put everything back together, they have manners.

Here, scientists freely share their ideas. You can find all four of our heroes here sipping beer and getting into strong arguments just to improve ideas of one another. And tomorrow, they will all go together to build that new sequencing machine that could sequence genes and proteins at the same time. While our old friend Moliere will be sitting on the back and sketching a new comedy about those four. Tomorrow, they will laugh at themselves at a theater, but, probably, they'll spend the next month building something in a lab.

Here, in Scienceville, you're free. The entire village is self-sufficient, it works on patents, recycling and restorable energy, so it doesn't have to rely on anyone's grace. It's a place where scientists, poets, painters can spread their wings. They all work together: some inspire, some create, some search for like minders in the outside world. There are no ranks, no hierarchies here. If you have an idea, you can discuss it freely, and, literally, your neighbors will help you make it come true. We all work for the same reason here: for curiosity, passion, and desire to learn and create.

Oleksandra Kalnytska

Header image created with Bing KI

Used prompt text

Create a picture of a scientific city in the future in blue/pink tones according to the following ideas:

Village surrounded and protected by hills. A village connected to the largest cities in the world by the fastest trains imaginable - or maybe it's a teleporter now, it's changing too fast... Imagine that each of our heroes, like every other scientist here, has a home and a family in a village we call "Scienceville": Some of them may recognize this name, that's because Jules Verne once described such a town. Although it was called "Frankville", I think his ideas are worth mentioning, remembering and applying.

But back to our "Scienceville". A village appears like a hermit, like a good researcher does, yet it is connected to everything. You won't see anything familiar in this village, all new inventions are applied immediately. The village is powered by water thanks to a river flowing by and the electricity is shared wirelessly, as our friend Nick wanted. Each house looks strangely different, they are all specially made for a scientist living there, and of course each house has a laboratory in the basement. Like this one to the right of the bar, which is made entirely out of recycled plastic - a three-story house covered from top to bottom with the rarest plants in the world. I wouldn't get too close if I were you, some of them bite. It's the home of Alex von Humboldt, a sweet but fastidious fellow. Some even say he made some of these plants extra weird just to show off (along with our friend Greg, of course). Or look at that one in the back, all aglow, belongs to a Mr. and Mrs. Curie, don't worry, not radioactive, at least not anymore.

All researchers live here with their families. And their children grow up here and study here. And they learn to love science and art, and nature and everything that surrounds them. How could you not love science when you see new inventions on the street every day. You can even sometimes see a child taking apart these new inventions on the street to understand how they work. Of course they put everything back together, they have manners.

Here, researchers freely share their ideas. You can find all four of our heroes here, sipping beers and getting into heated discussions just to improve each other's ideas. And tomorrow they meet to build this new sequencing machine that can sequence genes and proteins at the same time. While our old friend Moliere sits in the back and sketches a new comedy about these four. Tomorrow they'll be laughing at themselves in the theater. But they'll probably also spend the next month in a lab.

Here in Scienceville, you are free. The entire village is self-sufficient, it runs on patents, recycling and renewable energy, so it is not at the mercy of others. It's a place where researchers, poets and painters can spread their wings. They all work together: some inspire, some create, some seek like-minded people in the outside world. There are no ranks here, no hierarchies. If you have an idea, you can discuss it freely, and truly, your neighbors will help you implement it. We all work here for the same reason: curiosity, passion and the desire to learn and create.