Bing Bang launches Poland's first science centre

(WARSAW) - A state-of-the-art science centre co-financed by the European Union opened its doors in Warsaw Friday with a spectacular multi-media "Big Bang" extravaganza by British film director Peter Greenaway.

"It's a great day for Polish science and may this Big Bang be the only kind of explosion we have on Earth, in Poland and Warsaw," Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at the start of the hour-long event detailing the origins of the universe and the great minds of science that inaugurated the Copernicus Science Centre.

"I'm moved because like all big kids, and we're all big kids, we've all dreamt about a place like this where science becomes fun and dreams turn into science," he added.

With a total 454 expositions, the centre's facilities include hands-on chemistry, physics and biology laboratories and a state-of-the-art robotics lab boasting a robot able to compose poetry.

The facility is named after Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543), the Polish-born Renaissance father of modern astronomy who developed the heliocentric theory of the universe which puts the Sun, rather than Earth, at its centre.

A planetarium, dedicated to Copernicus, will welcome star-gazers next year.

The 93-million-euros (131-million-dollar) centre was co-financed by the European Union to the tune of 52 million euros.