Well, the truth is that although in the 1980s everyone in Poland was in favor of changes in the country or at the university, the path to these chang… - Włodzimierz Ptak

Contrary to what is often thought, excessive hygiene, staying in an antibacterial environment, does not necessarily lead to a better health. Sometimes it causes even health deterioration. Indirect proof may be that among rural children there are fewer allergic diseases than among urban children. This is because children in the countryside have contact with a lot more bacteria. In every respect, you can see that exaggeration is unhealthy.

Tadzik Gumiński (later a reader in pediatry), who was just like me fascinated by astronomy, lived at Szpitalna Street, and I lived at Garncarska Street. Not far from our homes, at Podwale, there was an optical store Maruńczak and the Company (in the place where the scientific bookstore is now located). In this optical store, as little kids, we bought lenses and other parts necessary to build a telescope. This telescope, of course, was very simple. But thanks to it, we spent many nights observing the sky, deciphering star systems. It was really great fun.

As for the number of people reluctant to me, I guess I fall in the national average. Maybe it's about talking openly what I think? For example, in 1980 an interview with several professors – including myself – was ran by the newspaper Dziennik Polski, very much against the then authorities. We've all been in favor of far-reaching changes, but each of us saw these changes differently. I am a nonbeliever. And there comes the „Solidarity” with holy masses and sprinkling corpses with holy water. I thought that policy of the University, beneficial to the „Solidarity”, was not always beneficial for the University itself. From time to time, friendly people try to affront me, even though I did not belong neither to the youth communist organization neither to the party, neither had I contacts with the communist Security Service. And generally I didn't have herd instincts.