Our exhibitions

The exhibition "Sport & science, strength in numbers" was designed by The CNRS in partnership with RATP. This fresco was displayed in the corridor of the Paris metro at Montparnasse-Bienvenüe station from May 11 to July 6, 2023. It has been awarded the "Cultural Olympiad" label by Paris 2024: https://olympiade-culturelle.paris2024.org/

L’Institut des sciences humaines et sociales (InSHS) du CNRS a lancé en 2022 un concours photo consacré aux images de terrain réalisées dans le champ de l’anthropologie sociale et culturelle. Toute personne se reconnaissant comme anthropologue pouvait candidater : sans distinction d’emploi, de statut ou de section.

In 2019, the CNRS launched a partnership with the ACFAS to organise the French edition of La Preuve par l’Image, an annual photo competition first held in Quebec in 2010. For this fourth CNRS edition, researchers were again invited to submit their best scientific images. The competition challenges participants to showcase their research by means of eye-catching, thought-provoking images rather than words.

L’exposition MécaPixel présente des photographies issues des laboratoires de recherche du CNRS. Elle illustre les multiples visages de la mécanique, une discipline devenue incontournable et aux applications souvent inattendues, à travers 14 panneaux où l’image et son titre tiennent une place centrale. L’histoire qui "raconte l’image" est un texte court, enrichi d’informations sur l’échelle et la technique de prise de vue.

In 2019, the CNRS launched a partnership with the ACFAS to organise the French edition of La Preuve par l’Image, an annual photo competition first held in Quebec in 2010. For this third CNRS edition, researchers were again invited to submit their best scientific images. The competition challenges participants to showcase their research by means of eye-catching, thoughtprovoking images rather than words.

Scientific publications on the state of biodiversity are multiplying, often painting an alarming picture. However, solutions exist to deal with this growing erosion. Here are a few examples to prove it.

Still little known, marine environments are threatened by human activities. As the United Nations Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) begins, the scientific community, political decision-makers, companies and civil society must work together now to protect and conserve these ecosystems. This exhibition has been produced within this framework, based on scientific results.

In 2019, the CNRS launched a partnership with Acfas by extending the photo competition La preuve par l'image, which was initiated in 2010 in Quebec, to France. For this second edition, the CNRS research community has been invited to submit their best research image. The challenge of this competition is to use images, which challenge and question, rather than words to show research.

This exhibition is a response to the dual challenge of using images rather than words to "speak" about research and engaging in a dialogue with the public. Beyond images' pure beauty, they are also a research and investigation tool which enables scientists to decipher their own results. Photographs taken using all techniques - from cameras to drones and microscopes - offer another vision of research which can be surprising, unexpected, indecipherable and sometimes essential.

The photos on show in this exhibition were taken in June 2017 and act as a record of an archaeological mission which aimed to understand humans and animals' processes of adaptation and acclimatization on the Peruvian desert coast in pre-Hispanic times. They testify to how researchers in archaeology, funerary archaeo-anthropology, geomorphology, archaeobotany, archaeozoology and ceramology work - from archaeological excavations to laboratory analysis.

Biodiversity "is life". There is an extremely rich diversity of living things which involves all environments and latitudes but remains relatively unknown. Biodiversity is essential for humans because it provides them with essential services (resources, ecological services, chemical and therapeutic innovations, feedback effect on changes, etc.). The main challenge for researchers is to understand the organization and dynamics of biodiversity and its role in how ecosystems function.

The emission of the first laser flash, fifty years ago in 2010, marked a real breakthrough in the field of optics. For the first time concentrated, orderly light existed which was unlike any other light. Every year since then, researchers have been striving to find new ways of ordering light in space, time or colour while developing new uses for laser light.

This exhibition presents the photograms of Jean Rouch's films taken from the 16mm films rolls he loved to work with. There are no doubt few such images considering his filmography of around 180 films which include his finished films and also half of his films which remained unfinished.

The history of the CNRS is fundamentally linked to the history of science and scientific advances and that of how research is organized and its policy aspects. Since its creation, the CNRS has successfully transformed and renewed itself to help it coordinate, federate and support constantly evolving research of excellence. The 13 panels of the exhibition describe the major milestones of this history from its beginnings in 1939 right up to the 2000s.

In the framework of the "2018-2019 Year of Chemistry, from School to University" initiative launched by the Ministry of Education with the support of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the CNRS Institute of Chemistry created this exhibition which showcases some of the latest major advances in chemistry.

In 2019, the CNRS celebrated the 80th anniversary of its creation. You can discover eight decades of research, exploration and discoveries through a thematic journey combining social issues and major transformations which asks essential questions about what our society will be like tomorrow to help imagine the future.

Most of the Amazon region is covered by a forest with a surface area of around 6 million square kilometres. It has existed for around 50 million years and has undergone major disturbances but never resetting like in our latitudes following the ice ages. 200,000 species have been identified there to date taking all groups together which gives an estimated total of 1.8 million.

CNRS research in the French overseas territories involves highly varied disciplines ranging from ecology, life sciences, earth sciences, physics and chemistry to the humanities and social sciences. It is transversal and interdisciplinary research which is both fundamental and applied in nature and involves a large community of researchers, academics, engineers and technicians.

How do both recent and distant traces of the past take on the status of heritage objects? This CNRS exhibition reveals this whole process of transmission. From the discovery of an object to its exhibition through its authentication and protection, science takes an active role in each of these stages and thus creates a link between past civilisations and future generations.

Observing and understanding nature better to replicate its genius... This is not a new idea but the concept of bio-inspiration now appears to be more than ever a major trend for innovation. In health, robotics, ecology, chemistry, engineering sciences, etc., CNRS researchers will show you their research and its applications which were inspired by nature. Welcome to the bio-inspired world!

Where does life come from? How does it adapt to its environment? What forms can it take? Today's scientists are finding new answers to age-old questions. The "Étonnant Vivant" (The Astonishing Living Sphere) exhibition offers an overview of the most surprising discoveries of the last 15 years