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The "Fête de la science" is 30 years old!

The "Fête de la science" (Science Festival), which takes place 5-13 October, is celebrating its 30-year anniversary this year. It is an opportunity to discover the daily lives of scientists and share “the thrill of discovery” with them.

Controlling the power of the electron gun of an ultra-high vacuum evaporator
Controlling the power of the electron gun of an ultra-high vacuum evaporator

© Benoît Rajau / CNRS Images

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For 30 years the celebration of science has sought to bring citizens closer to science and its actors, by providing visits, activities, demonstrations and discussions with scientists. It is both to show that science permeates every facet of our lives – particularly in this pandemic period – but also to encourage people to become scientists by showing how science is conducted and researchers’ daily lives.

This specific facet is highlighted at this anniversary exhibition: focused on the “thrill of discovery”, it encourages scientists to share their processes, struggles to produce new knowledge, and thrill they experience when they finally say “Eureka!” on making a major or minor discovery, with as many people as possible.

We also invite you to explore this process, including its unusual and sometimes outright eccentric aspects through the selection of documents we are presenting at this 2021 Science Festival. Through recent news stories or archives sometimes dating back several decades, you will discover astonishing inventions, amusing experiences, moving stories, but also and, most importantly, scientists at work to improve our daily lives and our future. And perhaps – who knows? – you may want to adopt a “blob”, the strange creature that has travelled in space with Thomas Pesquet, and has captivated thousands of pupils that it goes to school with... 

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The Youtube channel Zeste de science explores all aspects of scientific research, proving that even the most complicated scientific facts can be explained in less than 5 minutes, and that even the most seemingly trivial events of everyday life, if thoroughly studied, can contribute to the biggest technological advances. Episode 18: Zeste de science presents the first episode of Ecorce de recherche, an immersion into archives of last century's scientific research. Every…

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The Youtube channel Zeste de science explores all aspects of scientific research, proving that even the most complicated scientific facts can be explained in less than 5 minutes, and that even the most seemingly trivial events of everyday life, if thoroughly studied, can contribute to the biggest technological advances. Episode 19: Zeste de science presents a new episode of Ecorce de recherche, an immersion into archives of last century's scientific research. In 1964, the brand new…

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From the research lab... to the game room! A team of robotics scientists has developed powerful algorithms that secure drone flights so well that anyone can fly them without risking a crash. The tech startup Drone Interactive tapped into the basic science led at the GIPSA-Lab in the French Alps where researchers and engineers are working hard on creating the future of flying robots.

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Our work is guided by the way scientists question the world around them and we translate their research into images to help people to understand the world better and to awaken their curiosity and wonderment.