Fête de la science 2023

At the Collège de France, you'll meet researchers at fascinating conferences, presenting the many disciplines and fields for which the establishment is renowned today.

You'll be able to take part in numerous presentations and interactive experiments specially designed by members of the ChADoC association to help you discover the world of science at the Collège de France : cold atom physics, social anthropology, energy storage, cancer research and much more.

This year, exceptional laboratory visits will also be offered, on registration : let us guide you through an immersive experience in the world of a biology or physics laboratory !

The Fête de la science at the Collège de France is open to all, especially young people aged 7 and over. Families welcome !

The Collège de France's ephemeral gift store will also be open on this occasion.

Workshops, lectures and exhibitions, as well as the boutique éphémère, are only open on Saturday, October 14 . Only laboratory visits will take place on Sunday, October 15 .

INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS

• Physics workshops 
  • Chance in the service of physics
    In this workshop, discover how some complex mathematical calculations can be achieved thanks to chance. You'll be able to take part in a collaborative calculation of π simply by rolling dice, then see the same method at work to simulate the behavior of magnets when their temperature is changed.
  • Stroboscopic light :making the invisible visible
    In this demonstration, you'll see how scientists a century ago, like Étienne-Jules Marey, without today's high-speed cameras, were able to discern the indiscernible. By using the stroboscopic effect, it's possible to stop movement or even reverse it ! You can reproduce this effect with the example of a water jet, stopping its drops as they fall through the air using an illusion !
  • Fiber optics and refractive index
    Light is now part of our everyday technologies : LEDs, lasers, fiber optics, etc. Understanding and controlling its behavior is therefore essential. Understanding and controlling its behavior is therefore a crucial issue. At this stand, we'd like to highlight the effects of optical index on light, in particular to enable light to be bent.
  • Fog chamber
    Particles of cosmic origin pass through us by the millions every second. Invisible and painless, we cannot perceive them with our senses. To study elementary particles and radioactive elements, tools were developed in the late ^19th and early ^20th centuries. One of these was the fog chamber. In this workshop, come and observe the appearance of vapor traces created by cosmic particles as they pass through the fog chamber. You'll be able to identify electrons or alpha particles !
  • Magnetic levitation
    Certain materials, known as superconductors , have surprising properties at very low temperatures. Below -150°C, they are capable of ejecting the magnetic field created by magnets, which can cause them to levitate ! In this demonstration, you can see a superconductor cooled with liquid nitrogen rise a few centimetres.
  • Paul's trap
    Come and observe a famous atomic physics device used to isolate tiny particles of matter. Using a high-frequency oscillating electric field, particles can be immobilized. This same trapping principle is used in some of the experiments carried out in the Collège de France laboratories !
  • Aurora borealis
    No need to go all the way to the poles when you can understand the northern lights right in the heart of Paris. With the help of a powerful electric field and a vacuum bottle, all the conditions are in place to observe the mechanisms behind these natural wonders.
    
• Biology workshops 
  • Discovering our five senses :discover different workshops exploring the five senses ! Immerse yourself in a captivating sensory experience, understand how your senses influence your brain and discover the mysteries of your brain.
  • Scientific investigation at the Collège de France :are you ready to solve the theft of Claude Bernard's famous bust ?Following the clues, use your scientific skills and logic to find the culprit ! Get ready to put your detective skills to the test !
    
• Chemistry workshops 
  • The lemon battery : in this workshop, build a battery using simple lemons !
  • The hydrogen car : discover a zero-emission car that uses solar energy to produce its own fuel.
  • The inside of a battery : have you ever looked inside a battery ? If not, come and discover the components of  batteries!
  • Can you build a battery ? In this workshop, come and discover how to build a simple aluminum air battery from household products.

MINI-CONFERENCES

Thirty-minute mini-conferences followed by questions and answers will be held on Saturday afternoon, October 14   :

• 14  h 30 :" Traditional wrestling in Senegal, a national passion ", lecture for the general public with mini-exhibition, by Julien Bonhomme, anthropologist, director of the Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale.
  Traditional Senegalese wrestling is a sport that arouses a genuine national passion. The champions of the arena are immensely popular throughout the country. Like soccer elsewhere in the world, wrestling embodies the hopes of young men for success. But more than just a sport, it's also a spectacle that combines combat, dance and magical rites. In this lecture for the general public, anthropologist Julien Bonhomme reports on the fieldwork he carried out in Senegal, which even led him to become president of a wrestling "stable" (   ) ! His talk will be accompanied by a mini-photographic exhibition, with the support of PSL Fête la science.
  
• 15  h 30 :" Les dessous du sommeil :de la science aux conseils pratiques ", lecture for the general public by Armelle Rancillac, biologist, researcher at the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en biologie.
  It's an alarming fact that a third of French people suffer from sleep disorders, and that half the population suffer from chronic sleep deprivation. This situation is mainly due to our modern lifestyles, which often lead us to neglect night-time rest, despite its vital role. In fact, sleep deprivation can have many harmful consequences for our health, encouraging the development of pathologies such as diabetes, hypertension, depression and even Alzheimer's disease. But why do we need to sleep at all ? Can sport help to improve the quality of our sleep ? In this lecture, I'll explain how sleep works and how I study it in the laboratory to give you tips for better sleep, for better living.
  
• 16 h 30 : screening of the film " Pierre-Gilles de Gennes.Un portrait ", directed by Franck Littot and Sébastien Jousse, in 2022. Running time 34'30. Introduction by Pr Bernard Derrida.
  On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of his 1991 Nobel Prize in Physics, Pierre-Gilles de Gennes' seven children tell us about their father. From his wartime childhood to the rhinestones of Stockholm, from sand heaps to liquid crystals, an intimate Pierre-Gilles is revealed.

LABORATORY VISITS

Visits recommended for children over 13 .

• The Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel is a joint research unit of the CNRS, Collège de France (Institute of Physics), Sorbonne University and École normale supérieure, which studies quantum physics. Here, we manipulate atoms under extreme conditions to study their behavior when isolated and close to absolute zero. Come and visit one of the experimental rooms at Atoms and Radiation to discover the objects researchers use to create these extraordinary conditions and catch atoms with lasers
  • REGISTRATION
    
• The Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en biologie (CIRB) at the Collège de France is home to numerous teams working on a wide range of themes. We invite you to visit one of these laboratories and discover how biological researchers carry out their experiments
  • REGISTRATION

PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITIONS

• Exhibition of photographs by Julien Bonhomme (Social Anthropology Laboratory) on Senegalese wrestling, with the support of PSL Fête la science.
• Exhibition of photographs by doctoral students from the Social Anthropology Laboratory.

BOOKBINDING WORKSHOP

Come and discover the work of the bookbinding workshop, which repairs and cares for the precious works in the Collège de France collections. Children aged 4 and over can make a little notebook with a colorful cover and white paper inside, bound with an 8-shaped seam.

Created in 1991, the Fête de la science is organized every year by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, to enable everyone to discover the world of science and meet the men and women who make up today's science.