A few months back I entered a competition to participate in
a ‘week of scientific young talents’ in Paris. To my surprise a few weeks later
I received an email letting me know I had won! Myself and two other Irish
scientists were chosen by the French embassy to travel to Paris for a week of activities.
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| Scientists from Ireland, Portugal and Norway |
The competition was organised by Universcience, a French
organisation based in the Cité de Sciences et de l’Industrie and the Palais de
la Découverte. Their goal is to encourage people to engage with science and
scientific reasoning and to inspire people to be curious about the world around
them. The prize was arranged to celebrate the 30th anniversary of
the Cité de Sciences and the 80th anniversary of the Palais de la Découverte
this year.
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| The Young Scientists outside the Palais de la Découverte |
On arrival we were greeted by the organisers at the Cité de
Sciences and introduced to the hugely varied group. 42 people from 26 countries
spanning every continent. That evening we were treated to a screening of the
movie ‘A Beautiful Planet’ in La Géode, an incredible 180
degree cinema which creates a truly immersive experience (and can induce minor
motion sickness). The movie shows films of the Earth taken from the International
Space Station and highlights the international collaboration of space agencies
who transcend politics and borders to achieve common goals – an appropriate
introduction to the week ahead!
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| La Géode - cinema sphere |
On Monday we were given a private tour of the Cité de
Sciences as it was closed to the public, allowing us free reign over the
exhibitions and a chance to see how children learn in the kids section of the
museum. This fun experience saw us playing with TV, water, robots, plants and ants.
That evening we travelled as a group on the metro (easier said than done) to
the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, where we had champagne and
canapés with the Minister’s top aide and the president of Universcience, among
others.
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| The scientists and dignitaries |
On Tuesday we visited the headquarters of L’Oréal Paris, who
co-sponsored the week. The morning consisted of a workshop on women in science
with some fascinating discussions arising from all the different experiences of
scientists from around the world. A luxurious lunch of sushi and French
patisserie followed - where we all felt that we could get used to this kind of
treatment. After lunch we toured the L’Oréal factory and learned about their
outreach, manufacturing and development processes and met a lovely Irish woman
called Maureen who showed us how hair dye lives up to what it says on the tin.
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| Women in Science |
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| Food, glorious food |
Wednesday saw our first visit to the Palais de la Découverte,
a beautiful building temporarily obscured by some scaffolding as they fix the
roof. We visited the planetarium and while some toured the night sky, others
took the opportunity to take a nap and sleep off the French wine from the night
before. That afternoon all 42 young scientists presented our research projects
in three minutes each. Topics included everything from climate change, engineering,
computer science, fibre optics, biology, communication, chemistry, physics. medicine,
and bird sperm analysis.
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| What am I doing? A very good question... |
On Thursday we returned to the Cité de Sciences and
participated in workshops about museology, spending the afternoon designing and
building our own creations in the museum’s FabLab.
In the evening we visited the Musée d’Orsay where we viewed the exhibitions in
the gorgeous museum and had dinner in the petit salon with members of Universcience,
L’Oréal and government representatives. Again, we felt we could get used to
this treatment.
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| Petit Salon of the Musée d'Orsay |
On Friday in the Cité de Sciences we listened to
presentations on spatial physics, maths and magic, and climate change, before
being transferred to the Musée de l’Homme where we saw the history of mankind,
our current state, and where we are going in the future. We continued on to the
Foundation Louis Vuitton to witness the collection of Sergei Schukin – ‘Icons of Modern Art’. The exhibition
chronicled the development of modern art from impressionism to cubism, expertly
explained by a guide from the Louis Vuitton foundation.
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| Frank Gehry's original architectural drawing for the Foundation Louis Vuitton (seriously) |
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| The finished building |
That was sadly our last night in Paris and after a fantastic week, a quick
look at the Eiffel tower, and stocking up on cheese - on Saturday morning we
headed home.
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| Obligatory selfie |
I’d like to express a
huge thank you to the all the staff of Universcience (particularly Flavie who
was always there to help!), the French embassy in Ireland (FranceinIreland) for funding the programme
and allowing three Irish people to go, and of course the 41 other young
scientists who made the experience such a pleasure to be part of.
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