With the Académie des Sciences in 2013-2014

With the Académie des Sciences in

2013 - 2014

Promoting science among high school students

In order to secure the contingent of researchers, engineers and technicians that the country requires, the French education system

must take up a double challenge: put science and technology back into the students’ minds and boost their appetite for science and

technology courses and professions. The Académie des Sciences provides support to this twofold objective through initiatives that

promote science, especially in high schools.

Conferences intended for high school students

Since 2006, high school students from Paris are invited by the Académie des Sciences on the occasion of the Fête de la Science

[Science Festival] to hear a conference held by one of its members. Given the success of these meetings, specially organized for the

pupils, the Académie and the Rectorat de Paris [National Education local Authority of Paris] have jointly decided to increase meeting

opportunities, with, from 2014, two additional conferences proposed during the Semaine des Mathématiques [Maths Week] and

Semaine du Développement Durable [Sustainable Development Week]. Each of these conferences gathers a little more than 150

high school students. Given the public for which they were prepared, these conferences, filmed and available for consultation on the

website of the Académie

, are a useful collection of resources for a wide audience.

Water, a Common Treasure

Water is arguably the major issue of the 20

Century. This conference was an invitation to anticipate 2050 and answer crucial

questions: what are the probable impacts of climate change on hydrology (shortage, flood, drought)? What volume of water will be

necessary to produce enough food for a growing global population? What consequences will the rise in food production have on the

conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity?

A Conference by Ghislain de Marsily, on the occasion of the Fête de la science [Science Festival], 11 October 2013.

When Earth was too Young for Darwin

This conference reviewed the heated argument which divided physicians and evolutionary biologists at the end of the 19

Century

regarding the age of Earth and what mathematics had to offer there.

A Conference by Cédric Villani on the occasion of the Semaine des Mathématiques [Maths Week] (18 March 2014).

The Contributions of New technologies to Animal Population Biology

New methods of investigation, using ultra-miniaturized measuring

tools and sensors, as well as space technologies, now revolutionize our

approach to animals in their natural habitat. During this conference,

high school students had the opportunity to discover first, and many

months before publication, a small robot created in the image of the

emperor penguin, able to circulate incognito within a colony, which it

can thus study from the inside, without disturbing its fellow creatures

(Le Maho Y,

et al. Nat Meth

2014;11 (12):1242-4).

A conference by Yvon Le Maho on the occasion of the Semaine du

Développement Durable [Sustainable Development Week] (1 April

2014).

Recounting the Thousand and One Exoplanets

The quest for other planetary systems than ours is an ever more intense and fruitful one. The progress achieved already allows the

mechanisms by which such systems form and develop to be understood, and in particular the birth and history of the solar system to

be described, or indeed its future foreseen. In the medium term, it may even be possible to answer the question of how frequent

life is in the universe. This conference took stock of the different methods used to “hunt down” these planetary systems, as well

as the hit list of these methods, and presented the space/ground projects now under consideration.

A conference by Daniel Rouan, on the occasion of the Fête de la Science [Science Festival] (9 October 2014).