Cultural events

Smartphones, touchpads, instant communications systems, intelligent robots… Science today allows us to live out our dreams of the past decades, interacting with machines that are more and more complex. What does fiction today say about the interaction between man and machine? Will we soon be able to use computers with interfaces for gestural and body language, will we be able to live with humanoid robots and artificial intelligence? A cinematographic approach to the advance of science, which is trying to catch up on our imagination.

Uncomfortably shy or bigwigs, unscrupulous plagiarists or plain unlucky, visionaries with scant resources, guinea pigs unaware of the dangers, workaholics facing dogma and prejudice, scholars familiar with the arts and literature, scientists of the past have left us a heritage worthy of the extravagance of their methods. A review of some comical meanders in the construction of science.

If robots are to become a part of our society, they must develop social competences in order to interact naturally with humans. Researchers have been working with experts in social and cognitive development, in order to understand how cooperation develops in humans.

Books published, special features in magazines, exhibitions challenging received ideas… The Gauls are very much in fashion. But who are they? A people that has managed to come down through the centuries and turn into a myth, while very little actually remained of it.

The famous professor Boris Bouldanof and his assistant, Anne-Lyse Petitpré, await you with an explosive episode! You will learn all there is to know about the concept of temperature: a measurement of average particle agitation! This performance won the Prize for Best Directing in the Short Science Show’s 2014 “Electrons Libres” (free electrons or free spirits) Competition, presided over by Jamy Gourmaud, presenter of the French TV show “C’est pas sorcier!” (“Not Rocket Science”).

Through the architectural, historical, botanical or legendary secrets of the Centre Prouvé and the Place de la République, Ludovic Füschtelkeit gives you to discover the centre of Nancy as you have never seen it before (even if you looked really hard).

What did prehistoric man eat? Researchers have discovered our ancestors’ diet.

Available today in 287 languages, in less than 15 years, Wikipedia has become the prime source of information for cybernauts. But how does it really work? Who checks the contents? Can I correct errors or complete articles? Everything you need to know to better understand the encyclopaedia and contribute to it.

It’s supposed to be venomous, harmful, hairy and treacherous. Whether it’s the way it looks or the way it behaves, the spider has a bad reputation. We don’t know it very well and often we’re afraid of it.