CIRAD celebrates science at its research sites

23/10/2009 - Press release

As in previous years, CIRAD is contributing to the Fête de la Science (Science Festival) and organizing various events in Frence and its overseas departments.
The CIRAD Centre in Montpellier is opening its laboratories in the Maison de la Technologie (technology centre) for an open day, on 18 November 2008.

In Montpellier:
On Wednesday 18 November 2009 , the Maison de la Technologie (CIRAD Lavalette campus, avenue Agropolis) will be opening the doors of its laboratories to the public as of 10 am. Researchers and technicians will take visitors backstage in their research laboratories.

The following topics will be covered:
- the tropical herbarium , or an ode to biodiversity
- using virtual flowers to understand real flowers
- water quality: solutions in the pipeline
- colourings, bacteria and preservatives : what's hiding in our food
- termites , a taste for wood
- flavours and aromas : test your senses
- rice from A to Z
- the history of cotton , following the thread
- the biofuels of the future
- the carpentry workshop and the sawmill: touch wood!
- chocolate-making : a divine secret?
Visits will start at 10 am, 11 am, 3 pm and 4 pm.
This year, there will also be a talk and discussion at 2 pm in the entrance hall of the Maison de la Technologie, on "Demain, quels aliments aurons-nous dans notre assiette ? " (what's going to be in our plates tomorrow?), with two CIRAD researchers: Max Reynes, Head of UMR Qualisud (Integrated Approach to Food Quality Joint Research Unit) and Didier Montet, Head of the UMR Qualisud food safety team and consultant to AFSSA.

The entrance hall will be decorated with some of the displays on fruit and vegetables from CIRAD's stand at the 2009 Paris Agricultural Show.

Editions Quae will also have a stand selling books.

In Martinique:
From 19 to 21 November 2009 , CIRAD and its two partners in the PRAM (Martinique Agricultural Research Platform), CEMAGREF and IRD, will be celebrating science:

- a stand on domestication in agriculture, from the stone age to the present day, run by the PRAM, at the "Village des Sciences" (Madiana Conference Centre): evolution and improvement of crops, soils, and the people who live on them, and water usage.

Researchers from the three organizations will also be presenting posters:
- chronogram of agronomy
- from wild plant to domestication (pineapples)
- soils, a biodiversity reservoir (with a section on soil evolution and another on microbial evolution)
- domestication of water (history, use of water in agriculture + population movements)
and visiting schools.

In Guadeloupe:
The Fête de la science will be held from 16 to 20 November 2009 . A Village des Sciences is to be organized on 19 and 20 November 2009 at Jarry, on the topic of the changing living world.
CIRAD and INRA will be running four workshops:
- origins and breeding of sugarcane, diversity of varieties. Diversity of yam and banana varieties
- Caribbean maize populations (interactive slide show and collections)
- nematode parasites of insects; location of these nematodes in Guadeloupe and host/parasite co-evolution
- biological cycle of the Senegalese tick. Spread of ticks in the Caribbean.

Guided tours and talks are also planned for 16, 17 and 18 November. On 17 November , there will be visits of collections and talks on crossing techniques (banana, sugarcane, yam). A talk on the Caribvet network will also be given at the Baimbridge Lycée.

In Réunion:
On Tuesday 17 November 2009 for secondary school and upper school students and 18 November for the general public, CIRAD's Bassin Plat station will be opening its doors and presenting the tropical fruits and vegetables of today, yesteryear and tomorrow (mango, pineapple, peach palm, lontan vegetables, etc).
There will also be an exhibition and a visit punctuated by talks and demonstrations of the latest techniques for boosting production, in terms of both quantity and quality. Intensifying agricultural production geared towards quality, ecology and consumer health, and a tour of the Bassin Plat station, with workshops on mango, vegetable flies, pineapple, lontan vegetables and the peach palm, and an illustration of what nurserymen do, with a grafting workshop.

In French Guiana:
CIRAD will be in the Place des Sciences at St Laurent to tell the public about its research projects.
On Tuesday 17 November 2009 , from 8 am to 4 pm, the Kourou agricultural research campus (in collaboration with INRA, AgroParistech and possibly the Kourou IUT) will be opening its doors.
The following are planned: tours of the laboratory and a botany walk, a stand on soil science, bacterial flora, a talk on the theory of evolution, games for children, and a stand presenting cocoa and rubber, with the participation of researchers from CIRAD.

On 19-20-21 November , CIRAD will also be at the Village des Sciences in Cayenne, with a joint CIRAD-CNRS and CNES stand on the TROPISAR project (estimating forest biomass using a Falcon plane fitted with P-band airborne radar equipment). The Paracou and Combi stations (CIRAD) and Nouragues station (CNRS) are to be presented. There will also be an exhibition on IYA 2009 (International Year of Astronomy 2009) and displays on the topic of "a walk through the universe".
For further information, call:
Guadeloupe: Cécile Gaumé, tel +33 (0)5 90 86 30 21
French Guiana: Elodie Tribes, tel +33 (0)5 94 32 73 50
Réunion: Sophie Della Mussia, tel +33 262 2 62 49 92 05
Martinique: Justine Lordinot, tel +33 (0)5 96 42 30 40
Montpellier: Anne-Marie Manez, tel +33 (0)4 67 61 55 17

Category: Coming up