Cité des sciences

In many facets of their daily life and economic or political systems, the Gauls were every bit as advanced as the Greeks and Romans. Contemporary archaeology has provided us with a wealth of new knowledge, following thirty years of discoveries and scientific innovations. The incredible Gauls! is a fascinating exhibition that banishes the cliché of hairy barbarians and shakes up our generally accepted ideas. An excavation site, films, workshops and reconstructions will show you how the Gauls really lived, before the Romans arrived.

Divided into four key sections (Life and mind, Better health, System Earth and Beyond the visible), this exhibition features games and tests that reveal how science plays an essential role in every aspect of our lives. Animations and archive films are screened in a science lounge in the centre of the exhibition.

Mobility is of fundamental importance to our contemporary societies, as people need access to resources. Since the middle of the 20th century, the amount of travelling we do has steadily risen. If this trend continues, it will cause worldwide social and health problems and major environmental damage. It has now become essential to rethink our transport systems and how they impact the area we live in.
Transport and Mankind explores the theme of human mobility from a socio-technological angle, focusing on changes in individual and public transport, network efficiency, traveller comfort and safety, technological innovation, and eco-friendly behaviour.

Oceans cover 70% of the surface of our planet and play a key role in climate regulation. Today, climate change and overexploitation are changing the behaviour of our oceans. What are these changes? What is their impact? What adaptation strategies are envisaged? The Cité des Sciences continues its cycle on climate change with a major exhibition on a fundamental issue: the three-way relationship between ocean, climate and man. Produced in partnership with French marine research institute IFREMER, "The Ocean, the Climate and Us" explains the basic scientific principles, gives us the keys to understanding the current climate debate, and showcases ongoing research linked to oceanographic exploration.

Energy consumption worldwide increased tenfold during the 20th century. Today, faced with massive population growth, the development of emerging countries, global warming caused by excessive burning of fossil fuels, and finite oil and natural gas resources, we must approach energy in a wholly new way. How can we satisfy our energy needs in the future?
This exhibition explores different ways of meeting this challenge.

Regularly updated exhibition area

India's Nano car, smart textiles, humanoid robots, ultra-fast broadband, new video games... How are emerging technologies going to transform our daily lives? And which ones will really make a difference? The Techno Gallery will supply some answers. Here you can try out new applications in the fields of environment, science, health, communication and leisure activities, and get a better-informed idea of technological progress. Watch preview demonstrations of innovative objects, play new games, test and validate prototypes, and try your hand at innovative design using a multi-touch table (an innovation in itself)...

Visitors to "Earthwatch : the satellite revolution" are confronted with a radically different viewpoint : planet Earth observed by the thousands of satellites in orbit around it. This 1,000 square-metre exhibition is in two parts : Monitoring the Earth, which reveals how countless human activities depend on space technologies, and Journey into space, which shows how science and technologies have shaped the history of space conquest.

An ambitious exhibition on two levels that takes visitors on a journey of investigation into the origin of the universe. Travelling from planet Earth to the extragalactic void, we discover how matter, light and energy are interrelated, and we meet the great scientists who formed our conception of the universe and established the laws of physics linking the infinitely small and the infinitely large.

The Innovations Gallery showcases the process of innovation by presenting concrete examples produced in partnership with major companies. The Gallery comprises five sections : an introductory area focusing on different aspects of innovation and four display islands spotlighting specific innovations. The examples chosen are changed every 18 months.
At present the Gallery is focusing on innovation for sustainable development in four very different spheres: energy efficiency, the chemical plant, air traffic control, and hydrogen as a vector of energy (in partnership with Siemens, l'Union des Industries Chimiques, Thales and Air Liquide).

Roaming through the strange house of Professor Shadow, children can explore the many scientific and artistic aspects of shadows in an entertaining series of experiments. Exhibition designed with the Centre Georges Pompidou.

Exhibition in three languages : French, English, and Spanish

Propagation of light, perception of colours, 3D images, optical illusions... This entertaining exhibition features simple and often surprising experiments to help us understand the physical mechanisms of light and vision.

The voice, hearing, and the world of sound

Using our capacity to listen to and identify ambient sounds, understanding the physical nature of sound, trying out new sound technologies with the latest tools developed by research laboratories, playing with musical sound… These are some of the features of this exhibition on the complex world of sounds.

Manipulate images and learn to decipher them

Make the Mona Lisa talk (with your own voice), include yourself in a TV commercial, explore the invisible layers of a painting with different types of radiation, examine matter with a virtual camera, and try producing 3D photographs. This exhibition focuses on the complex world of the contemporary image, with some twenty components where you can manipulate pictures and learn how they work.

Some concrete and easy-to-grasp applications that enable us to understand movement, calculate probability or model physical phenomena…

Evolution, heredity, and what we are

This thought-provoking exhibition is in four parts. In the first part, Life forms and evolution, we follow the incredible story of evolution. In the second, The role of genes, we explore the microscopic world of cells and learn how genes influence the development of living beings. The third part, Genetic engineering, presents key research into the genome and the possibilities it has opened up. The final part of the exhibition, Questions for society, focuses on bioethics, preparing us for the debate on the benefits and dangers of genetic manipulation.