French Science Festival 2021

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Join the 2nd edition of the French Science Festival! Under the title of [BRAIN]STORM, it will allow everyone to explore the fabulous power of our brain and our emotions through numerous outreach activities (exhibition, discovery workshops, film, debates, VR experience). Organised in partnership with the Hong Kong Science Museum, all the events are free and open to all.

For the second consecutive year, the Consulate proposes to celebrate the French Science Festival in partnership with the Hong Kong Science Museum from 5 to 22 November 2021. After having tackled the subject of the Universe in 2020, this edition will focus on our brain and its cognitive processes which lead to emotions.

This event is part of the 30th anniversary of the French Science Festival on the theme “Eureka! The Emotion of Discovery”. Organised every year since 1991 by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, it allows everyone to discover the world of science and to meet the men and women who make science today.

The neurobiologist Professor Catherine Vidal will be this edition’s ambassador. Honorary Researcher at the Pasteur Institute and former Research Director of its Neurosciences Department until 2014, Professor Vidal is also co-leader of the Gender and Health Research Group at the Inserm Ethics Committee. She authored popular science books on the ethical issues of neuroscience, determinism in biology, neuroplasticity, brain sex and gender.

PROGRAMME
Foretaste of the Festival – InnoCarnival 2021 (23- 30 October) l Hong Kong Science Park
Location: G/F Lakeside 2, Hong Kong Science Park
Time: 10 am to 5 pm (from Monday to Friday); 1 pm to 6 pm on Saturday and Sunday
The virtual reality (VR) work “I will sleep when I am dead” by French artist Jeanne Susplugas will be presented in Hong Kong for the first time on the pavilion of the Hong Kong Laureate Forum, whose mission is to promote science among young people. The work will allow you to travel in our brains among neurons, synapses and thoughts materialized by the drawing.

“Science Machina” Exhibition (5-22 November) l Science Cafe
Location: Science Cafe – Outpost, Salisbury Garden, 10 Salisbury Road
Time: 11 am to 7 pm every day
Produced by the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the Science Machina exhibition presents the machines that have advanced scientific knowledge. Through images and cartoons, it tells the story of the man-machine dialogue behind recent and future discoveries.

Screening-debate of the movie Mood Indigo (5 November at 6.30 pm) l Hong Kong Science Museum
Location: Hong Kong Science Museum, Lecture Hall – 2 Science Museum Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui East
Time: 6.30 to 9.15 pm
Directed in 2013 by Michel Gondry, “Mood Indigo” stars Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou, whose sudden illness distorts her perception of reality. Dr Mateus Joffily, a research engineer at the CNRS, will decrypt for us the neurobiological mechanisms at work, from emotions to reality adaptation mechanisms.

Kid Workshops on Brain (6 November) l Hong Kong Science Museum
Location: Hong Kong Science Museum – 2 Science Museum Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui East
Time: 10.00 to 11.15 am; 2.00 to 3.15 pm and 4.00 to 5.15 pm
Aimed at children between 5 and 12 years old, three workshops will be animated by the Big Bang Academy to help them better understand the extraordinary functioning of our brain. Fun and educational at the same time, they will be given in English and Cantonese. Registration details will be announced later.

VR Experience I will sleep when I am dead (on weekends between 5 and 22 November) l Science Cafe
Location: Science Cafe – Outpost, Salisbury Garden, 10 Salisbury Road
Time: 11 am to 7 pm (weekends of 6-7 November, 13-14 November and 20-21 November)
The virtual reality (VR) work by French artist Jeanne Susplugas will be presented every weekend in conjunction with the Science Machina exhibition. It will allow you to travel in our brains among neurons, synapses and thoughts materialized by the drawing, thanks to your eye movements.

Women in Science – “Connecting the dots – art – women – science” (10 November at 6 pm) l HKU
Location: In person upon registration (limited seats availability) : CBA, G/F, Chow Yei Ching Building, HKU Main Campus, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam
Online upon registration
Time: 6.00 to 7.30 pm
This conference will feature French artist Jeanne Susplugas (online), and Dr. Frances Jingwen Jin from the Psychopathology, Affective Neuroscience & Decision Making Laboratory of the University of Hong Kong. It will be moderated by representatives of the Hong Kong Neuroscience Students Association. This event will be the 2nd conference in our annual series “Science Talks are [Women] Talks”. It echoes the priority of the 30th edition of the French Science Festival, which aims to highlight the issue of gender equality in science.

Science Lecture on Brain Plasticity – What is it and Why it Matters Today (15 November at 3 pm) l HKUST
Location: Webinar
Time: 3.00 to 4.00 pm
This lecture will bring together two international leading neurobiologists, Professors Nancy Ip and Catherine Vidal, who will present contemporary issues related to one of the most important breakthroughs in the field of brain studies over the last decades: brain plasticity.