Researchers' Night: science at the shops
On 25 September, as part of European Researchers’ Night, CERN and POPScience joined forces to welcome the public at the Balexert shopping centre in Geneva. The Bulletin presents its gallery of photographs from the exciting and educational event.
Science through comic strips, games, cinema and television: POPScience approaches scientific questions through popular culture, with great success! Around 500 children attended the sessions for schools at Balexert's multiplex cinema, and 600 spectators flocked to the public screenings.
Using the big screen, scientists, directors and authors were on hand to disentangle truth from untruths and science from science fiction. The guests, some of whom appeared in person and others via video link, included Jorge Cham, author of PhD Comics and the spin-off film; David Saltzberg, physicist at CMS and scientific consultant for the television series The Big Bang Theory; Kip Thorne, scientific consultant for the film Interstellar; Lawrence Krauss, author of The Physics of Star Trek; and Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori, who gave a commentary on the film Gravity.
In the main area of the shopping centre, CERN scientists performed experiments for the public. In the multimedia shop FNAC, authors signed books, customers enjoyed virtual tours of the CMS experiment via television screens, physicists answered numerous questions, and children built Lego detectors.
