ULB - inforsciences

Lichensgo – Exhibition

Discover the photo exhibition created by students in Secondary 5 Chemistry Techniques at the Athénée Royal Andrée Thomas. These students took part in Lichens GO, a participatory science programme aimed at assessing the quality of the air around us by studying lichens. 🌱

Lichens, slow-growing organisms sensitive to air pollution, play a unique role in measuring cumulative pollution over several years, complementing modern measurement sensors. Through this project, students were trained to recognise different species of lichen, understand their ecological role, and apply a scientific protocol in the field.

After their training, the students set off to explore the area around the Marais Wiels to assess local air quality using the Lichens GO protocol. Their observations and results are presented in the form of photographs exhibited at La Marelle, offering a visual insight into their work and the conclusions drawn from this study of the urban environment.

To see the pre-project, click here: https://curieucity.brussels/en/community/lichensgo-pre-festival-project/

This exhibition is a testament to young people’s commitment to environmental research and shows the importance of participatory science in understanding and preserving our environment.

Pierre Devahif - MicroZoo - Inforsciences ULB

Diversity of the microworld

On the theme of biodiversity, CurieuCity#2, invites you to marvel at the richness and beauty of nature, particularly that which hides in a city like Brussels.

The microscope, or rather microscopes, allow us to observe this from an unusual angle. I say “microscopes” because there are different kinds, and different techniques for using them. Come and try out some of them to discover familiar creatures in a different way – the inhabitants of a pond, green plants, lichens, mushrooms… – and meet some astonishingly tiny creatures that are nonetheless essential to life on Earth. For example, an algae imperceptible to the naked eye but capable of making glass underwater. It has something to do with… dynamite!

And it is estimated that this group of living beings produces around 1/4 of atmospheric oxygen. Enough to help us breathe. [Oh, and that’s not all, far from it! It still holds many surprises, and not the least. So, would you like to get to know her?… Finally, we’ll be asking ourselves how it’s possible to classify this generally unsuspected flora and fauna. Can we understand their evolution?

David OReilly

Video game Everything

What if you can become anything you want in the universe? Discover and play the thought-provoking video game “Everything”.

In “Everything,” you start as a simple organism or object, but as you play, you have the ability to transform into different entities, ranging from microscopic bacteria to vast galaxies. The game’s core mechanic allows you to become any object, plant, animal, or celestial body that you encounter, seamlessly travelling between outer and inner space.

The gameplay is centered around exploration and transformation. There are no traditional objectives or goals; instead, you are encouraged to explore the interconnectedness of all things. You can move through the game world, interact with other entities, and listen to narrated philosophical musings inspired by the ideas of British philosopher Alan Watts. The experience is both meditative and reflective, as you gradually piece together a deeper understanding of existence and the universe.

Elise Elsacker

Fungi Expo: Elise Elsacker

Discover the cutting-edge possibilities of sustainable architecture.
See a prototype mycelium block that was grown and shaped using a unique combination of biological growth and robotic wire-cutting. This process allows the mycelium to function as a multifunctional formwork with self-healing properties.

Joske Ruytinx -Plant-Microbe Interaction (VUB)

Meet a mycorrhizal fungus

Fungi support much of life on earth. In particular mycorrhizal fungi or root-friendly fungi are important and altered evolutionary history of the planet. Around 475 million years ago these fungi allowed plants to colonize land. Today, almost all land plants form symbiotic associations with mycorrhizal fungi and rely on them to survive. However, these fungi are mostly invisible and hidden in the underground. Curieucity presents an exhibition featuring mycorrhizal fungi in collaboration with the VUB Plant-Microbe Interactions research team and contributions of Amandine Kervyn. Did you ever meet a mycorrhizal fungus? Come explore their diversity, feel and watch their action in our mini forest!’

Christophe Albertijn

Le sol de la forêt est en partie visible et en partie caché sous la surface. Les champignons et le mycélium forment un réseau qui relie les deux. Avec nos oreilles, nous pouvons percevoir les divers sons de la forêt, mais la présence silencieuse des champignons nous permet d’imaginer un autre monde (sonore). Quel son produiraient-ils pour communiquer ?
En capturant soigneusement les sons les plus infimes et l’environnement plus large avec des microphones et des enregistrements, nous créons un terrain où nous pouvons laisser libre cours à notre imagination et rendre l’inaudible audible. Nous vous invitons samedi de 10h00 à 13h00 à un atelier dans le Parc Duden (point de rencontre @ Ten Weygaert) – Complet. Dimanche, vous pouvez venir écouter les résultats dans une installation audio / paysage sonore souterrain de la forêt. Plus d’information à suivre

Pour vous inscrire cliquez ici : https://www.billetweb.fr/curieucity-forest

Erik Etienne

Discover the house sparrow

The Wiels Marsh is an island of nature lost in the middle of an ocean of houses. On its shores lies our city. In the marsh, when the wind blows, the reed beds sing and when the clouds pass overhead, they like to look at themselves in the water. But really, what’s the point of a marsh in a city? Whether they’re sedentary like the sparrow, summering like the swift and the warbler, overwintering like the gull, or simply on a migratory stopover like the common sandpiper, the birds that frequent the marsh (100 species in all) all benefit from this place in one way or another. Let’s take a look at some of these relationships between birds and the Wiels Marsh.

To register click here: https://www.billetweb.fr/curieucity-forest

Urban Species

SpecXcraft

You are cordially invited to the second Trans-Specific Assembly of Les BruXelles Libérées.
Already confirmed: A marsh; A singing reedbed; Chlorophyll and protozoa; Sparrows and fairies, winged and otherwise. The Wiels Marsh is a place where new alliances are forged between humans and many other species. In this sense, it holds the promise of a new way of thinking about our relationship with the city and with living things. In this workshop, the Urban Species* research-action collective invites you to open the specXcraft** project briefcase, and collectively imagine and build bits of Brussels of the future. Starting with the Wiels Marsh, the species that inhabit it, the practices of those who care for it, and the material generated during the festival, participants will be invited to give shape to the second Trans-Specific Assembly of Liberated BruXelles.

To register click here: https://www.billetweb.fr/curieucity-forest

Biblif - Forest Library

Play Corner

In this playful area, we invite you to have fun, but also to use games as a pretext to reflect on our environment (in the broadest sense of the term). If you’d like to test your knowledge or learn something new, we’ve got a special “Nature questions” goose game for you, or “Enigmas? Our Earth”. If you’re feeling more like a creator, the “Planet” game is for you, asking you to cleverly position different elements to make your planet conducive to life.
In a game somewhat akin to Dixit, “Bioviva! Planète : Mers et Océans” invites you to express your emotions and exercise your deduction or memory. For the younger ones, we’ll be discovering fruits and vegetables with “Veggie Planet”, or helping animals on the ice floe with “Little Cooperation”. Games are available for ages 3 and up, and whether you’ve got 5 minutes or more, we’ve got a game for you.

Students from elementary schools

Focus on Chlorophyl – Exhibition

This exhibition is the fruit of work carried out during the ‘Focus on Chlorophyll’ workshop, conducted as part of the festival’s pre-project, with the participation of pupils from École des Sept Bonniers and École des Cèdres. They explored questions such as: Why are plants green? Where is chlorophyll found? How can pigments be extracted from plants? Through a variety of fun experiments, the pupils discovered the crucial role of plants in food webs and were introduced to the scientific approach.

The trophic webs created by the pupils in the Duden Park, the Wiels Marsh and the Bempt Park will be exhibited in photographic form at the Wiels Marsh.

To consult the pre-project, follow this link : https://curieucity.brussels/en/community/focus-on-chlorophyll-pre-project/