Palais de la Découverte
Science, the fun way
Testing, touching, smelling, looking, the senses are all over the place at the Palais de la Découverte. On the agenda are playful experiments that will no doubt interest future scientists, dreamy dunces and their curious parents. Dinosaurs, planets, human body, electricity, sound and light are some of the many themes addressed in this life size science text book. Experimental discovery is at the forefront.
“It’s a fake, it’s a fake” three liberating words pronounced by a reassuring dad. A little boy half-exciter half-worried keeps away anyway cautiously from the scaled giant which has sprung up from the floor. Don’t worry you have not stepped back into the Jurassic era; you are at the Palais de la Découverte. When entering the dinosaurs’ den, we come face to face with reconstitutions of huge dinosaurs larger than life who pose in a series of dark rooms. The “faim des dinosaures”, the new temporary exhibition from London’s natural history museum is at the very least, realistic.
The Baryonyx dinosaur
Interactive and funny, it gives children and their parents the chance to discover what these terrible beasts use to eat through many activities and fun games. Here you can touch a brachiosaurus’s reconstituted stomach, for instance, there you can make an edmontosaurus chew. Next, have a go at trying to beat a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a strength duel: lean with all your weight against a machine that measures your efforts.
The machine beeps, the verdict? Your level is that of an opossum’s jaw, or 30,1kg. That’s a miss. Further, pretend you are an archaeologist and draw the traces of a bone or try to pull a claw out of the ground with tools which dig, clear away or dust. Try to guess what the last meal of this dinosaur was: a rat? No, a crocodile!
Like a giant lecture, the trail through the museum will take you around and introduce you to the different scientific disciplines one after the other. The real bonus is that the museum never misses a chance to explain, instruct and put in perspective. And this is clearly an advantage: everything is put together in order to create the surprise, arouse curiosity, interest and amuse. If the awakening is the key word of the visit, it is not the only selling point. Certainly a bit academic, the visit is also aimed at people already interested in the subject, curious people from all branches and anyone who appreciates a solid yet playful demonstration. Besides, the place does not leave anyone aside and parents getting carried away by an obviously too stimulating game is not a rare sight.
Built for the 1900 World Expo, the Grand Palais was created with the intention of giving France the opportunity to show off its supremacy in the arts, industry and technique. Over forty artists devoted themselves to decorating the interior of the wonderful palace. Its dome adorned with arabesques and feminine allegories is still one if its most attractive features.
Planetarium
But the opening of the museum only occurred later, in 1937. The International exhibition for arts and techniques in modern life gave rise to the idea. It was Jean Perrin, Physics Nobel Prize in 1926 who proposed to exhibit inside the palace works illustrating every scientific discipline. His idea followed a similar thought of a scientific museum brought up five years earlier by André Lévéillé. The resulting exhibit was named the Palais de la Découverte and set up in the west wing of the Grand Palais. Its aim? Spark up scientific vocations amongst the young visitors.
Today, the place still inspires young bright sparks but it also has something for everyone. Take a stroll and attend various talks about electrostatics, odours and perfumes, or even sound and vibrations. In a room not completely unlike an old-fashioned classroom, a white-haired frenzied scientist looking like he took his character a little too seriously starts a musical demonstration helped by a wind tunnel from the Cavaillé Coll house made in the XIXth century.
Girls touching the terminal of a powerful
electrostatic generator
A room set aside for mechanics accommodate a pendulum clock and explains the theories of relativity and gravity. Animal communication is what matters on the ground floor and some very pragmatic games enable us to understand how dogs, cats, birds or rabbits evolve and get their bearings thanks to their eyesight, sense of smell or taste. On the first floor, the skies open up for us with the Planetarium which hosts a ceiling dome on which is projected a reproduction of our star-studded sky. Planets, satellites, asteroids, meteorites are dissected on informative boards and various models. The solar system formation, the atmosphere and the stratosphere are other themes developed to satisfy future stargazers. Then, maths are in favour with the famous room dedicated to Pi, the thousand-year old number, very useful for calculating volume and surface of globes and circles’ perimeter. Inside are inscribed some 704 decimals.
With its dozens of permanent exhibitions on almost every possible scientific topic, the Palais de la Découverte brings together a varied and complete learning program. Workshops and talks, demonstrations, experiments and games will enable children to interact with and discover science while having fun for a wonderful family time.
By Alice Cannet
Published : April 29, 2010
Photo credit : © Palais de la Découverte
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