On May 21, more than 7’019 visitors joined the 25 Geneva institutions opening on that night for the Night of Museums. At the Faculty of Science, UNIGE, the event attracted more than 800 visitors representing 12% of the total number of visitors attending this Night of the Museums’ edition. This is an excellent turnout for a first-time event which propels us in the 6^th best position in terms of visitor numbers for 2022! Organized by the NCCR Chemical Biology as part of its closing events campaign, the night offered a wide range of activities and guided visits, popular with audiences – young and senior alike.

 

 

In a festive and convivial spirit, more than 60 researchers opened their lab doors for visits they designed, and set up science experiments for all ages, in a spirit of dialogue and sharing. Participating NCCR labs found innovative ways to show what they do and explain their research. They developed interactive experiments at the labs fair and during the visits, and expressed their creativity by writing stories, imagining an attractive scenography and visual supports, and developing experiments to explain their research in a playful way.

The buildings of Science II and III were literally transformed into a colorful and cheerful space with a huge red carpet, installed to smother the noise, and dashed with tables dressed in vivid colors. The 11 workshops/ animations held there for the lay public included multiple original activities.

 

 

Among them:

• the families’ interest turned primarily to the children’s corner, where children immersed themselves in science experiments, asked a lot of questions and thoroughly enjoyed the scientific scavenger hunt!
• The lab fair activities comprising activities from three labs kept the pace high: smiling faces and people engaging in a conversation, paid the efforts made.
• The researchers’ suitcases corner held by young and senior researchers used puzzling objects from the lab or home, like a glob map world or Lego constructions representing molecules, to attract the audience and talk about their work.
• The Smartoscope factory workshop, which transformed any mobile phone into a microscope, was another big hit of the evening.
• On the floors, eight different labs opened their doors for guided tours entitled with a funny but relevant code name! Spread across the departments of Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry or Molecular Biology, the guided tours attracted more than 350 visitors from the opening until midnight! This corresponds to 35 hours of guided tours over one evening!
• Finally, food and drink available in the building allowed everyone to fully enjoy the evening.

Thanks to the exceptional commitment and amazing creativity expressed by the NCCR Chemical Biology members at all stages of the project, the NCCR Chemical Biology has managed to create a memorable closing event.

The organising committee sends its warmest thank you to all the researchers, collaborators and volunteers involved in this project!

 

➡ Go to the photo gallery

 

 

Thank you to the sponsors

Nuit des Musées – Villes de Genève – Musées de Genève – Faculty of Sciences – Section of Chemistry or Biochemistry – University of Geneva