As part of the European Researchers' Night, several laboratories at the École polytechnique hosted high school students on Friday, September 25th. Supported by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, this event aims to reveal the behind-the-scenes of science and immerse young people in high-level projects.
Guided by the X's Equality of Opportunity Department, students from high schools in Saint-Denis and Argenteuil visited the school's fundamental science laboratories. At the Leprince-Ringuet Laboratory (LLR), the oldest at the institution and a world pioneer in particle physics, they discovered the world of elementary particles through an interactive escape game.
This game, developed as part of the ERNEST (European’s Researchers Night Escape Science Team) project, placed students in a virtual simulation at CERN, near Geneva, to understand the discovery of the Higgs boson and the operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The activity, blending mathematics and popular science, is a creation of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics, adapted by LLR staff.
The high school students also had the first look at the future floating experimental platform, XSeaO2, on the École's lake. This platform, nearing completion, is dedicated to capturing atmospheric CO2 and producing synthetic fuels.
Finally, the potential future scientists were able to explore the facilities of the Laboratory of Molecular Chemistry (LCM) and discuss their profession and the world of scientific research with the researchers.
