À la conquête des mondes

Many inventions have allowed people to build bigger and better, but which one was the one that revolutionized the challenge of height? Concrete? Steel? Not really... It is in fact the elevator! Indeed, without it, who would have accepted to live on the 40th floor? From the Tower of Babel to the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, Man has…

The Earth is covered by water on 70% of its surface. And the story of man's discovery of the Earth is largely linked to that of the sea. From the fragile boats skirting the Mediterranean coasts to the majestic ships setting sail for the new world; from the sailing cargo ships of the 19th century to the giants of the seas carrying…

Flying... A dream that has shaped the history of humanity. From the myth of Icarus to the liner of the skies, or through the Airbus A 380, man has long sought to imitate the bird, fascinated by the conquest of the sky. In just five centuries, and with a considerable intensification of technological and theoretical advances at the…

Reaching the other side of the river, crossing the bay, a curiosity, then an obligation that pushed Man, from the first times of his history, to develop construction techniques to cross these obstacles. From the first liana bridges, through the Roman aqueducts to the Millau viaduct which spans the Tarn valley at a height of 270 m, man…

Taming water, an ambition that men have achieved by building exceptional structures: dams, canals, or polders to gain immense territories on the sea. Frédéric Restagno, physicist, specialist in fluid mechanics and researcher at the CNRS, will follow in the footsteps of engineers whose work has marked history... These visionaries were…

Until the end of the 17th century, mountains were simply considered as geographical obstacles, barren, useless and above all frightening lands. Scientists were the first to be seized by the desire to explore them. Among their first objectives were the prevention of avalanches, as well as the accessibility of the most remote areas…

For many years, the conquest of the poles has been a real competition: many have tried, many have failed, sometimes so close to the goal. Today, the challenge is no longer to reach the Arctic and Antarctic, but rather to study these two regions and find the real reasons for the melting ice. Witness a century of conquest and follow in…

At the beginning of the 21st century, agriculture remains the most important activity for humanity: it employs more than 40% of the world's active population. And the challenge is huge: to feed the 9 billion human beings who will soon populate the world, while its resources are depleting and global warming threatens our…

Friend, but also enemy, fire is essential to life and human activity. From the Neolithic era to the conquest of space, the mastery of fire has allowed humanity to develop and ensure its evolution on the planet. How, over the millennia, has Man learned to recreate and master it, what sciences has he discovered, what techniques has he…