How have the stars helped advance our societies? Markers for peoples and guides for explorers, the stars are the source of many founding myths. Their central place in human life makes them silent witnesses to the evolution of humanity.
Theater, lecture. The Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme invites you to encounter the stars at the next Nuit blanche 2026 through a dialogue between the humanities, social sciences, and astronomy. Insights from philosophy, the history of science, and astrophysics, combined with poetry, will highlight the central place the stars hold in the lives of peoples. Researchers and storytellers will take the audience on a journey from cultural representations to the Hubble telescope, via the explorations of early modern navigators. Whether a novice or a connoisseur of constellations, everyone will leave the evening with a better understanding of these stellar objects that have illuminated humanity since the dawn of time. The program Evening moderated by scientist and journalist Dominique Leglu. 7 p.m. – “La marche à l’étoile,” discussion with screenings of excerpts from the documentary series Equipped with a telescope and a camera, Stephen Rater, traveling astronomer, and Boris Wilmart, director, crossed the world on foot. Together, they meet local populations to discuss their vision of the cosmos and share celestial observations, from Kirghizistan to Amérique du Sud, from the Monts d’Ardèche to the Pic du midi de la France. 8 p.m. – À l’école du ciel: symbols and powers of the stars among the ancients Victor Grysembergh, historian of philosophy and ancient sciences (Mésopotamie, Grèce and Rome Antique), took part in the rediscovery of fragments of the star catalog by the astronomer Hipparque. He will speak about religious and philosophical questions among the Greeks and Romans. Sylvie Nony is a researcher in the history and philosophy of science, especially the sciences of the Arab Middle Ages. Based on an Arabic treatise on natural philosophy titled "Why the stars are visible at night and invisible by day," this talk will explore theories of the diffusion of light. It will also place this knowledge within the history of its circulation, particularly through the legacy of Alhazen in the Latin world. 9 p.m. – Performance “Imaginaires du ciel” - Part One By Karine Mazel, storyteller, and Anaël Noury, musician. This first part of the performance will focus on tales from Afrique de l'ouest, Corée, and stories from the First Peoples of Amérique du Nord. 9:30-9:45 p.m. – Intermission 9:45 p.m. – When the stars equip the world François Bellec, rear admiral and former director of the musée de la Marine, maritime historian, will look back at the importance of astronomy in technical innovations, advances in navigation, and the great discoveries. Pauline Zarrouk, cosmologist at the CNRS, will explain why and how galaxies are mapped today, and how sky maps are both a scientific adventure and a matter of knowledge. 10:30 p.m. – Performance “Imaginaires du ciel” - Part Two Using maps depicting planets and stars, Karine Mazel improvises with the audience a tale recounting the origin of an imaginary constellation. The speakers Victor Gysembergh is director of research at the CNRS and a specialist in the history of ancient science and philosophy. His work focuses in particular on the transmission and interpretation of astronomical knowledge in ancient sources, including an edition of fragments by Eudoxe de Cnide in the Collection des Universités de France (Budé). He is currently leading the ERC PALAI project, devoted to the study of Greek and Latin palimpsests using multispectral imaging, opening new windows onto scientific texts that long remained inaccessible. François Bellec is a rear admiral, member and former president of the Académie de marine, and former director of the Musée national de la Marine. A historian of discoveries, scientific voyages, and the art of navigation, he has published around thirty books, including a Histoire universelle de la navigation (Tome 1 Les découvreurs d'étoiles; Tome 2 Des étoiles aux astres nouveaux.) Sylvie Nony is an agrégée professor of Physics and wrote a thesis on controversies around the physics of motion in the Middle Ages. Published under the title Les variations du mouvement, Abû al-Barakât, un physicien à Bagdad (Vie/XIIe siècle) (éds IFAO, Le Caire, 2016), her work explores the evolution of the science of motion in the medieval Arab world and the various interpretations of the legacy of Greek Antiquity. The history of science, too often focused on the search for continuity between these two periods, has sometimes overlooked bold inventions on this subject and related topics such as time, space, the void, infinity… Arabic sciences did not merely transmit the Greek legacy; they profoundly renewed its approaches in many fields. Karine Mazel has been a storyteller since 1995. For her, storytelling is a way of sharing the great human questions. Pauline Zarrouk, cosmologist at the CNRS, works at the Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et des Hautes Energies (LPNHE) of Sorbonne Université. She coordinates the DESI project, Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, for the CNRS, which aims to map the sky by measuring the positions of several tens of millions of galaxies in order to better understand the composition and dynamics of our Universe, and in particular its current phase of accelerated expansion. Pauline Zarrouk is also deeply involved in science outreach and is committed to sharing our cosmic history with an ever broader and more varied public. Pauline Zarrouk’s work has just been recognized with the CNRS bronze medal. Dominique Leglu is president of the association française pour l’avancement des sciences (AFAS), after serving as editorial director of the monthly science magazine Sciences et Avenir and the quarterly La Recherche, and as a columnist for Challenges magazine. A trained physicist and author of several books including “Supernova,” devoted to the famous SN1987A, the first supernova explosion visible to the naked eye in the 20th century, she has had many books translated at Robert Laffont, including works by Brian Greene (La magie du cosmos) and Leonard Susskind (Trous noirs. La guerre des savants). She was awarded the 1990 Jean Perrin prize by the Société française de physique. Boris Wilmart is an author, director, and documentary editor. His films explore the connections between humans and nature, seeking to convey visual and emotional depth in each one. For several years, he has been particularly interested in astronomy, questioning our relationship to the cosmos and the way it influences our lives and our perception of the world. He developed this reflection through several short films, and more recently with the documentary series Marche à l’étoile (2021–2024), made for ARTE and Ushuaïa TV. After studying drawing and design, Stephen Rater undertook numerous long-distance journeys in Espagne, Islande, and Nouvelle-Zélande, before making a formative solo trip to Népal in 2014. It was there, while improvising an astronomy lesson in a mountain school, that he decided once and for all to combine adventure with the sharing of scientific knowledge. Since 2018, he has made astronomy his main activity, organizing astrobivouacs in forests and working with people affected by cancer through the Siel Bleu group. His later expeditions to Népal, Kirghizistan, and Amérique du Sud to share sky observation with local populations became the subject of documentaries made with Boris Wilmart and broadcast on Ushuaïa TV and Arte. To support these solidarity projects, the association Marche à l'étoile was created. It now leads his most ambitious project: building a permanent astronomical observatory in the Mustang region of Népal, to provide lasting access to astronomy for communities in the Himalaya. A drummer, bassist, composer, and intermittent performing arts professional, Anaël Noury is a member of several ensembles mainly oriented toward modern jazz. Computer-assisted music, narrative accompaniment, and composing music for live performance form another aspect of his work as a composer. Last entry at 10:30 p.m.
Price: Last entry: 10:30 p.m.
Source: paris.fr — photo: © Pexels/Thirdman