The Photosymbiosis team took part in the 2025 edition of the “Fête de la Science” at two events held in Grenoble in October: the Parvis des Sciences, organized by the GIANT Campus at the CEA, and Alpin’ Sciences, organized by the CNRS. Our research teams led a workshop titled “Discovering Marine Plankton” to raise awareness among high-school students and the general public about the ecological role of plankton at the scale of the oceans and, more broadly, our planet. It was also the occasion to learn more about the biological diversity of plankton and the inner machinery of planktonic microorganisms.

A “Curiosity” optical microscope was made available to visitors, allowing them to directly handle different plankton species suspended in aqueous solutions using pipettes, and to observe them under a magnifying objective – just like real marine biologists!

The second part of the workshop offered visitors a virtual journey into the heart of our oceans thanks to the PlanktoQuest virtual reality application. This immersive experience enabled users to catch planktonic microorganisms, dissect them, feed them—in short, to learn more about this little-known world.