In October, the Photosymbiosis team took part in the 2026 edition of the Fête de la Science at two events in Grenoble: the Parvis des Sciences, organized by the GIANT Campus at the CEA, and Alpin’Sciences, organized by the CNRS.

Under the title “A la découverte du plancton marin / Discovering marine plankton”, the Photosymbiosis and Photosynthesis teams welcomed medium-school students and the general public to a hands-on workshop highlighting the ecological role of plankton, from the scale of the oceans to that of the whole planet. Visitors also discovered the remarkable diversity of plankton and the inner workings of these microorganisms.

Using a Curiosity optical microscope, visitors could pipette different plankton species suspended in water and observe them under magnification, just like real marine biologists.

The second part of the workshop took participants on an immersive journey into the heart of the ocean with the PlanktoQuest virtual reality application: catching planktonic microorganisms, dissecting them, feeding them, and exploring this little-known world.

Two new activities this year:

• a 3D-printed microalgal cell, allowing visitors to handle and explore its cellular contents (mitochondria, plastids, nucleus …)
• the web version of PlanktoQuest displayed on a tablet (the web application will be released very soon on our website !)

We warmly thank the CEA and the CNRS Alpes delegation for organizing these two events, as well as our funders, the Moore Fondation and the Société Française de Biologie Cellulaire (SFBC), for supporting the success of this new edition.