Discovery Science and techniques
La fabuleuse histoire des sciences au Québec
2022
Since 1923, the Association Francophone Pour le Savoir (Acfas) played a discreet but essential role in accompanying Quebec society throughout its scientific and social revolutions. In ten chapters and as many decades, we discover the major advances that left an indelible mark on science in Quebec.
Discovery | Science and techniques
Episode 1
14 min
The 1920s: the great scientific leap forward!
In the early 1920s, the visionaries Léo Pariseau, Jacques Rousseau and particularly Brother Marie-Victorin, debated the foundation of the Acfas, based on the model of American and British scientific societies. The aim: to lay the foundations of a strong scientific culture for francophone Canada.
Episode 2
13 min
The 1930s: a vaccine that saved innumerable lives
This second chapter looks back at the history of infectious diseases and notably the story of Armand Frappier. One of the key figures in fighting consumption, as TB was known, in 1938 he founded the Montreal Institute of Microbiology and Hygiene, later to become the Armand-Frappier Institute.
Episode 3
13 min
The 1940s: a secret laboratory on the slopes of Mont Royal
In 1943 a secret laboratory was created at the University of Montreal to conduct research into atomic batteries. It remained operational until 1945. At the time, research into nuclear physics was directed towards helping the war effort.
Episode 4
13 min
The 1950s: a planet more fragile than we imagined!
In 1957, the researcher Pierre Dansereau published "Biogeography: an Ecological Perspective", setting out, for the first time, the concept of "ecosystem", a term that soon became part of our everyday language.
Episode 5
14 min
The 1960s: science goes pop!
Originally launched in 1951, the magazine "Le Jeune Naturaliste" was taken over by the Acfas in 1962 and re-named "Le Jeune Scientifique". In 1969 it came under the University of Quebec to become "Québec Science". It marked the arrival of a new profession: scientific journalism, embodied by Fernand Seguin.
Since 1923, the Association Francophone Pour le Savoir (Acfas) played a discreet but essential role in accompanying Quebec society throughout its scientific and social revolutions. In ten chapters and as many decades, we discover the major advances that left an indelible mark on science in Quebec.
Discovery Science and techniques
Tim Doucette is blind. He is also an astronomer, an enthusiastic amateur who as an adult, discovered that he had extraordinary night vision. A situation that encouraged him to open his own observatory in Nova-Scotia, and to visit Mauna Kea, and the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope. We look back at his story.
Discovery Science and techniques
An inventive "bonesetter", a grandmother blowing gently to relieve pain, two healers using their four hands to treat patients, a doctor who combines chemistry and "secret"... Practitioners who all share a special connection with nature. Why, given the advances of modern medicine, do some still prefer to call on healers?
Discovery Science and techniques
Five senior citizens aged between 65 and 76 took part in an eighteen-month course of intense mental training, measured as part of a scientific study to assess the effects of meditation on aging. We look at their personal and emotional journey, as they take on the challenge of aging well.
Discovery Science and techniques
The speed with which the first Covid-19 vaccine was created is a veritable prowess, made possible by messenger RNA technology. We delve into this little known therapy, result of decades of research, explained by the scientists who worked tirelessly for its development.
Discovery Science and techniques
And what if you left the reality of being human behind to explore the world as if you were an animal or plant. A well-known figure from Romandy takes up the challenge of discovering what it is like to be a totally different species, feeling and living as they do.
Discovery Science and techniques
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is invisible and intangible, but already present in our everyday lives. Television personality and teacher, Philippe Desrosiers wonders what difference AI will really make to his life on different levels: food, physical health, mental health, efficiency, ecology and pleasure.
