Cyrille Prestianni and EDDyLab, in collaboration with Rejouisciences, receive a grant from the Wernaers Fund for the project "A billion years in the kitchen



Photo ©Mark Cuvelier

Cyrille Prestianni and the researchers of the EDDyLab - accompanied by the Réjouisciences unit - of ULiège have just been awarded a grant from the Wernaers 2021 Fund to develop their project "Un milliard d'années en cuisine" which consists of the publication of a book and the production of video capsules on the theme of geology and paleontology.

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rom the great tropical stories, 380 million years old, to the mosasaurs that dominated the oceans at the time of the dinosaurs, through the first forests, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation presents on its territory, more than 400 million years of evolution of the Earth and biodiversity. However, this exceptional heritage remains largely unknown. Brochures exist, concerning neighbouring regions, but they are outdated and bring little quality scientific knowledge to the general public. Moreover, the knowledge of the latter on paleontology - and more generally on the past of the Earth - is very limited because this subject is not taught in compulsory education. Belgium suffers from a double lack," explains Cyrille Prestianni, paleontologist at the EDDyLAb (Faculty of Sciences) and project leader, "the non-valorization of its exceptional paleontological heritage and the absence of dissemination of fundamental knowledge to the general public. It is in this context that we wished to develop, with the help of Rejouisciences, a new project that would allow the valorization of paleontology. "

After a previous experience - Fossils in the City - which met with great success with the general public, the researchers developed the project "Un milliard d'années en cuisine" which consists of the production of a book (paper format) and the production of video capsules that will be hosted on a dedicated website. If the "Fossils in the City" project proposes walks, this new project proposes a radically different activity," continues Cyrille Prestianni. We're going to cook, that is to say, we're going to mobilize the body and the senses to experience abstract knowledge or knowledge perceived as such by the general public. "Un milliard d'années en cuisine" is a cookbook for families and the general public, with scientific commentaries written by specialists. On the menu: innovative recipes using foods that were present in ecosystems of the past (or, at least, their contemporary equivalent), in order to understand the changes in ecosystems and the effect of evolution and extinctions.

Their goal? To open the eyes of the public and (re)awaken their interest in science, to propose simple and playful experiments as a vector for the promotion of natural sciences related to paleontology (geology, evolution - history of the Earth and Life, climatology, oceanography, paleogeography, etc.).

It is this project that has just received the support of the Wernaers Prize Foundation with the granting of one of the annual subsidies to a media contributing to the development of the interest for scientific culture. Created on the initiative of the late Mr. Gustave Christin WERNAERS, the WERNAERS International Fund for Research and the Dissemination of Knowledge was established with the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique - FNRS to support actions promoting research and the dissemination of scientific knowledge.

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