# La Science s'aMuse: From rare species to medical simulation
Welcome to the program co-produced by the University of Montpellier and Divergence-FM, which takes you on a cruise through the laboratories of the Muse archipelago. This week, Science s'aMuse sets sail for the southern hemisphere with Nicolas Loiseau to talk about ecologically rare animal species. In the second half of the show, we take you on a tour of the Faculty of Medicine's simulation platform with emergency physician Blaise Debien.
Characterized by both abundance and restricted geographic distribution, ecologically rare species are particularly defined by their functional originality, in other words the singular and irreplaceable role they play on the scale of their ecosystem. Yellow-headed marmosets from Brazil, tree kangaroos from Australian Queensland, Gunnison's grouse, Strigops habroptila parrots, marsupials from Madagascar or Ariane de Lucy's hummingbirds... In all, there are more than 4,600 species of terrestrial mammals and 9,287 species of birds whose disappearance would entail the disappearance of many other species, particularly plant species. So today, we're not taking you on a safari, but rather on a navigation tour to better understand the role of these species and the importance of the issues at stake in their conservation.
To guide us through this stopover, our guest for the day is Nicolas Loiseau. He is a researcher at Marbec, the University of Montpellier's marine biodiversity, exploration and conservation laboratory, and his study is published this month in the prestigious journal Nature communications. This work, carried out with the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity, the CNRS and theUniversity of Grenoble, maps these ecologically rare species and warns of the need to protect them more effectively to safeguard the ecosystems in which they live.
In the engine room: the medical simulation platform
In the second half of the program, we head for the Arnaud de Villeneuve campus. We feature a long report on the medical school's simulation platform, run by CESU, the emergency care teaching center. There, curious machines await us: patient robots. Used by students in training, or by nursing staff as part of their continuing education, they enable them to learn or perfect technical gestures according to the principle: "Never the first time on a patient". Blaise Debien, emergency doctor and platform coordinator, gives us a tour.
La science s'aMuse, you've got the map, let's get on board!
Coproduction: Université de Montpellier and Divergence-fm
Animation: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interviews: Aline Périault and Lucie Lecherbonnier
Reporting: Aline Périault and Lucie Lecherbonnier
Editing: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Technical assistance: Adeline Flo'ch
Listen to the "A LUM LA SCIENCE" program on Divergence FM 93.9
