# Science Is Fun: From Egyptian Tombs to the Litholamellation Workshop
Welcome to La science s’aMuse, the science show co-produced by UM and Divergence-FM, which takes you on a tour of the Muse laboratory complex. This week our guest is Séverin Pistre, a researcher at Hydrosciences Montpellier. In the second half of the show, Christophe Nevado takes us on a tour of the UM’s litholamination workshop.
And for this fourth stop, we’re taking you to one of the most romanticized regions in the world: Egypt! More specifically, to the site of the royal necropolis of Tanis, right in the heart of the Nile Delta. Séverin Pistre, our guest, is a researcher at Hydrosciences Montpellier. He knows this site well—very well, in fact—particularly the tombs of Pharaohs Osorkon II and Psousennes, whose eternal rest seems threatened by a few grains of salt. Nearly three thousand years old, these tombs are indeed deteriorating due to the salinization of their walls, resulting in the deterioration of the stone and the gradual disappearance of the engravings and paintings. And this is happening more than twenty kilometers from the sea.
In partnership with the Louvre and the French Institute of Oriental Antiquities, Séverin Pistre’s mission is to investigate this new mystery of the pharaohs by attempting to identify the hydrological and hydrogeological characteristics of this environment in order to better understand the process of salinization and, perhaps, to try to save these incredible relics of the past.
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In the second part of the program, our report from the Machine Room takes you to Géosciences Montpellier, where Christophe Nevado works as a rock section preparator. It’s a rare and little-known profession, but an indispensable one… By preparing rock samples barely 30 microns thick, the litholameller—or lithopreparator—is an indispensable link in geological research and education. A lively encounter with an enthusiast honored with the CNRS Collective Crystal Award.
Science is Fun—you’ve got the ticket, let’s go!
Co-production: University of Montpellier and Divergence-fm
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Aline Périault, Lucie Lecherbonnier
Reporting: Aline Périault
Editing: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Director: Adeline Flo’ch
Tune in to the show “A LUM LA SCIENCE” on Divergence FM 93.9
