Science at UM [S02-ep03]: From port wildlife to the Science Festival
This week on A l’UM la science, Nicolas Bierne, researcher atISEM, talks to us about the strange underwater fauna found in ports. In the second part of the program, we conclude our series on LIRMM with Alexandre Pinlou. Finally, Agnès Pesenti gives us the program for the Fête de la Science.

This week we offer you a little remake of Jacques Brel, but in an underwater version where the sailors of the port of Amsterdam give way to heavy metals, hydrocarbons, concrete, artificial lights of course, and noise.... Because while our sailors sing, eat, drink, and dance on the surface, they also carry small stowaways in their boats, well hidden in the many hiding places that a ship has to offer. So how do these exotic species adapt to the strange ecosystem that is a port? What new adaptive responses can they produce? Do they hybridize with local species? In short, as you will have understood, ports are not only crossroads for people and goods, they are also crossroads for species and, as such, can be veritable open-air laboratories. Our guest is Nicolas Bierne, a researcher atISEM, the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences in Montpellier. Together with his colleague Frédérique Viard, he has published an article entitled Urban encounters by the sea: ports as Darwinian field laboratories for studying marine evolution in the Anthropocene.
In the second part of the program, we bring you the third and final installment of our mini-series devoted to Lirmm, and this time Alexandre Pinlou introduces you to the computer science department. Using examples from computational theory, data science, artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, image processing, and software engineering, he explains how computer science is becoming increasingly prevalent in our daily lives. To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Lirmm is taking advantage of Science Day to invite you to discover its premises and the work of its researchers during a grand open house on Saturday, October 8.
And we're staying with the Science Festival with our last-minute guest. This week, it's Agnès Pesenti from the scientific culture department who's presenting the Science Festival program.
At UM Science, you have the program, so let's get started!
Co-production: Divergence FM University of Montpellier
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Aline Périault / Lucie Lecherbonnier
Reporting and editing: Aline Périault
Production: Adeline Floc’h
Listen to the program “A l’UM la science” on Divergence FM 93.9

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