What are these CNRS signs installed in Nice on the Promenade des Anglais?

The ocean seen by science. The exhibition The Ocean, so strong and so fragile, visible on the Prom', opposite the Mediterranean University Center, until August 28 , presents in twenty-one panels the work of scientists from the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).

Biologists, physicists, mathematicians, cartographers, climatologists, economists decipher marine biodiversity, its role, its functioning, its riches.

Each stage of the journey documents the work of the CNRS and its approximately 1,000 researchers, highlighting the importance of each profession.

"To understand is to protect," says microbiologist Marie-Anne Cambon, who points out that "less than 20% of the seabed has been mapped in detail" even though the ocean covers more than two-thirds of the planet.

Promising practices

Ice cream in hand, vacationers browse at leisure among the panels. From the biodiversity of Samoa to the microalgae of the Mediterranean, the exhibition is teeming with information.

"A single drop of seawater contains thousands of microorganisms." Did you know that? Charles didn't. Between two panels, this forty-year-old from Nice acknowledges his "infinite ignorance" on this subject, which he claims to know.

Curious, he scans the QR codes linking to CNRS studies. "We discover solutions, alternatives to stem the crisis. It's a change from the anxiety-inducing discourse."

While some predictions – notably the decline in plankton, microalgae that absorb _CO2 and produce half of our oxygen – are worrying, the CNRS highlights promising practices, such as algae aquaculture, which is increasing by 8% per year.

"Safeguarding the ocean is no longer a matter of choice, but rather the very condition of a habitable future." It is with this message, a sort of message in a bottle, that the visitors' stroll ends.