THE TWO INFINITIES AND OUR WORLD

PRESENTATION:
Embark on a quest in search of the infinitely big and infinitely small and examine the ways they relate closely to our lives, alongside the men and women of physics who will help you discover their hidden presence in our day-to-day world. You will be introduced to the lives and professions of this major collaboration in the physics of the infinitely small and infinitely big. Discover how the tools developed in these fields have unearthed unexpected applications, how nuclear physics has profoundly changed the worlds of energy and health, and how the properties of certain particles are helping other disciplines to study matter in a completely different way.

Available on the Coursera platform, this French-taught class is part of the “Journeys from the Infinitely Big to the Infinitely Small” MOOC, developed by scientists from the P2IO (Physics of Two Infinities and Origins) Laboratory of Excellence, a cluster of physics laboratories located in Orsay and Saclay focused on the physics of the infinitely big and small.

The four themes of this MOOC:
Towards the Infinitely Small
Towards the Infinitely Big
From One Infinity to Another
The two Infinities and our World
The Two Infinities and Our World will bring you on a journey through two living, dynamic fields of research: the infinitely big (the Universe, its components and its evolution) and the infinitely small (elementary particles and fundamental interactions). The course will present the latest discoveries (Higgs’ boson at CERN in 2012, the first observations of gravitational waves in 2015 and 2017 etc.) and the cutting-edge experiments that are driving these advances. You will discover the men and women (researchers, engineers, and technical and administrative experts) who are contributing to the progress of these sciences, and learn about the societal applications resulting from this fundamental research.
WHO IS THIS COURSE AIMED AT?

This course is intended for students enrolled in a science track in their final year of high school and first-year bachelor’s physics students, who wish to discover the current vision of the infinitely big and infinitely small. It may also be taken by high school physics and chemistry teachers, to be used as class teaching material or as documentary research.

COURSE SYLLABUS:

INFINITIES AND HUMANKIND
TECHNOLOGY IN OUR EVERYDAY LIVES
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE WORLD
NUCLEI FOR ENERGY AND HEALTH
IN THE SAME SERIES:

THE TWO INFINITIES AND OUR WORLD
FROM ONE INFINITY TO ANOTHER
TOWARDS THE INFINITELY BIG
TOWARDS THE INFINITELY SMALL