Autumn School in Ecology and Integrative Biology: a mixture of topics greatly appreciated by Master's students

A very good opportunity for the two student’s communities to mix and learn the approaches and concepts used by each other. More than twenty scientific talks presented on various topics such as "the roles of peptides in endomycorrhizal symbiosis", "the characteristics of a resistance gene  to Septoria", "mate-copying in some fish "," the population genetics of white-bellied pangolins in Lower Guinea "... have made it possible both to appreciate the diversity of themes and to better understand terms, techniques and subjects of study not encountered in the other Master.

This autumn school was also an opportunity to talk about the student’s future during a sequence "What to do with a Master degree?", where practical advices and motivational sentences have been produced to prepare the students to the pursuit of their scientific cursus.

This edition was also marked by the intervention of Arnaud Pocheville (CNRS, EDB), philosopher of sciences, which, through an history of science and evolution of scientific thought over time, allowed students to take a step back and think about issues that researchers and scientists face daily. Workshops, bringing together students from each of the Masters, allowed them to have brainstorming on issues such as "Is science moving towards the truth?", “Can we prove that a hypothesis is true?” “Must scientists be - and can they be - objective?”, "Can we automate science?” These different questions were presented by each group and were all the subject of debate, reflecting the student (and teacher!) interest on these topics.

Finally, informal discussions during the breaks and meals shared by members of the two masters, or during a hike in the Pyrenees near the hosting facility have also contributed to the integration of the two Master promotions, unanimously delighted by this moment of relaxation and meditation.