Ensuring the Future

This exhibition shows that science and art together play a crucial role in the future of our planet. The many areas of expertise, ranging from geology to art history, astrophysics, archaeology, biology and archival science - to name but a few - are intended to answer questions from the public about a future that some people think is uncertain.

Through a series of exceptional pieces illustrating the rich heritage of the federal collection and through a series of didactic panels presenting emblematic projects of the different departments of the science policy, the exhibition will explore themes as diverse as the control of global warming, the observation of the Earth, the digitisation of the collections, maritime research or polar missions.

Ensuring the future means knowing the past and the present, understanding them and learning from them for a more responsible and sustainable management of tomorrow's world.

The AfricaMuseum presents two wood samples representing the Tree of authenticity. The Tree of authenticity is a spectacular forest giant in Yangambi, a UNESCO biosphere reserve in DR Congo where scientists from the AfricaMuseum, together with Congolese partners, are researching the influence of climate on carbon storage in rainforests. This tree has attracted the attention of many visitors in Yangambi for decades. The Tree of authenticity is of the botanical species Pachyelasma tessmannii. It is a so-called paradoxical species: it has heavy wood (a lot of carbon per volume) and yet shows rapid growth, which is good for carbon capture. Museum scientists have therefore planted experimental plots with the aim of storing carbon and thus stabilising the Earth's climate.