“SHAring Researchers’ Passion for Education and Rights”, this is the extended name of the event now known to all as “SHARPER”, one of the Italian projects supported by the European Commission for the implementation of the European Researchers’ Night with the aim to bring citizens closer to the world of scientific research and the role that researchers play in building the future of society.
Sharper takes place every year on the last Friday of September in over 30 European countries and more than 300 cities. Friday 26th of September 2025, 15 Italian cities – including Palermo – will tell the story of the passion, discoveries and challenges of researchers from all over Europe through exhibitions, shows, concerts, games, conferences and hundreds of other initiatives aimed at the general public.
The Ri.MED Foundation will participate again this year – for the eighth consecutive edition – with “Multicolour Science“.
Between tubes, paper towels and unexpected materials, young scientists will be able to take part in interactive laboratories: the researchers from the Medicinal Chemistry group will guide visitors to discover simple but fun chemical reactions, such as the separation on paper of compounds in a mixture (“The race of colors“), colorimetric reactions induced by red cabbage (“50 shades of cabbage“), the spectacular magic of fluorescent substances through which we can make visible the invisible (“The fluorescences of Jupiter“), but also a game of colored balloons inflated with the effervescence produced by carbon dioxide. And then space for red and blue: the colors of the heart and blood vessels! With threads, pompons and lots of imagination, children can build a heart valve, or regenerate a blood vessel or create a real heart (“The Artist’s Heart“) by discovering the secrets of tissue engineering with the guidance of our researchers.
Adults will also be engaged and driven to the learn about the scientific projects of the Ri.MED Foundation currently ongoing, in particular those run by the research groups in Medicinal Chemistry, Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, biomedical projects strongly oriented to the patient care.
A journey between science and imagination, where every reaction is a discovery and each color tells a story!
Laboratories arrangements by Pietro Amico, Ester Badami, Giuseppe Barberi, Elena Buscemi, Nadia Consiglio, Maria De Rosa, Simona Di Martino, Maria Giovanna Francipane, Chiara Maringhini, Elvira Passalacqua e Enrica Romano.