The 2025 Shanghai Science Festival, a two-week celebration of scientific innovation and technological advancement, opened Saturday across all 16 districts in the city under the theme "Science and Technology Make Life Better."
The festival from May 17 to 30 will run 2,000 public events across six themes, including exhibitions, popular science lectures, innovation competitions, and interactive tech experiences.
The opening ceremony showcased an artificial intelligence-powered scientific red carpet featuring extended reality (XR) technology and humanoid robots, highlighting progress in China's rapidly advancing robotics industry.
During the festival, 56 key laboratories and large-scale scientific facilities will be open to the public. Among them are the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Intelligent Manufacturing and Robotics and the National Facility for Protein Science in Shanghai.
At the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics (SITP ) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, there are interactive workshops on topics ranging from water rockets, Chang'e lunar probe-themed competitions, and field fabrication of human body movement intelligent sensors as part of the festival.
The researchers also demonstrated life science experiments on the space station for young visitors in their lab.
"The two scientific experiments we conducted were cultivating rice and zebrafish in space. We have opened up 'space lectures' for these two experiments, which greatly interest children. We also introduced the design principles of the device and its working principle to them," said Jia Chaoxian, an SITP doctoral candidate.
"This year's festival has two purposes. One is to promote the spirit of scientists. We invite academicians here to tell of their scientific study stories. The other is to foster scientific thinking among young people. We encourage them to explore and think actively through collecting questions and opening laboratories," said Huang Hong, vice chairman of the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality.
Since its establishment in 1991 as China's first government-led science festival and the world's second city-named science festival, the Shanghai Science Festival has evolved into a crucial platform for public engagement with science and innovation.
Shanghai Science Festival showcases city's achievements, innovation
