INL welcomes Ciência Viva students for a week of hands-on science

July 30, 2025

For the first time, the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) is opening its doors to young

For the first time, INL joined the programme Ciência Viva no Laboratório. Over the course of a week, five secondary school students experienced what it truly means to be a scientist, working side by side with researchers in high-tech labs, not as observers, but as active participants in real scientific projects.

Promoted by Ciência Viva – Agência Nacional para a Cultura Científica e Tecnológica, the initiative aims to bridge the gap between school-based learning and the real world of science. At INL, the students took part in hands-on activities related to nanotechnology, nanosafety, and electron microscopy, while engaging with cutting-edge scientific equipment and researchers from diverse scientific backgrounds.

Filipa Lebre, a postdoctoral researcher at INL, mentored one of the students in a project simulating how researchers assess the health impacts of new nanomaterials. “Participating in this program has been a wonderful experience,” Filipa shared. “It’s inspiring to meet young, inquisitive minds and watch them grow from their initial shyness to confidently working in the lab and asking insightful questions. School gives you theory, but hands-on experience in a real lab can be transformative.”

Filipa guided the student Inês Heath through the full research process: preparing a lab experiment, exposing them to cell culture techniques, observing cells under the microscope, and running cell assays. Filipa’s group studies how nanomaterials interact with the human body, particularly through the skin and lungs, while developing advanced cell-based models that help reduce animal testing.

On a different floor, Hugo Oliveira supervised a completely different scientific project – one rooted in electronics. His student explored optical sensing techniques to measure the colour of various candies, learning how colour perception is influenced by multiple factors, from our own eyesight to the surrounding lighting conditions. By using spectral sensors to capture the unique “colour fingerprint” of sweets from different brands, the student was even able to identify a few mystery candies – while enjoying a few edible samples along the way.

Meanwhile, Inês Machado Pinho, a student from Dr. Ginestal Machado School in Santarém, spent her internship at the Electron Microscopy and X-Rays (EMX) Facility, diving into the microscopic world under the mentorship of Andrea Gouvea, Elvira Paz, and Cristiana Alves.

“This has been a fantastic experience,” said Inês. “I’m really enjoying being here in Braga, visiting INL for the first time and exploring the wonders of science. I believe this internship could be the beginning of an important path in my future professional life.”

Ciência Viva no Laboratório was not just an internship: it was a transformative experience. At INL, this week-long program represented more than a learning opportunity, as it gave students the chance to discover how science is made, what it feels like to be in the lab, and how curiosity and ideas can lead to innovation.

Today, they are apprentices. Tomorrow, they might be the scientists who change the world.

This story was featured on RTP, Portugal’s national public television. To learn more about the 2025 edition of Ciência Viva no Laboratório, you can watch the segment here, at minute 21: https://www.rtp.pt/play/p14264/e867202/portugal-em-direto/1352917.