La Jornada: UNAM presents interactive exhibition that unites football and science towards the World Cup

The temporary exhibition Science is on the fieldin Universum, Science Museum of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, reveals that behind every pass, every shot and every goal, there is more science than you imagine. The exhibition is part of the activities leading up to the 2026 Soccer World Cup.

The tour is organized into five sections or “ways of looking at football”: the ball, the players, the refereeing, the stands and the field. Each of these areas offers an approach to sport from different scientific disciplines and with the game as a knowledge strategy.

During the interactive experience, visitors can learn about the history and transformation of the ball, understand the extraordinary plays explained using physical principles, and discover the technologies applied to the analysis and strategic planning of the game.

“There is physics in the trajectory of the ball; biology in the body that runs, that coordinates; mathematics in trajectories, in probabilities; and there is also anthropology and many other social sciences because sport talks about who we are, how we come together and how we feel… the public is going to discover something simple and powerful: that science is not far from everyday life,” Manuel Suárez Lastra, general director of science dissemination at UNAM, mentioned yesterday during the inauguration.

María Soledad Funes Arguello, coordinator of scientific research at UNAM, stressed that this exhibition invites us to look at the game not only from the emotion of the goal, the attention to a penalty or the passion of the stands, but from the knowledge that makes each play possible.

He stated that the history of football has also been built with scientific and technological transformations. As an example, he pointed out the chips with motion sensors that the ball will have for this World Cup, in order to support objective decisions. “The beauty of a play does not disappear when we understand it scientifically, on the contrary, it becomes even more surprising.”

Leonardo Lomelí Banegas, rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, considered that the merit of this thematic room lies in bringing science closer to an everyday experience. “It shows that knowledge can be enjoyed and remembers that learning is also a way of playing, admiring each other and strengthening the social fabric.”

Science on the field It is the product of nine months of interdisciplinary work by more than 60 experts in various areas such as physics, biology, design and museography.

The exhibition will be open to the public from today to October 4, 2026.