Catégorie : CNRS
Sports science in all fields
The presence of scientists within elite training squads has become increasingly commonplace. Among other things, they study pedal strokes in cycling, muscle exertion in running, and decision-making processes in basketball. Discover some of the images h…
Numbers that shape the world
The study of numbers has driven mathematics since antiquity. The constantly evolving field of arithmetic connects numbers and geometry, and is used in everyday applications, particularly in cryptography.
The mechanics of sea ice
Major climate models are based on a series of more specific overlapping models that are in constant interaction with one another. However, those describing the behaviour of sea ice have proved to be obsolete. As a result, researchers are now developing…
Dissecting the “spice” of Dune
One of the central elements in the new sci-fi film Dune by Denis Villeneuve is a substance with extraordinary properties. Called “spice”, it bears a resemblance to certain molecules already in use in our own world! The CNRS chemist Fabrice Chemla expla…
Understanding urban heat islands
The effects of urban heat islands, which can increase temperatures in cities by as much as 10 °C, are particularly noticeable in summer. For some twenty years Valéry Masson has been studying these localised phenomena, which often go undetected by conve…
“Mein Kampf remains invaluable for understanding Nazism”
Published last June, the study entitled Historiciser le Mal, une Édition Critique de Mein Kampf (“Historicising Evil, a Critical Edition of Mein Kampf”) is the fruit of five years of work by twelve specialists in Nazism. Historian Florent Brayard, co-d…
Invasive species: an ecological and economic disaster
Biological invasions are the second most common cause of species extinction on Earth, and also take a heavy toll on our health and the economy. On the occasion of the World Congress of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), to b…
Van Eyck was a precursor of augmented reality
Using digital technology, a researcher has unravelled the secrets of the use of perspective by the Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck, a technique previously believed to be specific to the Italian Renaissance artists.
Landscapes of the microworld
Progress in microscopy continues to expand our window onto the world of the infinitesimally small. Whether in chemistry, biology, engineering or digital simulation, these images paint a phantasmagoric and yet factual portrait of the world that we live …
Keeping an eye on the forest
For the past 20 years, a scientific team has been monitoring the state of health of Barbeau Forest in the Seine-et-Marne region east of Paris. Researchers and engineers analyse the flux of carbon dioxide and water vapour between the forest and the atmo…
Keeping an eye on the forest
For the past 20 years, a scientific team has been monitoring the state of health of Barbeau Forest in the Seine-et-Marne region east of Paris. Researchers and engineers analyse the flux of carbon dioxide and water vapour between the forest and the atmo…
Researchers step up the fight against Covid-19
Numerous studies are being carried out in laboratories to develop medications that can treat SARS-CoV-2. New therapeutic strategies targeting the virus or the cell proteins it hijacks to its benefit are being tested and could offer treatments that are …
Edgar Morin turns 100, and continues his journey
On Thursday 8 July, France’s best-known intellectual celebrated his hundredth birthday – and eight decades of an exceptional scientific career, driven by a keen ambition to build bridges between disciplines and explore all points of view, as testified …
A century on, does BCG have a future?
Tuberculosis kills 1.5 million people throughout the world each year. A century after it was invented, BCG remains the only vaccine against this infection, which is still poorly understood. Highly effective in children, its limitations have nevertheles…
Scientists are honing their weapons to fight Covid-19
Numerous studies are being carried out in laboratories to develop medications that can treat SARS-CoV-2. New therapeutic strategies targeting the virus or the cell proteins it hijacks to its benefit are being tested and could offer treatments that are …
Biodiversity loss and climate change must be addressed together
A recent report, co-authored by experts on climate change (IPCC) and biodiversity loss (IPBES) shows that these two phenomena are closely related. And although some solutions put forward to tackle either of the two may prove detrimental to the other, t…
Profiling sharks to eliminate killers
Dividing his time between France and Polynesia, the ichthyologist Éric Clua devotes his efforts to studying sharks, both to preserve their populations and to help prevent attacks on humans.
InSight probes the Martian interior
Since 2018, the InSight mission has been exploring the internal structure of the Red Planet. Geophysicist Philippe Lognonné tells CNRS News what they’ve discovered so far.
Investigating one of the cradles of humankind
The fossiliferous site of Bolt’s Farm, in South Africa, spans millions of years of history, including episodes of climate change that impacted early hominids and their environment. To study it, researchers from the country’s National Research Foundatio…
Research on HIV has reached a turning point
Forty years after its discovery, HIV-AIDS has become a chronic disease thanks to triple therapies. Yet there is still no known cure for it and a vaccine is nowhere in sight. Monsef Benkirane, a virologist at the Institute of Human Genetics (IGH), gives…
Black holes and neutron stars meet up with a bang
The LIGO and Virgo observatories have announced the very first sightings of the merger of a black hole and a neutron star. These discoveries should help gain a better understanding of how these compact bodies form and evolve.
The forest of Fontainebleau is home to rock art treasures
With more than 2 000 engraved shelters, the forest of Fontainebleau is home to one of Europe’s largest rock art complexes. A research mission in the Paris region is focusing on geometric engravings, believed to date back to the Mesolithic (11 500 BP to…
The story of AIDS, from fear to fight
The first identified cases of AIDS, in 1981, caused an outbreak of panic, along with widespread discrimination. Since medical science initially proved powerless, people with AIDS and support groups campaigned vigorously for access to treatment and demo…
Jean Dalibard receives the CNRS 2021 Gold Medal
A brilliant physicist and a leading specialist in cold atoms, an area that is central to light-matter interaction, Jean Dalibard has been awarded the CNRS 2021 Gold Medal, one of France’s highest scientific distinctions.
Leading CNRS project on hybrid AI launched in Singapore
A vast collaborative project on hybrid artificial intelligence, led by the CNRS’s subsidiary in Singapore and allocated a budget of €35 million over five years, will begin in late 2021.
How optogenetics has restored partial sight to a blind patient
Thanks to gene therapy and the use of adapted spectacles, a blind patient is now able to distinguish the shape of objects to recognise, count and grasp them. José-Alain Sahel, the lead author of this study published in Nature Medicine and a founding me…
Forthcoming revolution will unveil the secrets of matter
Provided adapted software can be developed, exascale computing, a new generation of supercomputers, will offer massive power to model the properties of molecules and materials, while taking into account their fundamental interactions and quantum mechan…
Why the “Gulf Stream” is a misnomer
At school, we learned that the Gulf Stream was the warm current that flows across the Atlantic. Yet according to oceanographer Julie Deshayes, things aren’t quite so simple. The scientist prefers to speak of the “Atlantic Overturning Circulation” to de…
The poles at the centre of the world stage
At first sight, the remote, icy polar regions may appear superficially similar. But they are in fact very different places: the Antarctic and the Arctic have neither the same history nor the same legal status. CNRS News takes a look at the geopolitical…
Fariba Adelkhah’s struggle for freedom
Arrested in Tehran two years ago and sentenced to five years of detention, the French-Iranian anthropologist has been released from prison but remains under house arrest. She was recently awarded the Irène Joliot-Curie Prize for “Female Scientist of th…
Targeted political advertising raises a number of issues
What can we do when a technology created to promote commercial products is used to influence people’s political opinions?
Bioinformatics, a key ally in the fight against Covid-19
Bioinformatics—a relatively new scientific discipline—uses models and algorithms to analyse the avalanche of data produced by biologists. It has played a crucial role in deciphering the origin and functioning of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus
Chemists in the GAVO project set out to tackle viruses
Because viruses can only replicate their genetic material by hijacking cell machinery, focusing on this crucial step may halt the infection. Scientists are collaborating within the GAVO project to synthesise molecules that could block the replication o…
Comment les artères et les veines trouvent-elles leur chemin au cours du développement ?
Des chercheurs du CNRS, de l’Université Paris Diderot et de l’Université Paris Descartes viennent de montrer comment s’organise la croissance des veines et des artères au cours du développement embryonnaire. Leurs observations prouvent en outre que, co…
Astrophysique en rayons gamma : l’observatoire CTA austral sera construit au Chili
L’observatoire Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) annonce aujourd’hui la signature de trois conventions qui permettront de construire son site austral au Chili, plus précisément sur les terrains de l’ESO à 11km au sud-est du Très grand télescope (VLT) dan…
Filmer le cerveau pour mieux comprendre le sommeil
Que se passe-t-il dans notre cerveau lorsque nous dormons ? Pour répondre à cette question, des chercheurs français ont réalisé les premiers films de l’ensemble du cerveau du rat pendant son sommeil grâce à une technique innovante d’imagerie par ultras…