Catégorie : CNRS

It has been the very foundation of post-war economic policies, but is the idea of GDP compatible with the goals of the ecological transition? According to some economists, this purely monetary indicator does not factor in certain “irreversibilities” – …

An increasing number of women are outperforming men in very long ultra-trail races. Do they enjoy better endurance and muscle recovery? Should they be offered different training to reach their full potential? To find out, Caroline Nicol and her colleag…

A pioneer of glaciology, Claude Lorius, winner of the CNRS gold medal in 2002, died on 21 March. This exceptional researcher discovered that the record of Earth’s past climate is locked up in the ice of Antarctica and highlighted the role of greenhouse…

In 2018, the island of Mayotte, a French territory in the Indian Ocean, was rocked by one of the largest underwater volcanic eruptions ever recorded. The scientific activity triggered by the event led to a series of discoveries that have shed fresh lig…

The physicist Bérengère Dubrulle has won the Irène Joliot-Curie Female Scientist of the Year prize 2022, awarded by the French Academy of Sciences. Yet another distinction for this specialist in turbulence, who has in particular developed a new model o…

In the US State of Arizona, it is not unusual to see rivers that have dried up. Some only flow in specific sections or at certain times of the year. They are known as intermittent rivers. At the CNRS iGlobes laboratory, located within the University o…

On the occasion of the forthcoming publication of the Synthesis Report of the Sixth IPCC Assessment Report, the science historian Hélène Guillemot explains how knowledge on climate change has improved since the 19th century, eventually demonstrating th…

The result of advances in chemistry, innovative molecules offer glimpses of more effective and less restrictive cancer treatments that have fewer adverse effects. CNRS research units and the start-ups they gave rise to are in the front line of a war be…

As part of the Climatoscope project, David Chavalarias and his colleagues are studying the structure, tactics and arguments of climate change sceptics on Twitter. The goal of these highly-organised networks, which have become particularly active in rec…

Ahead of the One Forest Summit scheduled on 1-2 March 2023 in Libreville, Gabon, the ecologist Jonathan Lenoir presents the issues involved in preserving forest ecosystems in the context of global warming.

JUICE, the first European-led space mission to Jupiter, is scheduled to launch in April. The aim of this major undertaking is to explore the gas giant and its icy moons.

The biological station at Roscoff in Brittany (northwestern France), which was founded 150 years ago, on 20th August 1872, still serves as a reference for the study of marine life. This is evidenced by a major discovery that made the headlines of the j…

Using a novel experimental protocol, scientists are shedding fresh light on nuclear fusion reactions in stars. This will affect theories of stellar evolution and of the abundance of elements in the Universe, explains physicist Sandrine Courtin.

Now a worldwide phenomenon, urbanisation keeps gaining ground, transforming our landscapes as well as our lifestyles and social organisation. By 2050 the world’s urban population will have increased 30-fold compared with 1900, and cities will represent…

The Lady and the Unicorn is the mysterious and must-see masterpiece at the Cluny Museum, in Paris. Little is known about these six impressive tapestries, apart from the fact that significant colour differences can be observed in the weaving. With cutti…

Meet chemist Claude Grison, whose stroke of genius has earned her the European Inventor Award 2022. Taking inspiration from the world of biology, this French researcher has developed plant-based methods to clean up polluted soils and water. And that’s …

Is the city a neutral place? The answer, according to geographers, is a resounding “no”. Conceived by men, the city is a male space that disadvantages women every day. From urban design to public facilities, not to mention sexual harassment, the street…

Fog computing, which is based on reduced computing resources situated as close to users as possible, can avoid reliance on large data centres. This approach is particularly adapted to the Internet of Things and systems requiring immediate computing.

Why did Homo sapiens get itchy feet, ultimately colonising the entire planet? How have cultural factors influenced our genetic makeup? The geneticist and anthropologist Évelyne Heyer recounts the adventure of humanity across time and space, in light of…

CNRS News takes you on a trip to the foot of Snaefellsjökull, a volcano in Iceland close to the heart not only of French writer Jules Verne but also of the researchers at the Institute of Physics of the 2 Infinities (IP2I) in Lyon (central eastern Fran…

A CNRS research team is developing a computer program to calculate the risk of collision between a satellite and orbiting debris in real time.

Dyslexia, autism, rare diseases… What factors are responsible for the neurodevelopmental disorders that affect an increasing number of children? This report, published in collaboration with LeMonde.fr, features physicians and scientists who study the f…

The Hunga Tonga submarine volcano, whose eruption in January 2022 was the most powerful the world has seen in the last thirty years, released massive amounts of water vapour and aerosols into the atmosphere. One year later, researchers are still studyi…

Tested this year in Venice, the Maelstrom project’s seabed cleaning platform uses a robot to recover marine litter. The robot is controlled by a system of cables and can operate down to a maximum depth of twenty metres.

As we now know that diseases originate from a combination of genetics and the environment, research on the exposome aims to characterise all the environmental determinants of health.

Whatever the time of year, our planet is increasingly impacted by extreme weather events, such as devastating floods and storms, heat waves, and cold spells. But how can we be sure that climate change is responsible for a particular phenomenon? Scienti…

Once rare in the French countryside, the wild boar is now considered a nuisance to be actively hunted. The ecologist Raphaël Mathevet explains how wild boar populations have been growing since the 1970s, and asks the question: what have we done to this…

The sociologist Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier, a member of France’s HCC high council for the climate, talks to CNRS News about the concept of energy sobriety, its goals and the obstacles it faces.

With the recent release of the sequel to James Cameron’s blockbuster, we asked the anthropologist Perig Pitrou for his analysis of the first instalment. Beyond nature and culture, what representations of the living world underlie the film’s ecological …

The CNRS research professor Michel Thiebaut de Schotten, who specialises in neuropsychology and neuroimaging, proposes a new model of the brain that enables a clearer understanding of its functioning and improved management of neurological disorders.

For the bicentennial of the birth of Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), the biologist Michel Morange, author of a recent biography of the famous scientist, talks about his life, work and legend.

Throughout history, on every continent, women have been killed because they were women. In order to study the particular nature of this type of violence and analyse its causes, researchers insist that a specific term should designate it.

Scientific concepts of the utmost importance, ranging from climate models to the water cycle, lack data about the height, velocity and flow rate of surface water. The joint French-US mission SWOT should shed light on these questions thanks to a brand-n…

Philippe Grandcolas, deputy scientific director at the CNRS Institute of Ecology and Environment, reviews the major issues at stake at the COP15 conference that was held in Montreal, Canada, from 7 to 19 December.

Earth’s smaller sister planet, Mars, may have seen the emergence of life in its early history. To be certain, NASA’s rovers Curiosity, launched ten years ago, and Perseverance, which landed on the Red Planet in February 2021, continue to explore the su…

Launched in 2016, the MICROSCOPE satellite has confirmed with unprecedented precision the equivalence principle, which lies at the heart of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Two physicists explain the significance of this result.

On 29 and 30 September, 1941, 33,771 Jews were executed in Babi Yar, near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Shown in French cinemas recently to coincide with the anniversary of the tragedy, the documentary Babi Yar. Context offers a precise, levelheaded acco…

Nestled at the heart of the French national museum of natural history (MNHN) in Paris, the Communication Molecules and Micro-Organism Adaptation (MCAM) laboratory, a joint CNRS-MNHN unit, is home to some precious samples. Over a century old, they have …

For the first time, a physical model consistent with observations successfully describes how the tidal force caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon is slowing down the rotation of our planet and increasing the distance that separates it from the …

During the past few years, nanoparticles have been increasingly present in our everyday lives. To gain a better understanding of their health impacts, several studies have focused on the effects they have on our bodies and cells.

From robot rebellions to climate apocalypses, science fiction envisions the consequences of our actions and societal choices in a more or less near – and often discomforting – future. In so doing it contributes to the debates on contemporary issues.

In 2027 a memorial-museum dedicated to terrorism will open in the western Paris suburb of Suresnes. The historian Henry Rousso, chair of the preliminary project, gives us an overview of the future Museum and Memorial of Terrorism.

The 2022 edition of the LPPI “Proof in Images” competition is here. Discover these winning photos from research, organised by the CNRS with Acfas, its Canadian partner. You can vote for your favourite photo until November 30.

The astrophysicist Jean-Luc Atteia explains why the exceptional gamma-ray burst detected in early October could dramatically change what we know about supernovae and black holes.

When adapting the IPCC’s method for estimating global warming to the situation in France, scientists have found that the temperatures that can be expected in the country by the end of the century should be higher than thought. They could increase by as…

Elephants, crocodiles, hippopotami… In Botswana, the Okavango delta is a real paradise for the local fauna during the flood, which lasts several months a year. In this documentary, published in collaboration with LeMonde.fr, a team of French scientists…

For more than a century, France has had a tradition of offering asylum to researchers who are forced to flee their home countries, as is the case in Ukraine today. Pascale Laborier of the PAUSE national emergency asylum programme for scientists and art…

The combination of all the options offered by a software program can reach mind-boggling numbers, with several thousand digits. Research has developed tools to manage this variability as best as possible.