Étiquette : sciences
Astronomers discover micronovae
Based on observations by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, a team of astronomers has discovered a new type of stellar explosion. A million times less powerful than novae and much more short-lived, these explosions have been dubb…
Forgotten dates in Europe’s history (4/4)
To round off our series, taken from the book “Chroniques de l’Europe” published by CNRS Éditions, join Belgian women workers on strike for equal pay, find out how America’s Internet profited from the invention of the World Wide Web in a European organi…
When cyber-attacks target hardware
Hackers and researchers are taking increasing interest in hardware attacks on electronic devices. These attacks can circumvent security protocols, track Internet users, or simply destroy machines.
Tracking radioactive barrels in the Atlantic
Between the 1950s and 1990s, some 200,000 barrels of radioactive waste were dumped by European nations into the North East Atlantic. Scientists are set to assess the condition of the barrels today and study their effects on surrounding ecosystems.
Dragons, mammoths and giant wolves: what do the animals in “Game of Thrones” tell us?
As we await the release of the prequel “House of the Dragon”, scheduled for this coming autumn, here are the answers to three questions that you might not have thought to ask about the cult television series “Game of Thrones”. What glacial period does …
The gilthead bream faced with climate change
How much longer will marine life be able to withstand rising temperatures? Find out more about how scientists are trying to determine the impact of global warming on the physiology and behaviour of the gilthead sea bream.
Resistance in Ukraine is also digital
Faced with the blocking of numerous websites and control of social media orchestrated by the Kremlin, Ukrainians and Russian anti-war activists are resisting through decentralised messaging services and distribution lists. An overview by Francesca Musi…
Water management: should we be “environmental plumbers”?
Faced with growing disruption to the water cycle, leading to severe flooding and drought together with increasing water pollution, humans are struggling to adapt. But are ever-greater water storage and control of river flows really the right solutions?…
The evolution of the Covid-19 virus remains unpredictable
Two years to the day after the start of the pandemic, and after the successive appearances of different variants, what is the situation regarding the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus? An update by Samuel Alizon, a specialist in the modelling of infect…
Initial results of the Notre Dame scientific renovation project
We followed the researchers of the joint CNRS / Ministry of Culture scientific project, who have been hard at work since the disaster on 15 April, 2019. Their mission: to unravel the secrets of the 12th- and 13th-century builders as an aid in restoring…
Innovation and emotion form part of heritage preservation
Whether it is imperilled by the passage of time or by bombardment, as in Ukraine today, the world’s cultural and architectural heritage must be protected. The role of science is key in heritage preservation, especially the latest digitisation technique…
Forgotten dates in Europe’s history (3/4)
In this third episode in our series, made up of excerpts from the book “Chroniques de l’Europe” published by CNRS Éditions, we retrace the long journey of European women to the ballot box, discover that robots originated in the theatre, and take a look…
How social networks manipulate public opinion
From election campaigns to the war in Ukraine, social networks are now used on a massive scale to influence public opinion. David Chavalarias, director of the Politoscope project and author of a newly released French-language book entitled Toxic Data, …
“Putin’s power is wielded through a network of repressive social controls”
Even though the Russian president appears to be increasingly isolated, it would be impossible for him to run the country alone, as Françoise Daucé, a specialist on governmental-societal relations in Russia, points out. The expert, who heads the CERCEC …
Sculpting matter
In order to sculpt their materials on the nanometric scale, when each speck of dust or infinitesimal vibration can compromise their work, physicists need cleanrooms that are insulated from all types of disturbance. An insight into the Centre for Nanosc…
Oblivion, the second death of extinct species
With so many species endangered or already extinct, scientists are pointing to the importance of keeping their memory alive in the collective consciousness. According to the ecologist Franck Courchamp, forgetting their existence could compromise the ef…
Notre-Dame, a vessel of stone and iron
Notre-Dame Cathedral is the setting for a large-scale scientific study aimed at penetrating the building’s secrets and helping with its restoration. This film shows how researchers extract information from stone and iron in order to understand how medi…
The second NanoCar Race is off to a good start
The world’s smallest car race will return to Toulouse (southwestern France) on 24-25 March. Eight international teams will be at the starting line for the competition. Christian Joachim, a CNRS research professor and the event organiser, provides detai…
Guillaume Cabanac tracks fake science
“Nucleic corrosive” for “nucleic acid”. “Counterfeit conscience” in place of “artificial intelligence”. These are some of the “tortured” phrases that the CNRS researcher Guillaume Cabanac tracks in scientific publications in order to identify those tha…
Forgotten dates in Europe’s history (2/4)
In this second episode in our series, we meet the first women admitted to university, hark back to the plague and the cordon sanitaire, and set sail for the poles, where science was taking its first tentative steps.
Act while solutions exist, the IPCC urges
Climate change has done more damage than expected, but options still exist for moving forward, explains the CNRS biologist Camille Parmesan, who helped draft the “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate C…
Act while solutions exist, the IPCC urges
Climate change has done more damage than expected, but options still exist for moving forward, explains the CNRS biologist Camille Parmesan, who helped draft the “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate C…
Cécile Charrier, a head full of synapses
The biologist Cécile Charrier, winner of the Irène Joliot-Curie “Young Female Scientist” award in 2021, has been trying for several years to unlock the secrets of the neural circuits in our brains.
Choosing a vaccination strategy to deal with Covid variants
How can the appearance of a new variant that will affect the efficacy of vaccination against Covid be prevented? New models provide a clearer understanding of this phenomenon, in order to anticipate it and adapt our vaccine strategies.
The thousand and one facets of glass
The United Nations declared 2022 the International Year of Glass, whose official launch took place on 10 and 11 February in Geneva, Switzerland. Researcher Daniel Neuville provides a brief yet eye-opening overview of the huge range of science-related i…
A century after BCG, a global forum tackles tuberculosis
A century after the first inoculation with BCG, tuberculosis continues to exert its devastating effects; the vaccine offers poor protection for adults and the bacilli are displaying increasing resistance to antibiotic therapy. From 22 to 25 February 20…
The Antarctic: an icy laboratory
Because of its geographical location, pristine expanses and animal populations, the Antarctic has been a prized location for scientific research over the past few decades. Severely impacted by global warming, it is now also a vital environment for stud…
A tremendously costly error
Computer scientist and mathematician Jean-Paul Delahaye explains why Bitcoin’s electricity consumption is a major flaw that should result in it being banned or replaced by less energy-intensive cryptocurrencies.
Order within disorder
What if there was order within the disorder that surrounds us? Researchers are examining phenomena across all scales in order to explain the dynamics of apparently chaotic or disordered systems, such as clouds, stock prices, and deep neural networks.
Forgotten dates in Europe’s history (1/4)
In the first episode of our series on European history, we take a look at the movements advocating the abolition of the death penalty, the execution of Europe’s last witch, and the struggle for an eight-hour working day.
The metaverse at the crossroads of illusions
An inevitable evolution… or just a fad? The computer scientist Michel Beaudouin-Lafon provides an uncompromising analysis of the metaverse, the virtual world that some digital companies are pinning high hopes on.
Does the Enlightenment still shine in the 21st century?
The Age of Enlightenment is in the spotlight at the French pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai. The 18th-century movement generated a surge of technical and scientific progress in Europe, but did it also pave the way for the unbridled exploitation of scienc…
Autonomous cars hit French roads
For a few days last year, scientists tried a self-driving car on the roads of Rambouillet (Paris region). The goal was to analyse its behaviour in relation to other road users, and to test its entry into roundabouts. Results from a life-size experiment.
Putting nature at the heart of society to fight climate change
More than a million animal and plant species are today threatened with extinction worldwide. To make things worse, this biodiversity loss is now being irremediably accelerated by climate change. The researcher Ignacio Palomo points out that nature can …
Europe set to fight cancer
The European Union aims to reduce by 3 million the number of deaths from cancer on the continent between now and 2030. As France took over the EU presidency on 1 January 2022, we review the situation with Yvan De Launoit, deputy scientific director in …
Europe set to fight cancer
The European Union aims to reduce by 3 million the number of deaths from cancer on the continent between now and 2030. As France took over the EU presidency on 1 January 2022, we review the situation with Yvan De Launoit, deputy scientific director in …