Sand patches dot beaches and deserts, but their origin remains an enigma. Using measurements taken in the desert, physicists have created a model that explains how they form, with a few surprises into the bargain.
Researchers have shown that dogs had a place in the first agricultural societies of Central and South America more than 5,000 years ago. But the arrival of European settlers brought about a drastic change. The only native American dogs remaining today are…...
A recognised physicist for her work on quantum boxes, Pascale Senellart conducts her research at the joint research laboratory between the Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and the start-up that she co-founded. Her sights are set on photon-based...
Sign languages are languages like any other. A new platform called Sign-Hub documents their diversity around the world and shows the importance of learning them at an early age, as with any oral language.
Treatments such as chemotherapy tend only to be effective against the most proliferative cancer cells. At the Institut Curie, Raphaël Rodriguez and his team have opted for a unique approach. They target cells with high metastatic potential using a molecule...
Millions of people fear the onset of spring, because of the pollens that irritate their respiratory pathways and can trigger allergic reactions that cause sneezing, runny eyes and even asthma. The immunologist and CNRS research professor Sophie Laffont looks...
What is consciousness? When does it begin? How can it be measured? Does AI have it? An update on an intimate, universal yet mysterious phenomenon that the neurosciences are only just starting to decipher.
Half a billion years ago, plants, until then exclusively aquatic, set out to colonise the land. This transition transformed the Earth and its atmosphere, paving the way for terrestrial vertebrates....
On 14 May, 2025, the Musée de la Musique in Paris unveiled a completely new presentation of the 9,000 items in its collections, highlighting the connections among the musical traditions of different...
In the contaminated area around Fukushima, Japan, scientists are studying the impact of radioactivity on the cognitive abilities of pollinating insects such as honeybees and giant hornets.
Since 1928, the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris has been home to more than 600 mathematical models. Designed in the late 19th century for teaching purposes, they also inspired the Surrealists. Now...
The first mapping of mitochondria in the brain has just been revealed. This is yet another step towards understanding these structures which supply their energy to brain cells and are involved in a...
Why does a rose smell like a rose? Scientists have analysed the chemical composition of floral odours, whose volatile compounds serve not only to attract but also to repel.
Navigation tools, sales optimisation software, higher education platforms…Algorithms are not immune to ethical bias. Well before the tsunami of generative artificial intelligence, specialists on...
Prehistoric sites across France, such as the famous Chauvet Cave or L’Ile d’Yeu, are being closely monitored so as to understand how they are being endangered by climate change, and avoid the...
Arthur is a new submersible ROV (remotely-operated vehicle) designed for underwater archaeology. Offering unprecedented performance and versatility, it is able to explore shipwrecks for treasure and...
In "Mickey 17", the latest film by the South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, the main character is recruited as an “Expendable” as part of a mission to colonise an exoplanet. Each time he...
Mycoses resistant to antifungal drugs are on the increase. Not least because treatments against pathogenic fungi are used in agriculture as well as in human and animal health.