This year marks the 50th anniversary of the strikes and protests that swept across France in May and June 1968. What really happened during this unusual sequence of events and what impact did it have on French society? Was the now-legendary Mai ‘68 part of a larger international protest movement?...
Article
04.17.2018
A new study suggests that the overrepresentation of wild animals—lions, tigers, giraffes, etc.—in our everyday lives (toys, films, ads) makes us forget that they are on the verge of extinction. Researchers believe companies should pay 'image rights...
Article
04.11.2018
The French Institute of Pondicherry houses thousands of manuscripts related to the worship of the God Shiva, one of the most important theistic traditions of India. We take you to the heart of this fragile and unique collection, inscribed on UNESCO's Memory...
Video
04.05.2018
Our topics
04.20.2018
Setting up a European infrastructure that incorporates most of the academic clean rooms in which tomorrow’s nanosystems will be designed is the goal of the EuroNanoLab project presented to us by Gabriel Chardin, president of the CNRS Very Large-Scale Research...
04.10.2018
The IPBES, which is to biodiversity what the IPCC is to climate change, recently published five reports at its sixth plenary session held in March in Medellín, Colombia. In this synthesis of current scientific knowledge about biodiversity, experts have drawn...
04.09.2018
The debate surrounding the development of autonomous weapons is skewed by the particularly stressful nature of the arguments. Yet to be able to adopt a position on the topic, it is essential to have a precise understanding of the issues involved. The...
03.30.2018
From JPEG images to the detection of gravitational waves, the work of Joseph Fourier, whose 250th anniversary was celebrated last month, led to numerous modern-day applications. Yet this would not ensure his place in posterity, despite this extraordinary...
Video
03.28.2018
Over the years, they have not only lost their gray color, but also their eyes. A subpopulation of Mexican cave-dwelling fish has seen its morphology profoundly changed over generations. A team of...
03.28.2018
As decision support systems come into ever-wider use, are we in danger of losing a bit of our humanity by relying on machines? Moreover, even software programs based on “cold” logic are not devoid of...
03.26.2018
Severely damaged by fire during the Second World War, the Chartres manuscripts, one of Europe's most important medieval collections, are now undergoing a vast restoration and digitization...
03.21.2018
Known for their use in flat screens, liquid crystals are also naturally present in both plants and animals. An essential tool in fundamental research, their study has opened up immense perspectives...
03.21.2018
The song of skylarks, linnets and meadow pipits traditionally resonate across French farmlands. But for how much longer? Studies from long-term observatories paint an alarming picture: the...
03.17.2018
Discovered in Pakistan in 1985, the Mehrgarh wheel amulet, 6000 years old, has long remained an enigma. Using new analytical techniques, a team of researchers has managed to unravel the secrets of...
Opinion
03.16.2018
The Meltdown and Spectre attacks made the headlines in early 2018, and highlighted the security flaws that make computer processors vulnerable to attack. The specialist Clémentine Maurice examines...
03.12.2018
Vincent Bretagnolle is studying alternatives to intensive agriculture over an area of 450 square kilometers of farmland south of Niort, in western France. He told CNRS News how reduced reliance on...
03.09.2018
City centers tend to be hotter than the suburbs, but some heat up more than others. An international research team now shows that the spatial configuration of buildings determines how high a city’s...
Article
03.08.2018
The Mont Saint Michel was thought to have revealed all its secrets. Yet a group of historians and archaeologists, armed with the latest technologies, are taking advantage of a restoration project to...
03.02.2018
If disaster is unpredictable, so too is the way that people may react to it. The different psychological factors that make individuals tick has inspired computer scientists to model how people really...
03.02.2018
Beyond financial transactions, cryptocurrency stands out by its social organization based on complete decentralization, which has allowed it to develop up to now. But will it help it to survive?