The quirky behavior of an asteroid that goes against the flow of most other celestial bodies in our Solar System prompted a French-Brazilian scientific duo to delve into its origins. And discover an immigrant from a star system beyond our own.
Article
05.21.2018
To open up the region of Al-Ula to international tourism and showcase the magnificent ruins of the city of Hegra, Saudi Arabia has called upon French expertise. CNRS News takes a look at this jewel of the ancient Near East in the company of archaeologist...
Article
05.18.2018
For over 200 years, a piece of musical history has remained hidden within registers of luthiers, string instrument specialists. These aged yellow pages hold a well-kept secret: a column written in code. One curator at the Paris Museum of Music was intrigued...
Video
05.17.2018
Our topics
05.23.2018
Computers, data centers, networks and the like now gobble up nearly 10% of the world’s electrical consumption—and the figure continues to rise. While there is no question of giving up the progress made possible through digital technology, researchers point to...
Article
05.15.2018
In the Sechura Desert on the Pacific coast of Peru, the Huaca Amarilla archaeological site has yielded a unique—and surprising—glimpse of funerary practices in the pre-Hispanic period, from the 10th through the 15th centuries. A discovery of both...
05.10.2018
The perception of odors remains in many ways a mystery. However, a research team in Nice (southeastern France) has perfected a new protocol for predicting the activation of an olfactory receptor by an odor molecule. A step towards the development of a...
05.09.2018
The world's most reflective mirrors, which reflect 99.9999% of incident light, were developed by a French laboratory. Discover the manufacturing secrets of these essential components of gravitational wave detectors.
Article
05.02.2018
The InSight international space mission which launched May 5 from California is scheduled to land on the surface of the Red Planet on November 26. By studying for the first time the seismic waves on...
Slideshow
04.26.2018
The archeological site of Sedeinga, in northern Sudan, provides unprecedented evidence of the funeral rites of the kingdoms of Napata and Meroe that ruled this region from the seventh to fourth...
Article
04.23.2018
Ceramics have been present since prehistory, and are now a part of many cutting-edge applications due to their advantageous properties and the inventiveness of researchers. From aeronautics and...
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...
Article
04.17.2018
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...
04.11.2018
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....
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...
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...
Video
04.05.2018
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...
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...
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...