To mark the centenary of the birth of the French ethnologist and film-maker Jean Rouch, a series of events is being organized throughout France this year, with the support of prominent national and international institutions, such as Unesco. CNRS News takes this opportunity to look at the life and...
Article
08.17.2017
Like all members of the dolphin family, pilot whales have a highly developed acoustic sense. But what of their sense of taste and smell? Can they perceive odors and flavors? What organs are involved? On board the Else, which belongs to the Asociacion de...
Slideshow
08.14.2017
A group of French mathematicians introduced an entirely new vision of their discipline. Yet despite decades of international recognition, Bourbaki remains shrouded in mystery.
Article
08.14.2017
Our topics
08.06.2017
Even the most rational among us make their decisions... at random! The neurobiologist Thomas Boraud explains why in this column.
Opinion
08.01.2017
Far from the labs of the big cities, France boasts two scenic locations given over to scientific thinking and to the sharing of knowledge among physicists from around the world. CNRS News takes you to these gardens of knowledge. Your guide is physicist Bart...
07.31.2017
Monaco Explorations' research vessel Yersin has set sail for a round-the-world mission to study the state of the world's oceans, terminating in 2020. Among a host of scientific projects, it will carry out a survey of marine megafauna using...
07.27.2017
Flipper, a shellfish-capturing robot and the latest brainchild of the Laboratoire d’Informatique, de Robotique et de Microélectronique de Montpellier (LIRMM), has just been tested in the waters off Mayotte, a hotspot of biodiversity.
Article
07.25.2017
Ahead of the 9th International Conference on HIV Research which ended last week in Paris, UNAIDS published its latest figures on the epidemic. 1 million people died of AIDS in 2016, and 1.8 million...
Article
07.23.2017
A permanent cure for AIDS is now the prime objective of scientists who are tracking the virus’s “reservoir cells” and immersing themselves in its molecular mechanisms… Serious leads for the...
07.18.2017
Fake reviews on the Web are far more widespread than we think. Andreas Munzel, a specialist in online-user review analysis, deciphers this type of fraudulent practice.
07.14.2017
The demonstration of intestinal parasites in World War I soldiers provides additional evidence of the horror of these men’s daily lives. This discovery was possible thanks to an emerging discipline,...
Article
07.11.2017
In the summertime, our bodies are more visible, becoming an important concern in a society that idealizes physical “perfection.” Is this a recent phenomenon? And what are the downsides of this cult...
Article
07.09.2017
Tattoos, an immensely popular fashion accessory at the start of the 21st century, in fact reach all the way back to the Neolithic Age. Anthropologist Sébastien Galliot explains the history and...
Article
07.06.2017
The 20th World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC 2017) was held in Toulouse on July 9-14. Dimitri Peaucelle, a researcher at the LAAS (Laboratory for Analysis and...
Opinion
07.04.2017
A recent study reveals that these large mammals, known for their legendary memory, only have short phases of sleep. This surprising discovery could give rise to new strategies for combating insomnia.
07.03.2017
Schrödinger’s cat, a thought experiment in quantum mechanics, points to the possibility of parallel universes. Physicist Aurélien Barrau believes that one day, it will be possible to devise...
07.02.2017
A new bioinformatics software, developed by a team of researchers from France and the Netherlands, is capable of establishing a genome map of the principal variants in the same viral population. This...
Article
06.30.2017
Taking a deep dive into our planet’s turbulent core 3000 kilometers below surface level, geophysicists have emerged with high-definition 3D simulations showing the hidden mechanisms that govern the...
Article
06.28.2017
French and Chinese scientists have hatched an innovative geochemical method that can be used on fossilized eggs to determine the incubation strategies of extinct species like the oviraptosaur—no...