According to Serge Morand, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the CNRS and CIRAD, researchers in ecology and the environmental sciences are more politically-minded than they were 20 or 30 years ago. Projects that combine scientific research with political action involving local communities...
Article
05.13.2020
The current pandemic has put virology under the spotlight. Mobilised against Covid-19, the discipline also covers a broad range of studies designed to understand, break or circumvent the links between viruses and us.
Article
05.25.2020
Tanzania’s Rift Valley has one of the greatest concentrations of linguistic diversity in all of Africa. Among the dozens of tongues native to the region, Hadza and Iraqw, two languages characterised by complex consonants, were recently studied for the first...
Article
05.13.2020
Our topics
05.18.2020
French scientists have set up a multidisciplinary, large-scale virtual screening project that should enable them, during the next 18 months, to look at 1.5 billion small molecules in order to identify candidate compounds that are likely to inhibit the SARS-...
Article
05.12.2020
The footprints of sauropods, thirty-metre-long herbivorous dinosaurs, have been found on the roof of a cave located beneath the Causse Méjean plateau, in southeastern France. CNRS News talked to the palaeontologist Jean-David Moreau, who has published an...
05.11.2020
A subject of scientific studies in recent years, meditation is proving to be an effective antidote for stress and suffering in these times of abrupt change and uncertainty. The neuroscientist Antoine Lutz explains why in this interview.
05.06.2020
The Paris-based ISC-PIF Institute has published a series of maps generated from automated analysis of all scientific publications devoted to Covid-19. Its director explains the value of these visualisations for research and the public.
Opinion
05.05.2020
Are ethics and scientific integrity a luxury that can be foregone in a situation as critical as the current pandemic? Jean-Gabriel Ganascia, the chairman of the CNRS Ethics Committee (COMETS),...
Article
05.04.2020
The Juno spacecraft has been in orbit around Jupiter for nearly four years, shedding light on the dynamics and internal structure of the gas giant. CNRS News takes a look at the first results from...
05.04.2020
The computer scientist Claire Mathieu explains how graph theory can help model the propagation of Covid-19, and assess the relevance of several confinement scenarios.
Article
04.27.2020
From the black plague to the Spanish flu, Ebola and now Covid-19, our societies have weathered a number of severe health crises, as historian Anne Rasmussen recounts.
Article
04.19.2020
After ten years in operation, the CERN particle accelerator located on the border between France and Switzerland has reshaped the physics of elementary particles. It will restart in 2021 with even...
04.19.2020
What would we do without them? Digital tools allow a majority of people under confinement to palliate the imposed seclusion, continue working or studying and find entertainment. At the same time, due...
Opinion
04.19.2020
With the Covid-19 pandemic, scientists are subjected to a barrage of sollicitations, calling upon them to address the population’s concerns and advise those in charge. Public trust seems to be...
Article
04.15.2020
An interview with Grégoire Borst, director of the Laboratory for the Psychology of Child Development and Education (LaPsyDÉ) on how cognitive bias influences people’s behaviour – both in everyday...
04.14.2020
How can Notre-Dame's stone, woodworks and stained glass be restored in the best possible manner? A large scientific collaboration bringing together more than 50 research teams has begun to...
Article
04.09.2020
From his home in Montpellier (southern France), the philosopher Edgar Morin reaffirms his global vision of society. The coronavirus epidemic, he says, ought to improve our understanding of science...
Article
04.08.2020
Virtually all of the 1,100 CNRS research and service units closed their doors on Monday 16 March, finding solutions to allow their personnel to work from home. Except for the laboratories conducting...
04.01.2020
At present, all surgical and FFP2 face masks must be thrown away after a few hours of use. To offset the shortage of protective equipment, scientists, physicians and manufacturers are working...