Making sense of science
Why do some people keep smoking, even when a close one has fallen seriously ill because of tobacco? A recent study questions the effectiveness of prevention policies.
Article
06.22.2026
Ticks that return with the spring can infect humans with both Lyme disease – which is very severe – and other disorders. To improve their understanding of these conditions and the treatments available, scientists now have access to a “tick library” of 80,000...
Article
06.17.2026
Perusing through a million matrimonial ads from the past hundred years or so reveals changes in the criteria for love over the 20th century, and hint at deeper transformations in societies themselves.
Article
06.11.2026
Article
07.21.2023
Blind since her teenage years, Wanda Diaz-Merced has developed a technique called “sonification” to convert astrophysical signals into sounds. Building on the success of this impressive tool for...
06.08.2023

Located at an altitude of 2,500 metres on the Bure plateau in the Alps, the Noema international observatory is the most powerful radio telescope in the northern hemisphere. Thanks to the data...

Article
04.24.2023
Two separate measurements of the Hubble constant, a parameter that describes the expansion rate of the Universe, have yielded conflicting results. The discrepancy could lead to the overthrow of the...
Article
02.27.2023
JUICE, the first European-led space mission to Jupiter, is scheduled to launch in April. The aim of this major undertaking is to explore the gas giant and its icy moons.
Article
02.21.2023
Using a novel experimental protocol, scientists are shedding fresh light on nuclear fusion reactions in stars. This will affect theories of stellar evolution and of the abundance of elements in the...
Article
01.26.2023
A CNRS research team is developing a computer program to calculate the risk of collision between a satellite and orbiting debris in real time.
Article
12.05.2022
Earth's smaller sister planet, Mars, may have seen the emergence of life in its early history. To be certain, NASA's rovers Curiosity, launched ten years ago, and Perseverance, which landed...
Article
11.24.2022
Launched in 2016, the MICROSCOPE satellite has confirmed with unprecedented precision the equivalence principle, which lies at the heart of Einstein's general theory of relativity. Two...
Article
11.21.2022
For the first time, a physical model consistent with observations successfully describes how the tidal force caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon is slowing down the rotation of our planet...
Article
10.30.2022
The astrophysicist Jean-Luc Atteia explains why the exceptional gamma-ray burst detected in early October could dramatically change what we know about supernovae and black holes.
10.02.2022

Polar auroras are fascinating events that are regularly visible on Earth. Yet do they occur on other planets, such as Mars for example? And if so, how can they be observed? In this report,...

Article
08.26.2022
It's off to the Moon. 29 August was to mark the beginning of the Artemis space programme. These lunar exploration missions should lead to the return of a human crew to the Moon by 2027. The goal...