Imagining and preparing for the future in order to guide research and public policy is the very purpose of foresight. A perilous exercise, scientists point out. And one that requires dialogue between disciplines, along with solid models accounting for multiple uncertainties.
Given that animals are sentient, as established by recent research, what is their attitude towards death? In a recently-published book, the biologist Emmanuelle Pouydebat sheds light on the complex emotions and behaviours of various species in this situation.
Due to global warming and ever greater human activity, phytoplankton blooms are becoming increasingly frequent in lakes and oceans. Their impact on health, the economy and the environment is already...
Few weapons are available to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which continue to cause millions of deaths. However, scientists are currently resuscitating a century-old solution, bacteriophages,...
The disappearance of non-avian dinosaurs didn’t mark the end of giant organisms in the living world. From enormous mammals to oversized insects and plants, CNRS News takes a closer look at some of...
Steven Spielberg’s "Jaws" is back in cinemas worldwide 50 years after its original release. The specialist Éric Clua talks about the negative image of sharks conveyed by the film and a new...
Researchers have shown that dogs had a place in the first agricultural societies of Central and South America more than 5,000 years ago. But the arrival of European settlers brought about a drastic...
Treatments such as chemotherapy tend only to be effective against the most proliferative cancer cells. At the Institut Curie, Raphaël Rodriguez and his team have opted for a unique approach. They...
Millions of people fear the onset of spring, because of the pollens that irritate their respiratory pathways and can trigger allergic reactions that cause sneezing, runny eyes and even asthma. The...
What is consciousness? When does it begin? How can it be measured? Does AI have it? An update on an intimate, universal yet mysterious phenomenon that the neurosciences are only just starting to...
Half a billion years ago, plants, until then exclusively aquatic, set out to colonise the land. This transition transformed the Earth and its atmosphere, paving the way for terrestrial vertebrates....
In the contaminated area around Fukushima, Japan, scientists are studying the impact of radioactivity on the cognitive abilities of pollinating insects such as honeybees and giant hornets.
The first mapping of mitochondria in the brain has just been revealed. This is yet another step towards understanding these structures which supply their energy to brain cells and are involved in a...
Why does a rose smell like a rose? Scientists have analysed the chemical composition of floral odours, whose volatile compounds serve not only to attract but also to repel.