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In August 2025, the Geneva Summit on plastic pollution once again failed to reach agreement on an international treaty, due in particular to a lack of consensus over recycling and its limits. This issue was the subject of a recent collective scientific...
Article
10.27.2025
The early 20th-century artist Robert Delaunay began painting at a pivotal moment in art history, namely during the chemical industry revolution, when the number of pigments available on the market increased. Today scientists are trying to solve the mystery of...
Slideshow
07.17.2025
Sand patches dot beaches and deserts, but their origin remains an enigma. Using measurements taken in the desert, physicists have created a model that explains how they form, with a few surprises into the bargain.
Article
07.07.2025
The metabolism of astronauts, the behaviour of plants, the reactions of living beings to radiation and of foams to weightlessness… The International Space Station does not only observe Space, as evidenced by the following four experiments.
Article
03.26.2025
08.05.2019
Is art truly eternal? Paintings by History's greatest masters are affected by the passage of time. But scientists and curators have joined forces to figure out exactly what is causing the ageing...
Slideshow
08.02.2019
Wood is a living material. And this shows in paintings on wood, slowly cracking, bending and warping—the price to pay for being on public display under conditions that are often far from ideal. In...
Article
07.03.2019
On July 3, the CNRS Gold Medal was awarded to Thomas Ebbesen. We look back at the exceptional career of this specialist of light.