Making sense of science
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Article
07.06.2026
Since 2018, the Trump administration has been waging a trade war through successive hikes in customs duties. Has this policy protected the American economy? Researchers argue that, by fuelling...
Article
06.22.2026
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
06.11.2026
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.
Slideshow
06.10.2026
In 2015, archaeologists unearthed a unique artefact in Iraq: a kiln comprising two interconnected chambers dating from the Chalcolithic (7000 to 5000 BC). To find out how it worked, they decided to...
05.28.2026
Sophie Germain’s name will soon be engraved on the Eiffel Tower. A brilliant self-taught mathematician, she had to fight throughout her life to gain equal recognition to her male contemporaries, and...
04.28.2026
Maïmouna Bocoum, a physicist specialising in acousto-optics at the Paris-based Langevin Institute, develops imaging technologies for the early detection of breast tumours. She was awarded this year’s...
12.02.2025
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...
Article
11.09.2025
In 2015, the historic Paris Agreement, signed by 195 countries, sought to limit global warming to 2 °C. Ten years later, the results have yet to materialise, raising questions regarding the...
Article
10.20.2025
The myth of Africa as a wild, enchanting continent conceals a reality of nature under glass orchestrated by Western experts, to the detriment of local populations. The historian Guillaume Blanc...