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A + A The MUSE instrument on the Very Large Telescope has captured an image of several filaments in the early Universe.. .. revealing the unexpected presence of billions of dwarf galaxies in the filaments Although the filaments of gas in which galaxies are born have long been predicted by cosmological models, we have so far had no real images of such objects.

A + A The fossil of an unusual shark specimen reminiscent of manta rays sheds light on morphological diversity in Cretaceous sharks. This plankton feeder was discovered in Mexico and analysed by an international team of palaeontologists led by a CNRS researcher from Géosciences Rennes (CNRS/University of Rennes 1).

How best to evaluate the performance of a group testing strategy for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which involves pooling samples from multiple individuals in order to conduct a single RT-PCR test on the whole group? To do precisely that, scientists from the CNRS, l'université Grenoble Alpes, and l'université Sorbonne Paris Nord 1 have developed a model that evaluates the efficiency of such tests.

What if more inclusive urban planning for poor populations was key to fighting dengue fever? This is what researchers from the CNRS, the Institut Pasteur and the Indian Council of Medical Research 1 have demonstrated using a geographical approach applied to the greater city of Delhi (India). Their study is published in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Disease on 11 February 2021.

Almost 80 years after its discovery, a large shell from the ornate Marsoulas Cave in the Pyrenees has been studied by a multidisciplinary team from the CNRS, the Muséum de Toulouse, the Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès and the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques-Chirac 1 : it is believed to be the oldest wind instrument of its type.

Faster speech rate, greater intensity in the middle of the word, and falling pitch at the end of the word: that is the prosody 1 to adopt if one wants to come across as reliable and honest to one's listeners. Scientists from the Science and Technology for Music and Sound laboratory (CNRS/Ircam/Sorbonne Université/Ministère de la Culture) 2 and the Perceptual Systems Laboratory (CNRS/ENS PSL) have conducted a series of experiments 3   to understand how we decide, based on the voice, whether a speaker is honest and confident, or on the contrary dishonest and uncertain.

Is a quantum machine really more efficient than a conventional machine for performing calculations? Demonstrating this 'advantage' experimentally is particularly complex and a major research challenge around the world 1. Scientists from the CNRS 2 , the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) and the QC Ware, Corp., (France and USA) have just proved that a quantum machine can perform a given verification task in seconds when the same exercise would take a time equivalent to the age of the universe for a conventional computer.

The SKA Observatory will design and build the most sensitive radio astronomy instrument ever created, operating over an unmatched radio-wave range. It is expected to study the formation of the very first stars and galaxies shortly after the Big Bang. SKA will produce a data stream that exceeds today's global internet traffic and Facebook's current storage needs.

A research team led by scientists from IRAP (CNRS/CNES/Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier) and IPAG (CNRS/UGA) 1 has for the first time measured the internal density of a very young exoplanet orbiting a newly formed, extremely active star. Despite the 'noise' generated by the star's activity, they successfully achieved this using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT)'s planet hunting instrument SPIRou.

Although the reputation of Champagne is well established, the history of Champagne wines and vineyards is poorly documented. However, a research team led by scientists from the CNRS and the Université de Montpellier at the Institut des sciences de l'évolution de Montpellier 1 has just lifted the veil on this history by analysing the archaeological grape seeds from excavations carried out in Troyes and Reims.

Two scientists from CNRS and Sorbonne University working at the Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation (Paris Observatory - PSL/CNRS) have just shown that the influence of Saturn's satellites can explain the tilt of the rotation axis of the gas giant. Rather like David versus Goliath, it appears that Saturn's tilt may in fact be caused by its moons.

Thanks to the marine worm Platynereis dumerilii , an animal whose genes have evolved very slowly, scientists from CNRS, Université de Paris and Sorbonne Université, in association with others at the University of Saint Petersburg and the University of Rio de Janeiro, have shown that while haemoglobin appeared independently in several species, it actually descends from a single gene transmitted to all by their last common ancestor.

Thanks to the marine worm Platynereis dumerilii , an animal whose genes have evolved very slowly, scientists from CNRS, Université de Paris and Sorbonne Université, in association with others at the University of Saint Petersburg and the University of Rio de Janeiro, have shown that while haemoglobin appeared independently in several species, it actually descends from a single gene transmitted to all by their last common ancestor.

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the presence of amyloid plaques 1 in the patient's brain. These plaques sequester copper, and contain approximately five times as much as a healthy brain. Two CNRS scientists from the Coordination Chemistry Laboratory recently developed, with their colleagues from the Guangdong University of Technology and Shenzhen University (China), a molecule that regulates the circulation of copper in the brain.

Was burial of the dead practiced by Neandertals or is it an innovation specific to our species? There are indications in favour of the first hypothesis but some scientists remain sceptical. For the first time in Europe, however, a multi-disciplinary team led by researchers at the CNRS and the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (France) and the University of the Basque Country (Spain) 1 has demonstrated, using a variety of criteria, that a Neandertal child was buried, probably around 41,000 years ago, at the Ferrassie site (Dordogne).

Erosion of the frozen soil of Arctic regions, known as permafrost, is creating large areas of subsidence, which has catastrophic impact in these regions sensitive to climate change. As the mechanisms behind these geological events are poorly understood, researchers from the Géosciences Paris Sud (GEOPS) laboratory (CNRS / Université Paris-Saclay), in cooperation with the Melnikov Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk, Russia, conducted a cold room 1 simulation of landslides, or slumps, caused by accelerated breakdown of the permafrost.

Over the past 50 years, declining biodiversity has put many of nature's contributions to people at risk. This is the conclusion reached by fifteen leading international experts, including a French ethnoecologist 1 at the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research).

The validation and application of theories in physics require the measurement of universal values known as fundamental constants. A team of French researchers 1 has just conducted the most accurate measurement to date of the fine-structure constant, which characterizes the strength of interaction between light and charged elementary particles, such as electrons.

A procedure that may help personalise anticancer therapies has just been developed by the CNRS, INSERM, and Aix-Marseille University scientists at the Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, in association with colleagues from the University of California San Francisco and the Marseille Public University Hospital System (AP-HM), with support from Canceropôle Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.

Artificial intelligence can make it possible to see astrophysical phenomena that were previously beyond reach. This has now been demonstrated by scientists from the CNRS, IRAM, Observatoire de Paris-PSL, Ecole Centrale Marseille and Ecole Centrale Lille, working together in the ORION-B 1 programme. In a series of three papers published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on 19 November 2020, they present the most comprehensive observations yet carried out of one of the star-forming regions closest to the Earth.