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During REM sleep, the brain inhibits the motor system, which makes the sleeper completely immobile. CNRS researchers working in the Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon (CNRS/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1/INSERM/Université Jean Monnet) have identified a population of neurons that is responsible for this transient muscle paralysis.

An international group of researchers led by LSCE (CEA-CNRS-UVSQ) has published a thorough budget of methane sources and sinks 1 over the last decade in the Earth System Science Data (ESSD) journal,

Past variations in the strength of the Earth's magnetic field are reflected by the production of isotopes in the atmosphere.

Mega-earthquakes (with a magnitude greater than 8.5) mainly occur on subduction faults where one tectonic plate passes under another. But the probability of such earthquakes does not appear to be even across these zones. In a study published on 25 November 2016 in the journal Science , researchers from the University of Oregon and Géoazur laboratory (CNRS/Université Nice Sophia Antipolis/Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur/IRD) show that mega-earthquakes mostly occur on the flattest subduction zones.

Though purging is not prescribed as often as it was centuries ago, intestinal cells known as enterocytes frequently resort to this age-old remedy. Researchers from the Immune Response and Development in Insects (CNRS), Molecular Immunorheumatology (INSERM / Université de Strasbourg), and PAM Food Science and Microbiological Processes (AgroSup Dijon / Université de Bourgogne) laboratories have demonstrated that enterocytes attacked by pathogenic bacteria rapidly purge themselves of most of their contents.

The fall of an asteroid in the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico) 66 million years ago is believed to have caused the extinction of dinosaurs. It also created the Chicxulub impact crater, the only such crater on Earth that still has a peak ring – a type of structure commonly found, in contrast, on the surface of several objects in the Solar System.

At 6000 years old, this copper amulet is the earliest lost-wax cast object known. Now, researchers have finally discovered how it was made, using a novel UV-visible photoluminescence spectral imaging approach. All the parameters of elaboration process, such as the purity of the copper, and melting and solidification temperatures, are now accurately known.

Why did the rhythm of glaciations suddenly slow down about a million years ago? To answer this question and to better forecast future climate change, a consortium of researchers from 14 institutions

The new SPIRAL2 particle accelerator at the French large heavy-ion accelerator GANIL (CNRS/CEA), inaugurated on November 3 in the presence of the French President François Hollande, will be able to p

Until now, the reason why some people hate cheese has been a mystery. Researchers at the Centre de Recherche en Neuroscience de Lyon (CNRS/INSERM/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1/Université Jean Monnet) and the Laboratoire Neuroscience Paris Seine (CNRS/INSERM/UPMC) have just elucidated it. Their results are published online on the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience website.

In the race towards miniaturization, a French-US team—mostly involving researchers from the CNRS, Université de Lille, Université de Nantes and Argonne National Laboratory (US) as part of the Research Network on Electrochemical Energy Storage (RS2E) 1 —has succeeded in improving the energy density of a rechargeable battery without increasing its size (limited to a few square millimeters in mobile sensors).

It is one of the oldest fragrances in the world. Nicolas Baldovini's team at the Institut de chimie de Nice (CNRS/UNS) has just discovered the components that give frankincense its distinctive odor: two molecules found for the first time in nature, named “olibanic acids” by the scientists. Their research results have just been published online, on the website of the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition .

Invasive insects cause at least 69 billion euros of damage per annum worldwide.

To strengthen their collaboration in materials science and engineering, the CNRS, Université de Lyon, and Tohoku University are launching an international joint unit (UMI) 1 based in Sendai, Japan, on October 4, 2016. Named Engineering Science Lyon – Tohoku for Materials and Systems under Extreme Conditions (ELyTMaX), this new laboratory studies the behavior of materials subject to extreme and complex stress.

In subduction zones, where one tectonic plate slides beneath another, slow, imperceptible slip, known as 'slow earthquakes' or 'slow slip events', can trigger powerful quakes a little further away. This has just been shown by researchers from CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes and IRD, in collaboration with colleagues at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Could we get rid of mosquitoes without polluting the environment? Yes, we can! The BinAB toxin, produced in crystal form by a bacterium, specifically kills the larvae of Culex and Anopheles mosquitoes, but it is inactive on tiger mosquitoes (or Aedes), the vectors for dengue fever and chikungunya.

As they grow up, do children become young Robin Hoods? Depending on their age, they do not allocate resources in the same way between dominant and subordinate individuals. Thus a tendency towards egalitarianism develops and becomes even stronger between the ages of 5 and 8 years. These findings by a team of scientists from the CNRS and the Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (France), Lausanne and Neuchâtel (Switzerland) universities provide a clearer understanding of how the notion of equality develops in human beings, and of their sense of justice.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin present in our daily lives and our body can accumulate it over the years.

What is the origin of the large heart-shaped nitrogen glacier revealed in 2015 on Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft? Two researchers from the Laboratoire de météorologie dynamique (CNRS/École polytechnique/UPMC/ENS Paris) 1 show that Pluto's peculiar insolation and atmosphere favor nitrogen condensation near the equator, in the lower altitude regions, leading to an accumulation of ice at the bottom of Sputnik Planum, a vast topographic basin.

While we already knew that plant roots were capable of sensing many individual soil characteristics (water, nutrients and oxygen availability), we did not have any understanding of how they integrated these signals in order to respond in an appropriate way.