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Social Sciences - 12.07.2021

The contraceptive effect of breastfeeding decreases with socio-economic development
While temporary sterility after childbirth lasts on average only a few weeks for a woman who does not breastfeed, it can last for months, or even more than a year, for one who does. But it was unclear how this contraceptive effect of breastfeeding is affected by a mother's 'energetic status' - that includes her nutrition and levels of physical activity.

Astronomy / Space Science - Physics - 29.06.2021

The final dance of mixed neutron star-black hole pairs
Gravitational wave detectors have observed a new type of cataclysmic event in the cosmos: the merger of a neutron star with a black hole. The phenomenon was detected twice in January 2020. Several hypotheses could explain the existence of such mixed pairs. Further observations will be needed in order to settle the question.

Paleontology - Environment - 29.06.2021

Decline of dinosaurs under way long before asteroid fell
Ten million years before the well-known asteroid impact that marked the end of the Mesozoic Era, dinosaurs were already in decline. That is the conclusion of the Franco-Anglo-Canadian team led by CNRS researcher Fabien Condamine from the Institute of Evolutionary Science of Montpellier (CNRS / IRD / University of Montpellier), which studied evolutionary trends during the Cretaceous for six major families of dinosaurs, including those of the tyrannosaurs, triceratops, and hadrosaurs.

Social Sciences - 17.06.2021

Orphaned chimpanzees do not suffer from chronic stress
The loss of a loved one can be a defining moment, even in the animal world. In chimpanzees, for example, individuals whose mothers die when they are young are smaller than their counterparts, reproduce less and are also more likely to die at a young age. But why? To find out, an international research team 1 led by a CNRS researcher 2 studied the shortand long-term effects of maternal loss on the stress levels of orphaned chimpanzees over a 19-year period.

Astronomy / Space Science - Physics - 11.06.2021

French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet to continue experiments on foams
Studying how liquid foams evolve over time is difficult, if not impossible, on Earth because of gravity. The FOAM-C experiment, which began in 2020, was designed to study liquid foams in zero gravity on board the ISS. New samples will be set up by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet on Friday, June 11. The FOAM-C experiment studies the properties of liquid foams in zero gravity.

Life Sciences - Environment - 07.06.2021

ALPALGA: the search for mountain snow microalgae
High elevation snow is home to previously unknown species of microalgae. Scientists have created the ALPALGA consortium to study this ecosystem, which is threatened by climate change. According to their initial results, these microalgae are tiered to elevation, just like herbaceous plants and trees.

Environment - 03.06.2021

Antarctica: how have temperatures varied since the last glacial period?
Scientists have established the most reliable estimates to date of past temperature variations in Antarctic They highlight significant differences in behaviour between West and East Antarctica. This study makes it possible to test and consolidate future climate projections. Antarctica has experienced significant temperature changes, especially since the last glacial period.

History / Archeology - Social Sciences - 27.05.2021

Jebel Sahaba: A succession of violence rather than a prehistoric war
Since the 1960s, the Jebel Sahaba cemetery (Nile Valley, present-day Sudan) has become the emblem of organised warfare during prehistory. Re-analysis of the data, however, argues for a succession of smaller conflicts. Competition for resources is probably one of the causes of the conflicts witnessed in this cemetery.

Life Sciences - 20.05.2021

A plant-fungi partnership at the origin of terrestrial vegetation
Plants that exist on land today have genes that allow them to exchange lipids with beneficial fungi This plant-fungus partnership is at the origin of the transition of plants from aquatic life to terrestrial life 450 million years ago, the first plants left aquatic life. Researchers from the CNRS and the Université de Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, in collaboration with INRAE, have succeeded in demonstrating that this colonisation of land by plants was made possible by a partnership between plants and fungi.

Earth Sciences - 18.05.2021

Colonisation of the Antilles by South American fauna: giant sunken islands as a passageway?
Fossils of land animals from South America have been found in the Antilles. The appearance/disappearance of archipelagos is due to tectonic plate movements and glacial-interglacial cycles. Archipelagos have emerged and sunk in a cyclic manner for millions of years, favouring the displacement of the Antilles.

Environment - Life Sciences - 06.05.2021

In the Alps, climate change affects biodiversity
The European Alps is certainly one of the most scrutinized mountain range in the world, as it forms a true open-air laboratory showing how climate change affects biodiversity. Although many studies have independently demonstrated the impact of climate change in the Alps on either the seasonal activity (i.e.

Materials Science - 05.05.2021

Africa’s oldest human burial site uncovered
The discovery of the earliest human burial site yet found in Africa, by an international team including several CNRS researchers 1 , has just been announced in the journal Nature . At Panga ya Saidi, in Kenya, north of Mombasa, the body of a three-year-old, dubbed Mtoto (Swahili for 'child') by the researchers, was deposited and buried in an excavated pit approximately 78,000 years ago.

Environment - 26.04.2021

When Chauvet Cave artists created its artwork, the Pont d’Arc was already there
The Chauvet Cave, which lies by the entrance to the Gorges of the Ardèche, is home to the world's oldest cave paintings, dating back 36,000 years. Their state of preservation and aesthetic qualities earned them a spot on the World Heritage List in 2014, 20 years after their discovery. The location of the cavern-surrounded by a remarkable landscape, next to the Pont d'Arc natural archway-raises the question of whether the people who executed these artworks looked and walked out upon the same landscape as today.

Art and Design - 15.04.2021

Leonardo da Vinci definitely did not sculpt the Flora bust
" It is machination, it is deception ," said the Director General of the Berlin Royal Museums in his defence when criticized for buying a fake. Wilhelm Bode did not budge an inch: the sculpture he acquired in 1909 was an as yet unknown production of the great Renaissance master, Leonardo da Vinci. After one hundred years and numerous controversies, a group of scientists led by a CNRS researcher 1 has just proven him wrong once and for all.

Astronomy / Space Science - Environment - 08.04.2021

More than 5,000 tons of extraterrestrial dust fall to Earth each year
Every year, our planet encounters dust from comets 1 and asteroid 2 . These interplanetary dust particles pass through our atmosphere and give rise to shooting stars. Some of them reach the ground in the form of micrometeorites. An international program 3 conducted for nearly 20 years by scientists from the CNRS, the Université Paris-Saclay and the National museum of natural history 4 with the support of the French polar institute, has determined that 5,200 tons per year of these micrometeorites reach the ground.

Physics - 07.04.2021

Particle physics: will muons lead us towards a new physics?
Muons, particles akin to electrons, have kept physicists' heads spinning for more than a decade, because an experimental measurement of their magnetic properties 1 disagrees from theory. Could this be caused by unknown particles or forces? A new theoretical calculation of this parameter, involving CNRS physicists and published , has reduced the discrepancy with the experimental measurement.

Life Sciences - Health - 06.04.2021

A protein with a dual role: both repair and mutation
The Mfd protein repairs bacterial DNA, but can also, to scientists' surprise, promote mutation. Bacterial mutations can lead to antibiotic resistance. Understanding this second "role" of the Mfd protein opens up opportunities for combating antibiotic resistance, and also the resistance of tumours to anti-cancer drugs and therapies.

Life Sciences - 31.03.2021

A brain signature that predicts vulnerability to addiction
A team of neurobiologists at the Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université) has just shown that within a population of rats it can predict which will become cocaine addicts. One of the criteria for addiction in rats is the compulsive search for a drug despite its negative consequences.

Environment - Economics - 31.03.2021

How much are invasive species costing us’
A + A Scientists from the CNRS, the IRD, and the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle have just released the most comprehensive estimate to date of the financial toll of invasive species: nearly $1.3 trillion over four decades. Published in Nature (31 March 2021), their findings are based on the InvaCost database, which is financed by the BNP Paribas Foundation and the Paris-Saclay University Foundation's AXA Chair of Invasion Biology.

Astronomy / Space Science - Physics - 24.03.2021

Astronomers Image Magnetic Fields at the Edge of M87’s Black Hole
A + A Within the EHT collaboration, the CNRS and IRAM participated in the creation of a new image of the black hole in the M87 galaxy. Produced in so-called "polarized" light, this image makes it possible to observe the magnetic field and to better understand the physics around black holes. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, who produced the first ever image of a black hole , has revealed today a new view of the massive object at the centre of the M87 galaxy: how it looks in polarised light.