http://www.cnrs.fr Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique fr CNRS Sat, 25 May 2013 16:40:06 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2199.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2199.htm Coinciding with France's ongoing debate on energy transition, the CNRS / sagascience collection releases a report on the current state of nuclear energy. This animation gives the public invaluable cues to deciphering nuclear issues and thus take part in the national debate organized between January and April 2013. "Nuclear energy, from basic research to society" is available online at : http://www.cnrs.fr/nuclear Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2177.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2177.htm Babies as young as seven months can distinguish between, and begin to learn, two languages with vastly different grammatical structures, according to new research from the University of British Columbia and the French Laboratoire de Psychologie de la Perception (Université Paris Descartes/CNRS/ENS). Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2145.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2145.htm During a ceremony held at the Sorbonne in Paris on December 19, 2012, the anthropologist and Americanist Philippe Descola was presented with the CNRS Gold Medal, France's most prestigious scientific distinction. With a background in philosophy, Descola became a specialist in the native tribes of the Amazon Basin and the relations that human societies establish with nature. A professor and chair of the Anthropology of Nature at the Collège de France since 2000, Philippe Descola has also served since 2001 as director of the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale (Collège de France/CNRS/EHESS) founded in 1960 by Claude Lévi-Strauss. His ethnographic work among the Achuar Jivaro people of Ecuador revolutionized anthropological research in Amazonia. Gradually extending his scope to other societies and looking beyond the opposition between nature and culture, Descola has redefined the dialectic that structures humankind's relationship with the world and with other beings. Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2143.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2143.htm Archaeologists have unearthed the great ancient monuments of Ostia, but the location of the harbour which supplied Rome with wheat remained to be discovered. Thanks to sedimentary cores, this « lost » harbour has eventually been located northwest of the city of Ostia, on the left bank of the mouth of the Tiber. Stratigraphy has revealed that at its foundation, between the 4th and 2nd century BC, the basin was deeper than 6.5 m, the depth of a seaport. This research was carried out by a French-Italian team of the Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée (CNRS / Université Lumière Lyon 2), the Ecole Française de Rome and Speciale per i Beni Soprintendenza Archeologici di Roma - Sede di Ostia (1) and will be published in the Chroniques des Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome in December 2012. Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2109.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2109.htm The Department of Islamic Art, Musée du Louvre, will re-open to the public on September 22, 2012. Among the items to be exhibited are four large lamps and a long-necked enameled glass bottle dating from the Mamluk period (1250-1517), which have recently been analyzed on site for the first time. This analysis was made possible by the use of a non-invasive, mobile technique: Raman spectroscopy. Conducted by a team of physical chemists from the Laboratoire de dynamique, interactions et réactivité (CNRS/UPMC) in collaboration with the Department of Islamic Art, Musée du Louvre, this study uncovers the palette of pigments used during the period to achieve the objects' vibrantly colorful decoration. Blue, for example, was obtained using either lapis lazuli or cobalt. The results of this research have been published in The Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, shedding new light on the manufacture of Mamluk enameled glass and providing hitherto unknown information on these rare, fragile, and valuable artifacts. Tue, 11 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2091.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2091.htm What did our early ancestors the hominins eat? Fossil teeth discovered in South Africa suggest that the Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Homo genera (1), who lived in that region about two million years ago, adopted very different dietary habits. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon (CNRS / ENS Lyon / Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1) and the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Moléculaire et Imagerie de Synthèse (CNRS / Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier / Université de Strasbourg). Their findings, published in the August 8, 2012 issue of Nature, will shed light on certain biological and social aspects of human evolution. Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2089.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2089.htm In the cognitive sciences, the capacity to interpret the intentions of others is called “Theory of Mind” (ToM). This faculty is involved in the understanding of language, in particular by bridging the gap between the meaning of the words that make up a statement and the meaning of the statement as a whole. In recent years, researchers have identified the neural network dedicated to ToM, but no one had yet demonstrated that this set of neurons is specifically activated by the process of understanding of an utterance. This has now been accomplished: a team from L2C2 (Laboratoire sur le Langage, le Cerveau et la Cognition, Laboratory on Language, the Brain and Cognition, CNRS / Université Claude Bernard-Lyon 1) has shown that the activation of the ToM neural network increases when an individual is reacting to ironic statements. Published in Neuroimage, these findings represent an important breakthrough in the study of Theory of Mind and linguistics, shedding light on the mechanisms involved in interpersonal communication. Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2059.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2059.htm Researchers at the Laboratoire Archéologies et Sciences de l'Antiquité (ArScAn) (CNRS/Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense/Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne/Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, Inrap) have unearthed the oldest-ever archeological natural pearl. Discovered at a Neolithic site in the Emirate of Umm al Quwain (United Arab Emirates), it dates from 5500 BC. These findings, together with previous discoveries of natural pearls on the south-eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, provide evidence that the earliest pearl oyster fishing took place in this region of the world. Published in the journal Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, they show that natural pearls were a major component of cultural identity in early societies in the Persian Gulf and the northern Indian Ocean. This work was funded by CNRS, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), the Department of Antiquities and Museums of the Emirate of Umm al-Quwain (UAE) and the Ministry of Heritage and Culture of the Sultanate of Oman. Thu, 07 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2037.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/2037.htm The oldest agricultural settlement ever found on a Mediterranean island has been discovered in Cyprus by a team of French archaeologists involving CNRS, the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (National Museum of Natural History), INRAP, EHESS and the University of Toulouse II-Le Mirail. Previously it was believed that, due to the island's geographic isolation, the first Neolithic farming societies did not reach Cyprus until a thousand years after the birth of agriculture in the Middle East (ca. 9500 to 9400 BCE). However, the discovery of Klimonas, a village that dates from nearly 9000 years before Christ, proves that early cultivators migrated to Cyprus from the Middle Eastern continent shortly after the emergence of agriculture there, bringing with them wheat as well as dogs and cats. The findings, which also reveal the early development of maritime navigational skills by these populations, have been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). Thu, 10 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1941.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1941.htm Researchers from the Institut Français d'Etudes Anatoliennes in Istanbul (IFEA, CNRS/MAEE (1)) and the Laboratoire de Tribologie et de Dynamiques des Systèmes (LTDS, CNRS/Ecole Centrale de Lyon/Ecole Nationale d'Ingénieurs in Saint Etienne) have analyzed the oldest obsidian (2) bracelet ever identified, discovered in the 1990s at the site of Aşıklı Höyük, Turkey. Using high-tech methods developed by LTDS to study the bracelet's surface and its micro-topographic features, the researchers have revealed the astounding technical expertise of craftsmen in the eighth millennium BC. Their skills were highly sophisticated for this period in late prehistory, and on a par with today's polishing techniques. This work is published in the December 2011 issue of Journal of Archaeological Science, and sheds new light on Neolithic societies, which remain highly mysterious. Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1872.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1872.htm Piraeus, the main port of Athens, was an island from 4 800 – 3 400 BC, in other words 4 500 years before the Parthenon was built on the Acropolis. This discovery was made by a French-Greek team (1) led by Jean-Philippe Goiran, a CNRS researcher at the 'Archéorient - Environnements et Sociétés de l'Orient Ancien' Unit (CNRS/Université Lyon 2), who studied and dated sediments collected in the Piraeus area. The research was carried out in collaboration with colleagues from the Universities of Athens, Paris 1 and Paris Ouest, and is published in the June 2011 issue of the journal Geology. Thu, 09 Jun 2011 22:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1860.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1860.htm Remains found near the Arctic Circle characteristic of Mousterian culture(1) have recently been dated at over 28,500 years old, which is more than 8,000 years after Neanderthals are thought to have disappeared. This unexpected discovery by an international multi-disciplinary team, including researchers from CNRS(2), challenges previous theories. Could Neanderthals have lived longer than thought? Or had Homo sapiens already migrated to Europe at that stage? The results are published in Science of 13 May 2011. Wed, 11 May 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1855.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1855.htm Economist Esther Duflo, physicist Mathias Fink and robotics specialist François Pierrot are the first ever laureates of the CNRS Medal of Innovation, presented on April 27, 2011 by Minister of Higher Education and Research Valérie Pécresse. This new award honors individuals whose research has led to breakthrough technological, therapeutic or social innovations. Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1841.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1841.htm CNRS, IRD and eleven french institutions (1) are organizing an international workshop dedicated to the future of the Mediterranean basin. The event, called MISTRALS (2), will take place in Malta between 30th March and 1st April 2011. Bringing together 180 Mediterranean researchers, political decision-makers and financiers, it aims to promote the international expansion of the MISTRALS multidisciplinary research program. This novel program will focus on the decade 2010-2020 to gain a better understanding of the impact of global change on this region and anticipate the evolution of its conditions of habitability over the next century. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1806.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1806.htm CNRS(1) archeologists have recently provided proof that the Duzdagi salt deposits, situated in the Araxes Valley in Azerbaijan, were already being exploited from the second half of the 5th millennium BC. It is therefore the most ancient exploitation of rock salt attested to date. And, to the researchers' surprise, intensive salt production was carried out in this mine at least as early as 3500 BC. This work, conducted in collaboration with the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and published on 1st December 2010 in the journal TÜBA-AR, should help to elucidate how the first complex civilizations, which emerged between 4500 BC and 3500 BC in the Caucasus, were organized. Fri, 26 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1782.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1782.htm A team from the Laboratoire Archéologie Médiévale Méditerranéenne (Laboratory of Mediterranean Medieval Archaeology, CNRS / Université de Provence) will travel to Armenia on September 4-18, 2010 to study the remains of the paleochristian Yererouk Basilica (5th-6th century AD), located in the northwestern part of the country, near the Turkish border. The site dates from the Armenian paleochristian period (1), which is characterized by the abundance, originality and precocity of its production. The mission's goal is to shed new light on this still little-known chapter of history. Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1726.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1726.htm The coastal savannas of French Guiana dotted with thousands of small mounds have given up some of their secrets, thanks to an interdisciplinary European collaborative research project, financed by two CNRS programs. The researchers discovered that these mounds are agricultural raised fields, vestiges of a pre-Columbian agricultural system constructed over 900 years ago. Above all, the researchers showed that following the abandonment of this system, these well-drained islands in seasonally flooded environments were colonized by other organisms (animals and plants) that have maintained these small elevated structures up to the present day. This example of a landscape modeled by humans and then maintained by nature could help us design ecologically intensive agricultural systems. These results will appear online on the website of the journal PNAS on 12 April 2010. Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1688.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1688.htm Until now, only one species of sturgeon was known in France: the European sturgeon. Nathalie Desse-Berset, an archeozoologist at CNRS (1), has just shown, for the first time, that another species previously unknown in France used to be present in French waters: the Atlantic sturgeon. This species already existed in the French Atlantic region at the end of the Neolithic 5 000 years ago, and was still thriving 3 000 years later. Moreover, at that time European and Atlantic sturgeons co-existed at some sites. This discovery is of major importance for programs for the reintroduction of sturgeons into European rivers. These results, published in Comptes-rendus de l'Académie des sciences in mid-December, are a starting point for new research not only in archeozoology but also in paleoecology and paleogenetics, aimed at obtaining more information about these populations, which are in danger of extinction throughout the whole of Europe. Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1457.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1457.htm A third species of Palaeopropithecus, an extinct group of large lemurs, has just been uncovered in the northwest of Madagascar by a Franco-Madagascan team (UPR 2147-CNRS and Université de Mahajanga (1)). Baptised Palaeopropithecus kelyus, this new specimen is smaller than the two species of these 'large sloth lemurs' already known and its diet made up of harder-textured foodstuffs. This discovery supports the idea of a richer biodiversity in recent prehistory (late Pleistocene and beginning of the Holocene). The results, currently available online, will be published in the Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences Palevol, July-August 2009. Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1454.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1454.htm An idea that has been strengthened by recent discoveries made by the teams from the Centre for research and restoration of the Museums of France (C2RMF-CNRS) and L'Oréal Research. Revisiting the history of beauty over time was the common goal of this unique partnership. The fruit of this work will be presented until 21st September 2009 at the exhibition The bath and the mirror, at the Cluny National museum of the Middle Ages in Paris. Mon, 11 May 2009 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1383.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1383.htm An international team of archeologists has just discovered the earliest known traces to date of horse domestication by humans, dating back to 3500 years BP. This discovery suggests that horses were harnessed, probably for riding, and exploited for their milked. This research, which was carried out at the Universities of Exeter and Bristol, in collaboration with CNRS and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, was published in the 6 March 2009 issue of Science. Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1371.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1371.htm The International Joint Unit called Environnement, santé, sociétés (ESS, or Environment, health and societies) has been created to build an effective interdisciplinary scientific instrument bringing together researchers from the North and South, in order to answer questions about environmental transformation and its impact on health and society in Western Africa. The agreement to create the International Joint Unit (UMI) was signed in Paris at CNRS headquarters by Catherine Bréchignac, CNRS president, Basile Guissou, delegate general of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique et technologique (CNRST) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Abdou Salam Sall, president of the Cheikh Anta DIOP University in Dakar (UCAD), Senegal, and Ginette Siby Bellegarde, president of the University of Bamako, Mali. Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1284.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1284.htm In accordance with the new orientations of CNRS, which were laid out in the strategic plan approved by the Board of Trustees on 1 July 2008, CNRS is setting up a committee for the selection of a new research director for the Humanities and Social Sciences (SHS) department. This committee will be headed by Marc Fumaroli, a member of the Institute and an honorary professor at Collège de France. While awaiting the results of the search, Catherine Bréchignac, President of CNRS, has, on the recommendation of CNRS Director General Arnold Migus, appointed Bruno Laurioux as interim head of department starting 1 September 2008. Dr. Laurioux, a university professor, takes over from Marie-Françoise Courel with a mission to set up appropriate conditions for the creation of the new SHS Institute. Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1211.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1211.htm A complete mandible of Homo erectus was discovered at the Thomas I quarry in Casablanca by a French-Moroccan team co-led by Jean-Paul Raynal, CNRS senior researcher at the PACEA(1) aboratory (CNRS/Université Bordeaux 1/ Ministry of Culture and Communication). This mandible is the oldest human fossil uncovered from scientific excavations in Morocco. The discovery will help better define northern Africa's possible role in first populating southern Europe. A Homo erectus half-jaw had already been found at the Thomas I quarry in 1969, but it was a chance discovery and therefore with no archeological context. This is not the case for the fossil discovered May 15, 2008, whose characteristics are very similar to those of the half-jaw found in 1969. The morphology of these remains is different from the three mandibles found at the Tighenif site in Algeria that were used, in 1963, to define the North African variety of Homo erectus, known as Homo mauritanicus, dated to 700,000 B.C. Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100 http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1133.htm http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1133.htm Exciting news for those fascinated by archeology: you can now enter, as if you were there in person, into the heart of the Ausonius Institute(1) and the adjoining Archéopôle, one of the key places in France for promoting archeology. This first virtual laboratory tour, offered by CNRS, into the universe of archeologists is designed for a general audience. The tour is truly interactive, and can be prolonged through text and video offerings (films, interviews, 3D reconstructions, etc). Through this rich and exciting website, students and teachers now have a wealth of information at their fingertips... without having to leave their desks. Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0100