On the occasion of the publication of the UNEP report “Making Peace with Nature” in February 2021, Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, stated: “For too long we have waged a senseless and suicidal war against nature. The Covid pandemic has underscored the links between the health of the planet and that of humans … Read more
Forests play an important role in the planet’s climate. In particular, they bind large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and bind it for long periods of time. But they also contribute to climate through other, much less documented phenomena. Deborah Lawrence of the University of Virginia, USA, and her colleagues assessed the … Read more
On April 10, 2019, the team fromEvent Horizon Telescope (EHT) revealed for the first time the “photo” of a supermassive black hole embedded in the center of the galaxy M87. A black disk surrounded by a ring of light stands out in this shot. This disc is the monster’s shadow, 6.5 billion times the mass … Read more
2020 was a good year. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for developing the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique. Andrea Ghez, the physicist, jointly with Roger Penrose and Reinhard Genzel, for the discovery of a supermassive, compact object at the center of our galaxy, and Louise Glück, the literary scholar, for … Read more
Heating houses, powering vehicles, supplying the metallurgical industry and data centers… How can we meet mankind’s enormous energy needs today? Many avenues are explored to find new sources or improve the properties of those already in use. Among them, solar energy offers many advantages. One of the great challenges of this industry is to generate … Read more
beech (Fagus sylvatica) is one of the dominant species in Europe. As such, it is among the best studied, particularly with regard to the effects of climate change on its abundance and productivity. “Previous studies have focused on small populations or at the regional level,” specifies Élodie Magnanou, CNRS researcher at the Oceanological Observatory of … Read more
At this number What rightful place should humans have on the only planet that guarantees them life and protection at a time when their actions threaten the life, protection and beyond that of other species? Will we be able to become “gardeners of the biosphere,” ever pushing domestication or even directing our evolution while respecting … Read more
Between 1990 and 2001 the project Human DNA maps the genetic code of our species. For technical reasons, however, almost 8% of the DNA was missing, which corresponds to an entire chromosome. A consortium of more than 100 researchers led by Adam Philippy of the Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, and Karen Miga of the … Read more
Hypnotic suggestion is widely used in medicine and has been shown to reduce pain associated with medical procedures, chronic illness, and stress. It is also a tool for exploring the mechanisms of consciousness. For example, hypnosis makes it possible to induce certain perceptual changes at will in a patient, such as visual and auditory hallucinations. … Read more
Able to travel an average of nearly 10,000 kilometers across the Northeast Pacific in 240 days to reach feeding sites, female elephant seals of the species Mirounga angustirostris always return to the same hatcheries to give birth on the California coast. If not all females cover the same distance, they will nevertheless return to the … Read more