news 2023

As social animals, humans communicate with and influence each other by leaving digital traces on the Internet, particularly by using star rating systems on collaborative platforms. Many e-commerce sites use this technique to allow users to share their hotel or restaurant experiences, for example. But under what conditions can these traces enable a group to cooperate, and can we trust them?

The mystery of the Mona Lisa lies not so much in her smile as in the painting techniques used by Leonardo da Vinci. Artist, engineer and architect, da Vinci was also an experimental chemist, with the Mona Lisa being his veritable laboratory.

Pulsars, small, very dense dead stars, emit electromagnetic radiation in the form of beams that sweep through space at regular intervals, rather like cosmic lighthouses. Now, recent observations of one of the nearest pulsars to Earth, the Vela pulsar, have caused a major stir in the scientific community: radiation around 200 times more energetic than any previously detected from this source has been detected at the H.E.S.S.

French and Chinese scientists have made surprising discoveries about the crucial roles of soil fungi in forest ecosystems. This work arose from an international collaboration between researchers at INRAE, the University of Lorraine, the University of Aix-Marseille, Beijing Forestry University, the Kunming Institute of Botany, and the Yunnan Key Laboratory for Fungal Diversity and Green Development.

Using a new analysis method for satellite images, an international research team, coordinated by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and INRAE, mapped for the first time annual changes in global forest biomass between 2010 and 2019. Researchers discovered that boreal and temperate forests have become the main global carbon sinks.

Long thought to be non-existent in humans, brown and beige adipose tissue plays a key role in our body's energy homeostasis. Nevertheless, they are in short supply in our bodies, and observing them in situ is not easy. A French scientific team 1 from Inserm, ESF and Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier University, led by Professor Louis Casteilla and based at the Restore Institute (CNRS/EFS/Inserm/UT3), has developed a unique process to generate them in the laboratory in the form of organoids.

Thanks to the latest catalog from ESA's Gaia satellite, an international team, led by astronomers from Observatoire de Paris - PSL and CNRS, obtains the most accurate measurement of the Milky Way's mass. The subject of an article published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics on September 27, 2023, this study opens the way to important questions in cosmology, particularly on the relative amount of dark matter contained in our Galaxy.

Cancer and aging are closely linked processes, but the mechanisms underlying this relationship are still not well understood. By studying immune cells in the lung, researchers from Institut Curie and Inserm have provided new knowledge on the topic. They show that targeting ruptures of the nuclear envelope of these cells would represent a new opportunity for therapeutic intervention in age-related diseases, in particular cancer, thus improving the quality of life of the elderly in the long term.

How can we guarantee the reliability of quantum systems? This is the challenge being addressed by an ambitious European research project called VeriQuB, coordinated by the QAT team (Inria, École normale supérieure - PSL, CNRS) at the Inria Paris centre. Its aim is to identify new methods for verifying the performance of quantum computers using bosons.

The brain impacts of infection with SARS-CoV-2, responsible for COVID-19, are increasingly well documented in the scientific literature. Researchers from Inserm, Lille University Hospital and Université de Lille, at the Lille Neuroscience & Cognition unit, in collaboration with their colleagues at Imperial College London, focused more specifically on the impacts of this infection on a population of neurons known for regulating sexual reproduction via the hypothalamus (the neurons that express the GnRH hormone).

Researchers at Toulouse University Hospital, Inserm and Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier University have recently made a breakthrough in the understanding and treatment of chronic kidney disease, a pathology affecting millions of people worldwide. Published in Science Translational Medicine, this promising scientific breakthrough is based on the identification of the responsibility of an inflammatory protein in the serious complications of the disease, paving the way for a new therapeutic approach.

The Translational Medicine and Targeted Therapies research team, headed by Prof. Guillaume Canaud at the Institut Necker-Enfants Malades (Université Paris Cité, AP-HP, Inserm), in collaboration with the maxillofacial surgery team from theHôpital Necker-Enfants Malades AP-HP (Prof. Roman Khonsari and Prof. Arnaud Picard) and the "Shape and Growth of the Skull" laboratory (Prof. Roman Khonsari), studied the PIK3CA pathway in patients suffering from a rare disease affecting facial muscles, hemifacial myohyperplasia.

Emulsifiers are among the additives most widely used by the food industry, helping to improve the texture of food and extend its shelf life. Researchers from Inserm, INRAE, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Université Paris Cité and Cnam, as part of the Nutritional epidemiology research team (EREN-CRESS), studied the impacts on cardiovascular health of the consumption of emulsifiers.

The Lille-based teams of Professors François Pattou (Université de Lille, CHU de Lille, Inserm, Institut Pasteur de Lille) and Philippe Preux (Université de Lille, Inria) have developed a tool capable of predicting, in a personalized way, the weight loss expected over 5 years in a patient after bariatric surgery.

Polysiloxanes, the scientific name for silicones, possess exceptional properties, and are used in numerous fields ranging from cosmetics to aerospace. They are absolutely everywhere! However, small cyclic oligosiloxanes impurities - including substances classified as toxic for the environment and identified as potential endocrine disruptors - can form during their synthesis.

The AlpSatellites project, aimed at verifying the potential of remote working in alpine and remotes areas, is moving forward. It is scheduled for completion in February 2024 and, at the present time, the collection of quantitative survey data has almost been completed. One of the AlpSatellites' project goals is, in fact, understanding the evolving landscape of remote working.

Difficulty staying awake may seem trivial, but it's the main symptom of one of the most severe sleep disorders: narcolepsy. In Montpellier, the Centre de référence des narcolepsies et hypersomnies rares (Inserm/University/CHU de Montpellier) headed by Yves Dauvilliers is conducting cutting-edge research into this disease.

Publication of the RDP in the journal Science Advances, on July 19, 2023. Communication of CNRS-INSB on August 28, 2023. Cytokinesis in multicellular organisms dictates how cells are organized in a tissue, their identities and functions. A study conducted by the Plant Reproduction and Development Laboratory (RDP - CNRS/ENS de Lyon/Inrae) and published in Science Advances , presents a quantitative analysis of cytokinesis steps in the model plant Arabidopsis using high-resolution microscopy approaches.

Publication of the LBMC in the journal Genes and Development, on August 4, 2023. Communication of CNRS-INSB on August 21, 2023. DNA breaks disrupt the integrity of the chromosome and the genetic information it contains. In an article published in the journal Genes and Development , scientists from the Laboratory of Biology and Modelling of the Cell (LBMC - CNRS/ENS de Lyon), in collaboration with teams from the USA, have further characterized a mechanism that puts genome stability at risk.

Publication of the LBMC  in the journal PNAS on August 7, 2023. Communication of CNRS-INSB on September 8, 2023. The organization of heterochromatin, the part of the genome containing repressed genes, into three-dimensional compartments is essential for the correct functioning of cells. But the mechanisms governing this organization are still not fully understood.