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A team of CNRS planetary scientists 1 working in collaboration with astronomers from the University of Montréal has presented first evidence that the temperate exoplanet LHS 1140b could be an ocean world. Over the past few years, the planet, which is located around 48 light-years from the Solar System in the constellation Cetus, has been observed by the Hubble, Spitzer and TESS space telescopes, as well as by the ESPRESSO instrument mounted on the VLT telescope in Chile.

In France, 900 000 people have Alzheimer's disease or a related condition. The risk of developing Alzheimer's depends on genetic and environmental factors. Among these factors, various epidemiological studies suggest that the regular consumption of moderate amounts of caffeine slows age-related cognitive decline and the risk of developing the disease.

In France, 900,000 people suffer from Alzheimer's or a related disease. The risk of developing Alzheimer's disease depends on genetic and environmental factors. Among the latter, various epidemiological studies suggest that regular, moderate caffeine consumption slows age-related cognitive decline and the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

Genetic diversity is fundamental to the maintenance and resilience of species and ecosystems. In the context of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (CMBKM), of which France is a signatory, an international consortium, including INRAE, Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University and the Conservatoire d'espaces naturels d'Occitanie, has developed and demonstrated the feasibility of using 2 genetic diversity indicators based on existing and available data without the need for DNA.

Conserving genetic diversity is an essential part of maintaining the health and resilience of species and ecosystems. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is requiring its signatories, among them France, to use two genetic diversity indicators that can be estimated using readily available data that may or may not be DNA based.

Ageing greatly increases the risk of ischaemic stroke. A team of researchers from Inserm, Caen-Normandy University Hospital and Université de Caen Normandie have looked at the role that immune cells known as central nervous system-associated macrophages (CAMs) could play in the neurological damage that occurs following a stroke.

The sea worm Platynereis dumerilii is only a few centimetres long but has a remarkable ability: in just a few days, it can regenerate entire parts of its body after an injury or amputation. By focusing more specifically on the mechanisms at play in the regeneration of this worm's tail, a research team led by a CNRS scientist 1 has observed that gut cells play a role in the regeneration of the intestine as well as other tissues such as muscle and epidermis.

Comprising billions of microorganisms, the gut microbiota progressively matures after birth in humans and other animals. While environmental factors, and especially diet, are known to have a major influence on microbiota development and composition, the role of genetics remains a topic of debate. In a groundbreaking study recently published in Microbiome, INRAE researchers used pigs to experimentally demonstrate that gut microbiota composition is partly heritable.

It is known that people have been bringing alien bird species onto islands for thousands of years, but how this has shaped the diversity of those species has just been brought to light by a study soon to be published in the journal Ecology Letters. An international team of scientists led by three researchers from the CNRS and Paris-Saclay University 1 has shown that, on most of the 407 islands they considered, humans have a greater impact on alien species diversity than do geographic variables.

Sheep are capable of learning a wide range of complex tasks. A research team from INRAE was able to prove this by training sheep to undergo MRI scans while awake-a world-first. This innovative method, which hinges on trainer-lamb cooperation, helps produce quality images without the need for anaesthesia.

The teams from the kidney transplantation department of Necker-Enfants Malades AP-HP hospital, Inserm and Paris Cité University, as part of the Paris Translational Research Center for Organ Transplantation (PARCC), coordinated by doctor Olivier Aubert and Professor Alexandre Loupy conducted a study on the benefit of liquid biopsy (cfDNA) as a technique for predicting kidney transplant rejection.

A team of researchers including French scientists from the CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes, and the Observatoire de Paris-PSL 1 have for the first time ever observed brown dwarfs orbiting very near bright stars-a feat for precise astronomical imaging. Out of the eight companions 2 imaged, the researchers determined that five were brown dwarfs, substellar celestial objects that are still poorly understood, neither stars nor planets but something in between.

A research team 1 led by scientists from CNRS and Université Grenoble Alpes has discovered that the injection of a modified "pseudo-prion" protein into the brains of mice could protect the animals against Alzheimer's disease, a pathology that currently affects nearly a million people in France. This neurodegenerative disease originates from lesions caused by an abnormal accumulation in the brain of two proteins: amyloid- and Tau.

A recent study shows that neurons in monkey brains respond to human voices: a groundbreaking discovery of the neural mechanisms of vocal perception. The groundbreaking study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on June 11, 2024, reveals a population of neurons in monkey brains that selectively respond to human voices.

By studying the brain anatomy of newborn baby baboons, a research group including several CNRS scientists 1 was able to predict what hand they would use to communicate after they had been weaned. These researchers had already found that nearly 70% of newborn baboons, like human babies, had early asymmetry in the planum temporale (PT) area of the brain.

The fungus Magnaporthe oryzae ravages rice and wheat crops and poses a formidable threat to human food on a global scale. Researchers from INRAE, CIRAD and the Université de Montpellier, together with the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Centre (HHRRC) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) have discovered a gene in rice for resistance to this pathogen, challenging the findings of a study that remained the reference for 25 years.

Whether performed by a human or a computer, matrix multiplication is a tedious task. Researchers are battling to reduce the time and number of steps required to solve this type of operation. Excel spreadsheets, climate modeling, simulation of aircraft wing structure, neural network calculations, image processing.

Numerous cellular phenomena are guided by mechanical forces, such as embryonic development or the spread of metastases. These phenomena are the subject of intense research aimed at understanding how they are translated into biological processes. Particular emphasis is being placed on new opportunities to treat diseases as resistant as cancer or fibrosis.

A ground-breaking study conducted by INSERM's Groupe de Recherches sur l'Alcool et les Pharmacodépendances (GRAP) opens up new therapeutic perspectives for the treatment of alcohol addiction with psilocybin, the active compound in hallucinogenic mushrooms. Published in the scientific journal Brain , their work confirms the potential of psilocybin to combat alcohol addiction, while shedding light on the molecule's hitherto unknown mechanisms of action.

Since 2022, anthropology has been in the spotlight at CNRS. Caroline Bodolec, the deputy scientific director behind this initiative, looks back at the main mediation actions around the discipline after it "put on a show" on April 30, 2024. The CNRS Sciences humaines & sociales "Sharing Anthropology" focus ended on April 30.