news 2016

In the Yuanyang region of China where rice cultivation is a tradition, scientists from INRA and CIRAD, working in collaboration with a Chinese team, have focused on the defence mechanisms of rice against its pathogenic agents.

In the Yuanyang region of China where rice cultivation is a tradition, scientists from INRA and CIRAD, working in collaboration with a Chinese team, have focused on the defence mechanisms of rice against its pathogenic agents.

Cells are the site of a multitude of chemical reactions, the precision of which is envied by scientists.

Hybrid organic-inorganic materials, which were developed approximately twenty years ago – notably by Gérard Férey, laureate of the CNRS 2010 Gold Medal, and his team – are known firstly for their extreme porosity. This remarkable property offers a diverse range of applications in the fields of energy, health, and sustainable development.

Pain serves as a valuable warning signal, but when it becomes chronic, pain should be considered as a real disease.

It isn't an animal, a plant, or a fungus. The slime mold ( Physarum polycephalum ) is a strange, creeping, bloblike organism made up of one giant cell. Though it has no brain, it can learn from experience, as biologists at the Research Centre on Animal Cognition (CNRS, Université Toulouse III—Paul Sabatier) previously demonstrated.

Stretching time scales to explore extreme events in nature seemed impossible, yet this feat is now conceivable thanks to a team from the Institut FEMTO-ST (CNRS/UFC/UTBM/ENSMM), which used an innovative measurement technique enabling the capture of such events in real time. This technique, which is currently applied in the field of photonics, could help predict rogue wave events 1 on the ocean surface, along with other extreme natural phenomena.

Three INRA researchers have analyzed the scientific literature on the efficacy or durability of Bt transgenic plants in terms of the possible link of interest between this research and the biotechnology industries. They publish their results in the journal PLOS ONE of 15 December 2016. They show that 40% of the publications studied present a financial conflict of interest 1 .

To protect against attack, the body uses natural repair processes. What is involved in the spontaneous regeneration of the myelin sheath surrounding nerve fibres' This is the question addressed by researchers in Unit 1195, 'Neuroprotective, Neuroregenerative and Remyelinating Small Molecules' (Inserm/Paris-Sud University).

During REM sleep, the brain inhibits the motor system, which makes the sleeper completely immobile. CNRS researchers working in the Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon (CNRS/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1/INSERM/Université Jean Monnet) have identified a population of neurons that is responsible for this transient muscle paralysis.

An international group of researchers led by LSCE (CEA-CNRS-UVSQ) has published a thorough budget of methane sources and sinks 1 over the last decade in the Earth System Science Data (ESSD) journal,

Ten days after astronaut Thomas Pesquet take-off into space on the Proxima mission, many questions remain about human adaptation to gravity. The research team at Inserm Unit 1093, 'Cognition, Motor Activity and Sensorimotor Plasticity' (Inserm/Université de Bourgogne), focuses on the manner in which movements that depend on this parameter are performed.

Inserm researchers led by Patrick Collombat at Unit 1091,'Institute of Biology Valrose' (Inserm/CNRS/Nice Sophia Antipolis University), show that GABA, a neurotransmitter that is sometimes used as a dietary supplement, can induce the regeneration of insulin-producing cells. This discovery, confirmed in mice and partially validated in humans, gives new hope to patients with type 1 diabetes.

Past variations in the strength of the Earth's magnetic field are reflected by the production of isotopes in the atmosphere.

Mega-earthquakes (with a magnitude greater than 8.5) mainly occur on subduction faults where one tectonic plate passes under another. But the probability of such earthquakes does not appear to be even across these zones. In a study published on 25 November 2016 in the journal Science , researchers from the University of Oregon and Géoazur laboratory (CNRS/Université Nice Sophia Antipolis/Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur/IRD) show that mega-earthquakes mostly occur on the flattest subduction zones.

Though purging is not prescribed as often as it was centuries ago, intestinal cells known as enterocytes frequently resort to this age-old remedy. Researchers from the Immune Response and Development in Insects (CNRS), Molecular Immunorheumatology (INSERM / Université de Strasbourg), and PAM Food Science and Microbiological Processes (AgroSup Dijon / Université de Bourgogne) laboratories have demonstrated that enterocytes attacked by pathogenic bacteria rapidly purge themselves of most of their contents.

In 1973, the rare syndrome of uncombable hair or - pili trianguli et canaliculi - was described by a Toulouse dermatologist. More than 40 years later, Michel Simon, Inserm research director his colleagues at the 'Epidermal Differentiation and Rheumatoid Autoimmunity' Unit [UDEAR] (Inserm/CNRS/Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier University) have identified its genetic cause.

American researchers at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and French researchers from Inserm (joint research Unit 913 'Neuropathies of Enteric Nervous System and Digestive Diseases', Nantes) have succeeded in generating a functional human intestine using pluripotent human stem cells.

Numerous studies have shown that using cannabis can lead to shortand long-term memory loss. These effects on memory may be related to the presence of specific receptors on several types of brain cells (glial cells as well as neurons). Inserm researchers led by Giovanni Marsicano (Neurocentre Magendie, U1215) have shown that these effects on memory are related to the presence of these same receptors on the mitochondria, the energy centre of the cell.

The fall of an asteroid in the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico) 66 million years ago is believed to have caused the extinction of dinosaurs. It also created the Chicxulub impact crater, the only such crater on Earth that still has a peak ring – a type of structure commonly found, in contrast, on the surface of several objects in the Solar System.