Valérie Castellani, Thierry Chartier, and Daniel Le Berre are the recipients of the 2018 CNRS Innovation Medals. All three will be handed their medals during a ceremony held on October 10 in Paris. Since 2011, CNRS Innovation Medals have recognized scientists whose outstanding research has led to innovations having notable technological, economic, therapeutic, or social impacts.

To understand why some cancer cells resist radiotherapy, an international team of researchers has used crystallography to “photograph” the first moments of the molecular ballet that allows these cells to repair their DNA. The study involved teams from the CEA, CNRS, SOLEIL (French synchrotron facility), University of Paris-Sud, Gustave Roussy, Aix-Marseille University and University Paul Sabatier - Toulouse III 1 .

An international research group has published the conclusions of a study focused on juvenile delinquency among ethnic and religious minorities from five different Western countries. Through the prism of delinquency, the study examines the social integration of minorities and concludes that interaction with public institutions and the living conditions of these young people contribute to different patterns of integration depending on the country.

At the foot of the hill on which sits the ancient city of Cumae, in the region of Naples, Priscilla Munzi, CNRS researcher at the Jean Bérard Centre (CNRS-EFR), and Jean-Pierre Brun, professor at the Collège de France, are exploring a Roman-era necropolis. They now reveal the latest discovery to surface in the archaeological dig they have led since 2001: a painted tomb from the 2nd century B.C. In excellent condition, the tomb depicts a banquet scene, fixed by pigments.

Over the last few years, scientists have discovered connections between gut microbiota imbalances and various diseases. Now, in a study using mice, biologists from the CNRS, INSERM, and Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University -together with colleagues from the Institut Pasteur de Lille and the NIH (USA)- have revealed a surprising relationship between a viral detection system, the composition of the gut microbiota, and the development of skin allergies.

Abstract: The ovules and seeds of most angiosperm groups are enclosed by two integuments, whose evolutionary origins are considerably separated in time, as the inner integument arose over 300 million years ago (MYA) in an ancestor of all living seed plants, while the outer integument arose, perhaps as recently as 164 MYA, in an ancestor of all living angiosperms.

Publication from the Chemistry laboratory in the Chemical Sciences journal on September 18, 2018. Abstract: The intrinsic photostability of nucleic acids is intimately related to evolution of life, while its understanding at the molecular and electronic levels remains a challenge for modern science.

Plant genome editing is a technology that attracts much social and regulatory debate: INRA has defined a strategy for the use of these new techniques to acquire new knowledge and in plant breeding. The principles underlying this strategy are in line with the Institute's values and with its ambition to contribute to environmental, social and economic progress.

Abstract: Roses have high cultural and economic importance as ornamental plants and in the perfume industry. We report the rose whole-genome sequencing and assembly and resequencing of major genotypes that contributed to rose domestication. We generated a homozygous genotype from a heterozygous diploid modern rose progenitor, Rosa chinensis 'Old Blush'.

What if social behavior affected the progression of even noncontagious diseases' This is precisely what has been demonstrated by French CNRS teams, 1 with support from the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), Paris-Sud University, the University of Montpellier, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), and colleagues from Spain and Australia.

What distinguishes black ladybirds with red dots from red ladybugs with black dots? Children - as adults - have one day asked this question. Researchers have identified the genetic variations responsible for the different coloration patterns of Harlequin ladybugs. They have just identified the gene that alone has all the necessary instructions to draw the different patterns that decorate the wings.

Imagine that you are eating a Granny apple under a red parasol on the terrace of a public garden. The next day you eat another Granny apple at home in your kitchen, but soon afterwards find yourself ill. The next time you go back to the public garden, you avoid sitting under that red parasol. While there may not seem to be a link between the parasol and the fact that you were ill, there actually is! This is an example of the mediated learning process, and researchers from INRA and INSERM have just identified the brain mechanism involved in it.

Approximately 0.1%: that is the average genetic difference between two individuals. This small percentage is responsible for the variations of certain physical traits, such as eyes, hair, and height, but also for differences in our susceptibility to certain diseases and our capacity to absorb vitamins and phytomicronutrients (carotenoids, polyphenols, etc.), involved in the prevention of chronic disease.

The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC), of which INRA is a leading member, published the first wheat genome reference sequence in Science , on 17 August 2018. French research teams from INRA, CEA, and the universities of Clermont-Auvergne, Evry, Paris-Sud and Paris-Saclay contributed to the project, a scientific milestone due to the enormous complexity and size of the genome - five times larger than the human genome and forty times larger than the rice genome.

This summer's world-wide heatwave makes 2018 a particularly hot year. As will be the next few years, according to a study led by Florian Sévellec, a CNRS researcher at the Laboratory for Ocean Physics and Remote Sensing (LOPS) (CNRS/IFREMER/IRD/University of Brest) and at the University of Southampton, and published in the 14 August 2018 edition of Nature Communications .

Parker Solar Probe will soon become the spacecraft to travel the closest to the Sun, by positioning itself a little over 6 million kilometers from our star's surface. During its journey within the solar corona, the NASA probe will notably have an on-board instrument developed by researchers from the CNRS, université d'Orléans, and the CNES.

Individuality is not exclusive to humans. Though this idea was previously rebutted by biologists, today it is accepted that individuality is found in all animal species. It is defined as all the behavior differences between individuals of a single species that are relatively stable over time. Though the process called individuation is supported by genetic and development components, researchers have just demonstrated in mice that the social environment and activity of some neurons also participate in determining the emergence of distinct individuals.

The world's biggest colony of king penguins is found in the National Nature Reserve of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF). Using high-resolution satellite images, researchers from the Chizé Centre for Biological Studies (CNRS / University of La Rochelle) 1 have detected a massive 88% reduction in the size of the penguin colony, located on Île aux Cochons, in the Îles Crozet archipelago.

Observations made with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have, for the first time, detected the effects of general relativity predicted by Einstein, in the movement of a star passing into the intense gravitational field of Sagittarius A * , a massive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.

Showcased in museums the world over, Byzantine ceramics are the vestiges of an ancient empire that dominated the Mediterranean region for nearly ten centuries. One CNRS researcher 1 , in cooperation with Greek colleagues 2 , has focused her attention on a widely disseminated style of ceramics called the “main Middle Byzantine Production,” found in all four corners of the Mediterranean.