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In urban transport systems, an ideal answer to chemical and noise pollution issues lies in the deployment of electric vehicles; they can be used in organisations? car fleets, bus lines, and also in self-service rental systems, those individual means of public transport representing the missing link between urban public transport and long-distance car journeys.

Jean-Pierre Vernant deciphers the myth of the Gorgon ' s death and the use of the mirror, which reflect can destroy the Gorgon ' s power. It allows understanding how the Ancient Greeks conceived what was the glance of death.

From Genesis, Demosthenes or Homer and Xenophon, we were aware of the existence of a ritual where three animals, a sheep, a pig and an ox are sacrificed, what is called trittoia. In Thassos, an island of northern Greece, a random discovery of the remains of a pig, an ox and earlier a sheep, dated around IVth century B.C., the science of archaeozoology adds the missing piece of the puzzle: the rear partof the sheep. The three animals were immolated, cut in half and buried in a hole in the…

At the occasion of the IFRAF inauguration (Institut Francilien des Atomes Froids) young researchers evoke the main experiences run by their teams. There are done in the continuity of the Claude Cohen-Tannoudji ' s discovers, from the first Bose-Einstein condensates obtained in 1995 to the very last developments.

In the archaeological museum of Thassos, in northern Greece, archaeologist Arthur Muller introduces us to his research in coroplastic art, the study of terracotta votive statuettes found in the surroundings of temples in ancient Greece, for example in the temple of Artemis and Demeter Thesmoforos (5th to 2nd century). By studying how they were made, through successive moulding, heads combinations, and modifications in their clothing, we discover a nearly modern fabrication method of these…

From 2000 to 2006, Jean Duprat, a physicist at the CSNSM, went three times to the scientific base Concordia at the South Pole to collect micrometeorites, in order to understand, thanks to these witnesses of the first moments of the primitive solar system, how the Sun and its planets were formed 4.5 billion years ago.

To capture a few high-energy neutrinos, astrophysicists have installed an amazing undersea observatory at a depth of 2,500 metres off the coast of Toulon (France). The first results of this experiment, named Antarès, are expected in 2006.

The physicist Alain Aspect, a director at the Laboratory Charles Fabry, within the Institute of Optics located in Orsay, has received the CNRS Gold medal in 2005 for his works on quantum optics and atomic physics. In this film, he recounts his career and describes his researches. He proved the non-validity of the Bell ' s theorem.

The Delos Island, in the Cyclades, was and is still one of the main excavation sites of the French School of Athens.

The site of Malia, in Crete, discovered in 1915 by a Greek archaeologist, is still in excavation. This exceptional site had never been reoccupied, after three series of habitations from 2000 to 1370 BC, and it is particularly rich in remains. Isabelle Badfer-Burdet, an archaeologist and a member of the French School at Athens, shows the crafmen'neighborhood established around the palace of Malia.

The French School at Athens has lived its first heydays in Delphi, where the Pythia gave her prophecies in the name of Apollo. This place is a real paradise for Hellenists. In this film, Dominique Mulliez, the director of the School, collects and comments some writings on the spot.

In 2000, the mathematician Jacques Tits resigned his Chair in group theory at the Collège de France. On this occasion, the Collège and the Institut des hautes études scientifiques organized two days of lectures in his honor, on May 3 and 4, 2000. Ten well-known mathematicians testify to the contributions of Jacques Tits and explain the significance of his theory of buildings.

In March 1989 a Bourbaki seminar was held at the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris. Bourbaki is the name of a group of French mathematicians founded shortly after the Second World War. The first of its famous seminars was held in 1948. Work was published jointly by the mathematicians in the group, who chose to sign it with the name of a fictitious person, Bourbaki. Henri Cartan and three other mathematicians (Pierre Cartier, Etienne Ghys, and Jean-Louis Verdier) review the history of the…

The network of French Schools abroad has maintained, for more than a century, sustained research activities in history, archaeological excavations, monuments restorations, welcoming and training of researchers and PhD students.

The CNRS awarded its 2004 Gold Medal to one of the greatest mathematicians of our time, Alain Connes, a professor at the Collège de France and the Institut des hautes études scientifiques (IHES). Throughout his career, Alain Connes has been interested in the solution of the mathematical problems raised by quantum physics and the theory of relativity. In particular, he revolutionized the theory of operator algebras and created a new branch of mathematics, non-commutative geometry. His work has…

Developed seven years ago, the ANTARES project is the result of the collaboration between three French and European laboratories: the CNRS, the CEA and the IFREMER. Its aim is to detect and study the very high energy cosmic neutrinos thanks to the first underwater neutrino telescope in the whole world, settled at a depth of 2 500 meters at the bottom of the sea. There is a short version of this film (6 min) entitled “The Neutrinos of Antares”.

As chemical and sound pollution increases, the electric vehicle becomes a solution to urban transportation problems. In La Rochelle and Bordeaux, the city government has set an example. The idea comes in various forms - scooters, river boats, and delivery services. Industry and research organizations are actively involved. CNRS laboratories are carrying out research on battery components. The use of electric vehicles of many kinds is becoming widespread.

The CNRS Gold Medal for 2003 was awarded to physicist Albert Fert for his discovery of giant magnetoresistance and his contribution to spintronics. From his birthplace at the foot of the Pyrenees, Albert Fert shares his memories and describes his vocation as a scientist. Scientists from Albert Fert's laboratory, CNRS-Thalès, in Orsay (Université Paris-Sud), present the major lines of their research: magnetic tunnel junctions, new materials, spin coherence, and quantum calculations.

The Irène Joliot-Curie Prizes reward initiatives that increase the numbers of girls studying scientific and technical subjects and improve the position of women in the sciences. Three prizes were awarded in 2003: Muriel Thomasset, a CNRS engineer, in the "incentive" category (initiatives promoting careers in science) The Association française des femmes ingénieurs, represented by its president Monique Moutaud, in the "support" category (initiatives aiding women in their…

The mirrors inside large telescopes are periodically disassembled for maintenance work. This operation takes place every 18 months on the main telescope of the Haute Provence observatory. The primary mirror measures two meters in diameter and weighs 1.2 tonnes.

At the occasion of the tercentenary of the astronomical observatory of Marseille in 2002, astrophysicists and technicians present some of their activities, from the research of extrasolar planets to recent programs of observation by UV or infrared.

An interview with Jean Jouzel, Director of the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace in Paris, who received the CNRS Gold Medal in 2002 jointly with Claude Lorius. Jean Jouzel develops mathematical models for calculating climate warming as a function of the nature and gas content of the atmosphere. Bubbles of air in ice cores collected in the Antarctic reveal the composition of the atmosphere in past centuries. Scientists thus obtain correlations between greenhouse gases and climate cycles. Jean Jouzel…

An interview with Claude Lorius, Emeritus Director of Research at CNRS, who received the CNRS Gold Medal in 2002. He received the award jointly with Jean Jouzel, for research which revealed the links between the quantity of greenhouse gases and climate change, resulting from the analysis of the air bubbles in the ice which has been accumulating for millennia at the South Pole. Claude Lorius recalls his career, beginning with his first visit to the Antarctic in 1957, at the time of the…

Winner of the CNRS Gold Medal in 2001, anthropologist Maurice Godelier shares some aspects of his activities, his life, and his research. First he takes us on a field trip to the Baruya of Papua-New Guinea, among whom he worked for seven years, describing his research on kinship ties and the initiation ceremonies of the various age groups. He leads a seminar for the EHESS (Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales). He impresses on his students the need to develop a true scientific…

Michel Lazdunski, the head of CNRS' Institut de pharmacologie moléculaire et cellulaire at Sophia-Antipolis, and winner of the CNRS Gold Medal in 2000, describes the current state of his research on ion channels, which are the microgenerators of the electric signals present in all cells. The study of the behavior of specific toxins extracted from animal venom (spiders, sea-anemones, etc.) leads to the identification of ion channels whose dysfunction leads to pathologies such as cardiac…

There are scales for measuring all sorts of things in daily life - but there are also scales for measuring events at times we cannot observe directly, for measuring the infinitely large or small, for surveying unknown continents or even universes that we never knew existed.

Portrait of Félix Fénéon, a publisher, journalist and art critic. He was from the end of the 19th century to his death in 1944 an “eminence grise” in Humanities and painting. He knew a very brief celebrity during an anarchist lawsuit, where he was accused of having throwing a bomb into a restaurant.

A summary of a day of lectures in conjunction with an "Open Day" event organized by the IHES (Institut des hautes études scientifiques in Bures-sur-Yvette) at the Centre Georges Pompidou on September 18, 2000. Highly varied aspects of mathematics are addressed by eight experts. Stacked oranges and correction codes, by Denis Auroux. Morley's marvelous theorem, by Alain Connes. Under the street lies symmetry, by Etienne Ghys. The genome and mathematics, by Alessandra Carbone. …

Nicole Le Douarin, CNRS Gold Medal winner in 1986 and the inventor of the first animal chimeras, quail-chickens, describes the history of the process of embryo marking, which allows the monitoring of cellular diversification throughout its development. This method, applied to the neural crest of the chicken embryo, enabled her to show that the bones of the facial structure are formed from the region that is also primarily responsible for the formation of the skin and nervous system. Thirty…

Jean-Claude Risset is a physicist, a musician, and a computer scientist. He has used his computing talents to turn his piano into a true partner. He proselytizes constantly for a cause dear to his heart - the restoration of a Renaissance conception of the university, and of culture as a whole, in which the arts and the sciences would once again be closely linked.

Pierre Potier, Director of the Institut de chimie des substances naturelles in Gif-sur-Yvette, received the CNRS Gold Medal for 1998. A pharmacist by training, Potier became interested very early on in the isolation and structural analysis of organic substances, then in the biosynthesis of these substances. Subsequently he specialized in the search for new compounds which could be used in the treatment of tumoral diseases. To facilitate this research he developed a simple biological test, the…

The Rencontres de Marseille of April 28 1998, organized by CNRS, present innovative laboratories or enterprises from the region, including the laboratory Parole et langage, the company GDEI, and the company Opiocolor.

Located in the Canary Island, the Themis telescope, conceived by the INSU and the CNRS, is an essential link in a chain of terrestrial observatories and satellites, allowing to answer to questions concerning the magnetic activity of the Sun, as temperature aberrations noticed between its surface and its corona.

The sun's temperature decreases gradually from the core to the photosphere. Then, paradoxically, it increases considerably in the corona around the sun. This anomaly is investigated by astrophysics researchers with the help of a wide array of instruments, including the satellite SOHO, the solar telescope Themis, and the radioheliographs and decametric antennas in Nançay.

Jean Rouxel, recipient of the CNRS Gold Medal in 1997, describes his work while walking through the laboratories of the Institut des matériaux in Nantes, which he heads.

In this film, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, a researcher in atomic physics, presents his work on interactions between matter and radiation.

Seven recipients of CNRS Silver Medals present their research fields: Mathias Fink (time-reversing mirrors), Barbara Romanowicz (seismology and the study of the earth's structure), Sébastien Candel (turbulent combustion), Hélène Barbier-Brygoo (hormone signaling in plant growth), Clément Sanchez (organic-inorganic hybrid materials), Alain Blondel (elementary particles), Catherine Fuchs (modeling of linguistics mechanisms).

Unlike other big cities, Marseille has settled tower blocks on its own territory. This way, the inhabitants of the “Northern Neighborhoods” feel they belong to the city as much as the other inhabitants, from the old port or downtown. Michel Péraldi, a CNRS sociologist analyses this situation whereas young people talk about their way of life.

The city used to end where the country began. Nowadays, it extends on the suburbs, which form an intermediary domain. Hervé Le Bras, a demographer, visits Nantes a big city in France and describes new ways of living in the city and its suburbs, thanks to transports which permit people to settle where they want it to.

Portrait of Claude Hagège, a linguist, who received the CNRS Gold Medal in 2005. He briefly explains his profession, the languages he has chosen to study, in particular oral tradition languages which may disappear.

Geochemist Claude Allègre was the recipient of the CNRS Gold Medal in 1994. He studies the chemical composition of rocks, soils, water, and the atmosphere, and more generally the history of the 92 elements which make up the universe.

The heart, as seen from the symbolic and medical viewpoints. Alongside examples of its place in Western culture, heart surgery and interviews with cardiologists show advances in modern science and the constant fascination this organ holds for the scientists themselves.

Mirrors are everywhere, as technological artefacts, as "objets d'art", as objects of reflection. They deform our image, tell us about the stars, about logic, about behavior, about ourselves. They are ever present in myth, painting and literature.

The Arkéoplan is an instrument developed by CNRS researchers for surveying archaeological excavation sites. It consists of a digital camera, complete with remote controlled zoom, coupled to a computer.

At Les Martys, in the Montagne Noire, in southwestern France, archaeologists are trying to rediscover the techniques used by the Gallo-Romans to extract pure metal from iron ore.

To remedy the poor quality of plywood sheets made from Landes pines, researchers have developed a method of measuring the stresses, strains and compression operating within the wood.

Professor Slonimsky's team has deciphered part of Chromosome 3 of baker's yeast, chosen for its many analogies with the human chromosome.

On July 3, 1990, on the occasion of the inauguration of the CNRS grouping of communication units, Hubert Curien, Minister of Research and Technology, visited the Meudon-Bellevue campus, former estate of the choreographer Isadora Duncan. The large electromagnet of the Académie des Sciences installed in 1928 testifies to the prestigious past of this site. In his speech, the Minister recalled the pioneering role of the campus laboratories in extreme research, particularly on low temperatures…

Research workers from the CNRS Institute of Eastern Prehistory run a practical experiment in archaeology, sowing and harvesting wild wheat.

A CNRS team in Grenoble uses a robot to help carry out a stereotactic cranial biopsy. The robot, guided by software that processes NMR and X-ray imagery into a 3-D model, optimizes the path taken by surgical instruments.