Search results for:

To control the massive use of chemical pesticides in France, a team of researchers believes they have found an alternative in micro-algae. As a result of samples taken from the French coast, several strains of micro-algae showed surprising capacities. Based on a defence mechanism common to many living beings, RNA silencing, researchers have demonstrated the ability of plants to ramp up their immune system. Extract D, a micro-algae discovered in Brittany, has revealed its ability to directly…

It is a long time since phage therapy has increasingly raised the interest of scientists and health care professionals in want for an intercurrent with antibiotic treatments. Bacteriophages which are specific viruses that are harmless to humans are believed to be the key to solving the growing inefficiency of antibiotics caused by multi-drug-resistant bacteria. At ISEM, researchers work to improve the ability of phages to minimise bacterial resistance to antibiotics.

To grow, plants need nutrients that they draw from soil, especially nitrogen. Pulse crops (the UN declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses (IYP)) have developed a cunning strategy: they partner up with bacteria able to metabolize nitrogen directly from the atmosphere. Researchers are very interested in this phenomenon, and hope to apply it to develop therapeutic applications or use atmospheric nitrogen in agriculture.

Discovered in the 19th century when the city of Bordeaux's fortifications were dismantled, a collection of 400 architectural pieces that date back to the Roman empire have stumped researchers for years. A team of scientists think that they may have finally discovered which monuments some of these blocks belonged to.

Electronic waste contains numerous precious metals, woven together. However, recent technical advances do not allow them to be efficiently recovered and processed. In Orléans, a group of ICAR, CEMHTI and BRMG researchers have developed a solution to this problem with the use of water, in what is known as a "supercritical" state. When this water is heated in a reactor it reaches extreme temperatures and has a powerful corrosive effect. The device was tested on circuit boards, with the aim of…

How to assess the impact of the attacks from 13 November 2015 on French society? To answer this question, the historian Hélène Frouard looked at a rarely studied document, the book of condolences. Her analysis covered the four books held at the town hall of the 11th arrondissement of Paris from November 2015 to March 2016. Under what conditions were these books opened? Who used them and how? What does a textual analysis of their content reveal? This research was conducted as part of the …

How can we fight the increasing levels of pollution plaguing our cities? A surprising solution could come from luminous textiles. Indeed, a group of researchers has just combined fiber optics with a powerful photocatalyst in a device that cleans both air and water.

Every day, marine viruses kill 40% of our oceans' bacteria. And yet these biological entities are still poorly known. For example, we still know little about their role in the regulation of microalgae, the first link in the food chain that also produces close to a quarter of our planet's oxygen. We travel to the Roscoff Marine Station to see how researchers there are trying to isolate, and better understand these fearsome predators.