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In order to produce prototypes or very specific equipment, the CNRS and other governmental research organizations works with glass-blowers. This film is a tribute to those men who shape in glass, in Pyrex or in quartz, equipments for many chemistry and physics laboratories.

Mendevin, an Uldeme living in the extreme North of the Cameroon, is a farmer breeding small-livestock. He is also an excellent musician and harp maker. This film shows precisely through long takes the different phases of the making of a harp.

Located in the wilderness area of Campo, in Cameroon, and facing the company Socapalm which exploits oil palm trees, the village of Mabenanga lives on the freshwater shrimps fishing which is the pride of the restaurants of Kribi, Douala or Yaoundé.

The ancient site of the Lattara city has been excavated and studied for 15 years by an important team of French, Spanish, Italian and American archaeologists. It needed the development of an information system named Syslat, adapted to open air excavation, which allows the real time management of huge quantity of archaeological documents.

Boys, from two to nine year old, manage all alone their own cult to Nya, among the Minyanka people from Mali. The oldest is the chief of the cult. Children are very autonomous but they do not innovate and faithfully reproduce the ritual adults behavior, who never intervene during the cult.

Founded in June 1995 in Benin, the Ecumenical Christian Church “Jesus ' Blood”, which gathers about fifty believers, mixes deliberately in its liturgy some catholic, orthodox, apostolic and celestial Christian elements.

Prithwindra Mukherjee, an ethnomusicologist, defines and exposes the Kîrtana principles, a kind of dance and ritual song celebrating Krishna, the eighth incarnation of the love deity, and Rhada. This musical and danced kind comes from a very old cultural practice dating from the 4th century and has evolved for centuries.

Presentation of a new instrumental concept, invented by scientists of the Lyons and Marseilles observatories, baptised "spectrographie intégrale de champ" (Integral field spectography). It allows to have the spectres of all points of an image simultaneously.

In May 1997 the Marion Dufresne, one of the largest oceanographic vessels in the world, carried out a major core sampling survey organized by the Institut Polaire. Its mission was to collect sediment from the ocean floor in a zone stretching from New Zealand to Antarctica.

In the Pyrénées Orientales region, the old solar power station Thémis used a heliostat field made out of 200 mirrors, each 50 square meters in size. Astrophysicists were able to reuse these mirrors to observe cosmic gamma rays, the most high-energy particles in the universe. These rays emit luminous flashes which are collected by the mirrors and directed toward the CELESTE detector. In this way researchers hope to be able to reach a better understanding of the mechanisms of energy production at…

A report from the 23rd International Congress of Mathematicians, held August 18-27 1998 in Berlin.Four Fields medals were awarded, to Richard E. Borcherds and Timothy Gowers (Cambridge University), Maxim Kontsevich (IHES, Bures-sur-Yvette), and Curtis T. McMullen (Harvard University). Interviews with the mathematicians provide an overview of the current state of mathematical research, addressing the relations between mathematics and physics, the Moscow school of mathematics, etc.

Between January 1990 and March 1995, the research program KERFIX carried out the first continuous measurement of parameters linked to the carbon cycle in the Southern Ocean. These longitudinal observations form part of the study of global climate change.

In 1994, in the Panier neighborhood in Marseille, demolition work in preparation for the construction of a new building revealed the a mass grave of plague victims from the 18th century. Thirteen specialists in biology, the humanities and social sciences investigated this archaeological discovery, providing a wide-angle perspective on the great plague of 1720.

A researcher specializing in metal alloys seeks to improve the resistance of horseshoes to wear by adding aluminum and ceramic materials to the iron used to manufacture them.

A heart consists of million of cells, most of which beat in unison at a rate of 50 to 120 beats per minute. Heart cells consists of myocytes who beat and fibroblasts who do not beat. The motions of the fibroblasts are visualized by stop-motion microcinematography. A culture of heart cells of rats is observed. At the beginning, myocytes are scattered, then after one or two weeks, they are grouped together and beat synchronously. This regrouping of myocytes, forming homogeneous cells areas, is…

During the 19th century a craze for microscopy developed in England and France. Microscopy technicians like Harold Dalton created real paintings on a microscopic scale using micro-organisms (diatoms and radiolarians) and fragments of butterfly wing.

Satellite measurements make it possible to represent visually the variations in the level of different seas. These variations in level result from the combination of many factors, and are called ocean tides.

This film was made in order to record the construction of the Vivitron, a tandem particle (heavy ion) superaccelerator developed by the Institut de recherches subatomiques (IreS) in Strasbourg.

Sciences historians do not only study texts, they also sometimes try to reconstitute past experiences. In this film, Soraya Boudia, who works at the CRHST (Center for Research in History of Science and Technology), tries to reproduce the measures realized by Marie Curie in order to calibrate radioactive sources.

In the Veys bay, in Normandy (France), there is one of the three largest centers of oyster farming, which is threatened by an excessive concentration of a worm species called lanice conchilega.

Thousands of Ethiopian Jews (Falachas) are leaving their home villages and move to the country's capital, Addis Abeba, then trying to emigrate to Israel. Some of them are interviewed and tell about their hopes and problems, facing all the difficulties.

In Togo among Kabye people, trials by fire ordeal happen among truth masters in order to settle witchcraft cases which cannot be judged by usual men. This film shows two cases.

Study of the Dogon sculpture in Mali, from a corpus of 150 sculpted granary locks, conserved at the Musée de l ' Homme of Paris. These objects were brought back during diverse missions, from 1906 to 1971.

In Georgia Republic, every year during three days, pilgrims meet near two sanctuaries consecrated to the deified queen Tamar (12th century) and her son Lasha. They celebrate them with prayers, singings and sacrifices. This film tries to reproduce this celebration in its several dimensions as it was presented in 1991.

In the Surumi village, located in Bolivia, a miraculous Virgin Mary is usually sheltered in a sanctuary. She is venerated during two great festivities which happen every August. The inhabitants and the farmers from the area express their devotion and their faith in very different ways.

In Eastern Greenland, a few families of hunters still maintain the nomadic way of life of their ancestors. Through recent images, historical documents and computer graphics, this film illustrates the considerable evolution of the East-Greenlandic population over a few decades. This includes the adoption by these ancient nomads of a new sedentary life-style.

At Joal in Senegal, a mother washes her new born baby, Maghet Sène.

Nestled in an underwater grotto on the Provence coast, a tiny sponge only a few centimetres long yields its secrets to scientists. Its feeding behaviour is unique!

A pluridisciplinary team of researchers of Institut Pasteur in Dakar and ORSTOM is doing a comparative study of malarial infection in two villages in Senegal : Dielmo and Ndiop. These villages have been chosen because of the presence of the disease, permanent in the first village, seasonal in the second, and also because the population has agreed to cooperate in this research project. The scientists have arranged a program for monitoring each individual in the population on a day-by-day basis…

Proteins are macromolecules at the basis of the cell functions of living organisms. To know their functions, one must know their structure for the shape is closely related to the function. Using X-rays cristallography it is possible to visualize molecular structures. When an organic molecule in solution evaporate, a crystal deposit is formed. The crystals, lighted by an X-rays beam, produce a diffraction pattern which is used to reconstruct the structure of the molecule. The source for X…

Fifteen minutes in the strange and fascinating world of our nerve cells. Thanks to time lapse microcinematography, the complex phenomena occuring in the brain are visualized. We can see the birth of nerve cells, we can see them growing, working, dying…. These images brings to the fore two principal actors : the glial cells, building the structure and cleaning the brain, and the neurons, responsible of intercellular communication.

The forest of Fontainebleau forms a set of complex ecosystems rich in plant and animal species, a remarkable ecological heritage. The film retraces the geological history and human use of the forest.

In the Gard region an old lead and zinc mine still contains waste material. Rain dissolves this into large quantities of arsenic, which flows into a stream in the area. Marc Leblanc, a CNRS researcher, analyzes the contaminated water and seeks to understand the complex chemical reactions produced in it. He demonstrates the function of aerobic bacteria which contribute to limiting the pollution.

In 1991, CNRS founded the primatology station of Rousset, near Aix-en-Provence, designed for the breeding and raising of baboons for research purposes.

CO2 laser technology has always stimulated a high degree of interest and enthusiasm due to its operating performance. This video presents a brief overwiew of four dental applications : use of the cw CO2 laser in mucous membrance surgery - use of the cw CO2 laser in apical surgery - use of the cw CO2 laser in the treatment of dental decay - use of the long-pulse TEA CO2 laser as a drill. CO2 laser treatment benefits both the patient and the practitioner. It improves the quality of dental…

In order to preserve the biodiversity of the several million plant and animal species, a gigantic census is necessary. This is the goal of taxonomy, the science of the classification of living things. Seven researchers from different disciplines - biologists, botanists, entomologists, and paleontologists - describe their work.

Does the universe have frontiers ? Is it finite or infinite ? Two French astrophysicists, Marc Lachièze-Ray and Jean-Pierre Luminet, try to resolve this enigma and present their theory. Light, which propagate through the universe, enabled us to visualize the properties of space and the scientists already know cosmic optical illusions, which, for instance give birth to ghost images of galaxies. If space has a folded-in topology, light can go round through space several times et give ghost…

In 1995 a planet was discovered outside the solar system by Michel Mayor, an astronomer at the Geneva Observatory. At the Haute Provence Observatory Michel Mayor describes his work methods. Fluctuations in the speed of the stars, measured by spectrography, led to the proof of the existence of a giant gaseous planet in the orbit of the star 51 Pegasi. Astronomers continue to scrutinize the universe, searching the spectral rays for the chemical elements associated with life.

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.

In the context of evolution of species and geographical biodiversity, variations of recognition signals between individuals during courtship are studied. Drosophila teissieri, a fruit fly living in the African forest is used as a research animal model.

Expresso (Experiment for regional sources and sinks of oxidants) is the name of an international mission whose aim was to study tropical ecosystems emissions and their transformation in the lower atmosphere, which has for consequence the production of ozone.

The film describes the physical properties of granular materials (powders and grains), whose complex behaviour is between solids, liquids and gases.

Five researchers (Luc Montagnier, Daniel Prieur, Pierre Chambon, Alain Prochiantz and Christo Goridis) explain why animal models are used in the scientific research in order to understand mankind.

Through the description of his researches, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji depicts his daily life as a physicist in a human-sized team.

Two microbiologists, Daniel Prieur and Patrick Forterre study Thermophilic bacteria which are microorganism that thrives at relatively high temperatures (100°C or even more). Those bacteria proliferate near warm spring. A shorter version of this film is available, called "Extreme bacteria".

In March 2007, a new oceanographic ship of the INSU (French National Institute for Earth Sciences and Astronomy), the “Côtes de la Manche” cleared off. He is devoted to the study of biology, physics and chemistry of the coastal and estuarial ecosystems of the English Channel, and also of the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. This short film shows its first missions.

Presentation of the researches and the accomplished progresses about the trisomy 21, a chromosomal anomaly, which affects one person on 700 at birth.

The toromiro is a small tree which had grown on the Easter Island for about 35.000 years. Human pressure, linked to important climatic fluctuations and the massive importation of sheep during the 19th century, provoked its extinction. The toromiro was saved by Thor Heyerdahl in 1956, who preserved some seeds. An interdisciplinary program is devoted to its culture and its reintroduction on the island. This program needs some genetic investigations.

Formerly reserved for soldiers, cryptology is now used progressively in the civil and commercial society. The art of encrypting information interests now bankers, internet users and also… the public welfare system. The diffusion of cryptography ways is booming to the rhythm of the development of electronic communications.

Wolfgang Pauli imagined the neutrino in 1936 in order to save the principle of energy conservation. An experiment confirmed its existence 20 years later. Since then, physicists keep on tracking down this particle with more and more sophisticated and expensive means. This film is an investigation which shows three different ways to catch neutrinos.