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This film draws a very peculiar and poetic portrait of twenty researchers through science pictures from the CNRS images database.

Images have always been at the core of the scientific research. Thanks to computer processing and new visualization tools, they have acquired movement, volume and new resolutions, from the smallest atomic scale to cosmic dimensions. This film tries to give meaning to these 21 images and offers the keys to decode them.

Today, the physicists' grail is more than ever the theory that will unify General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, the infinitely large and the infinitely small, so these scientists construct new theories. The most publicised of these is “string” theory, which implies a ten or eleven-dimensional Universe! Apart from the three dimensions of space that we know, the other dimensions could be microscopic and rolled up, totally beyond our perception. In another approach, physicists are trying to…

Each year 600,000 hectares of forest around the Mediterranean basin are destroyed by fire. The breadth of this destruction calls for research into the development of forest fires. Scientists at the University of Corte have developed mathematical models from which computer simulations of fires can be constructed. The goal is to understand the propagation of the forest fire fronts in order to improve prevention and control of the fires. To make the simulation more accurate, large-scale tests…

The Centre d'études et de physiologie appliquée, a CNRS laboratory in Strasbourg, uses a vehicle driving simulator to understand the causes and symptoms of drivers' loss of attention at the wheel.

The purpose of the ESCOMPTE program is to develop a database designed to validate the instruments used to model atmospheric pollution and especially photochemical pollution, which is more common in summer. The project took place between June 5 and July 16 2001 in the area of Marseille-étang de Berre, and involved several types of measuring equipment: VHF radar, sodar, constant-volume balloons, airplanes such as ARAT, etc.ESCOMPTE also investigates the interactions between the soil, vegetation,…

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.

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…

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.

Nioro du Sahel in Mali has been twined with the town of Limours in France since 1983. In 1983, the twinning committee, with the help of the French Ministry for Cooperation and the Malian government, decided to equip the town with electricity. This report shows the electrification works and also many interviews of Nioro inhabitants, all having a passion with this revolution.

Sophora tomomiro is a legendary tree which used to grow abundantly on the Easter Island. This sacred tree, whose wood has an exceptional quality, disappeared from his natural biotope in the 1960 ' s.

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.

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.

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

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.

Near the city of Strasbourg, the Centre for primatology Louis Pasteur is dedicated to the breeding of primates for the pharmaceutical laboratories and also to the study of their behavior.

Many types of software, management ones essentially, which are used today, were conceived about twenty years ago. In this time, the limited memory capacities forced computer engineers to code the date into two numbers. On the 1st January of 2000, the numbers 00 will be displayed, succeeding to 99. And then, 00 could mean 1900, and it could have serious consequences. In this film, four computer engineers explain the problems cause, show possible solutions and try to evaluate the cost due to the…

The most ancient metallurgic techniques and the ones from the 2000 ' s present sometimes analogies. Through the reconstitution of these techniques, archaeologists try to understand how metals used to be obtained in the Iron Age.

Report shot in Vietnam at the occasion of the solar eclipse which took place on the 24th October 1995. A short version of this film (26 ' ) can be found on our catalogue.

The new imaging equipments for medical diagnosis, which can show the depths of the human body are described in their use in hospitals by physicians and scientists in various fields. The Orsay hospital, thanks to a cyclotron, can produce radioactive elements, which, fastened to biological molecules, are detected by a positron camera, which can follow the motions of these tracers in the human body. At Institut Curie, the radioactive molecules injected in the body are tracked by a gamma camera…

The company Europ Scan, the Le Havre ' s port and the French Customs have conceived a X-ray system of control which can scan a whole container in one time. This is called the Sycoscan system.

On a circuit devoted to the motorcycle racers ' training, three men talk about the innovations concerning the two-wheeled vehicles, specifically stability and handiness matters, linked to the conception of suspension.

Jean-Pierre Adolphe, a researcher in geomicrobiology, harvests a bacterium called “Bacillus”, which has the particularity to produce limestone. With his team, this researcher cultivates in laboratory the harvested sediments, in order to isolate these microorganisms and to make them reproduce after having determined precisely their nutritive needs. His project is to use these bacteria in order to make them produce stone which could be used to restore monuments and statues damaged by time and…

In the Hampont village in France, an abandoned dairy has been transformed into a fish farm. It raises particular fishes: the wels catfish, one of the biggest fresh water fishes, originating from the Danube.

One French on five suffers from allergies, that is to say asthma, urticaria, hay fever or also edema. Allergic people are real sentinels who give in permanence the measure of the attacks on the environment.

Cerebral strokes which suddenly occur are the third death cause in the developed countries. Every year 100 000 new cases are counted in France. This disease affects especially the elderly but also the young people.

Researchers at INSERM describe their works on the skin. They study the functions of the various cells which constitute the dermis and the epidermis : Langershans cells, keratinocytes, melanocytes. The aim of these researchs is to be able to regenerate the skin after an injury. For doing this, they must understand adhesion between dermis and epidermis and the rebuilding mechanism of the epidermis. In laboratories, cultures of cells are used to regenerate the skin of badly burnt patients.

In Hamburg, the particle accelerator HERA is located under the city's soccer stadium. At each end of the accelerator two teams of 400 researchers face each other around the H1 and ZEUS detectors. The object of their rivalry is to unlock the secrets of the basic constituents of the atom and in particular to study proton structure.