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Sandra Lavorel, winner of the 2023 CNRS Gold Medal, surrounded by the equipment in the Warm project, which is studying the effect of climate change on alpine grasslands.

Sandra Lavorel, winner of the 2023 CNRS Gold Medal, surrounded by the equipment in the Warm project, which is studying the effect of climate change on alpine grasslands.

© Hubert Raguet / LECA / CNRS Images

La sécheresse devient un problème planétaire. Certaines régions du globe font face à un manque d'eau extrême. Direction l'Arizona où une méga-sécheresse persiste depuis maintenant vingt ans. Là-bas, un groupe de chercheurs américains et français étudie les rivières intermittentes : des cours d'eau fragiles, qui ne coulent pas en permanence. La rivière Santa Cruz s'étendait sur 300km. L'eau a permis l'implantation de villes et le développement de l'agriculture. Mais à force de pomper…

Écouter les paysages plutôt que les regarder. Telle est l'approche d'Anne Sourdril, ethnologue, et Luc Barbaro, écologue, qui sillonnent le sud de l'Arizona en captant tous les bruits d'origine animale, météorologique ou humaine. Ils utilisent le concept de paysage sonore pour étudier les écosystèmes, l'impact des bruits d'origine humaine sur la faune ou encore les liens qui unissent les habitants à leur environnement.

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Pour contribuer aux transitions écologiques et sociétales, le CNRS développe des technologies et des procédés innovants permettant d'utiliser les ressources tout en préservant l'environnement et les ressources naturelles.

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Certains incendies, comme ceux qui se sont déclarés dans la province de l'Alberta au Canada depuis mai 2023, semblent incontrôlables. Comment anticiper un phénomène aussi variable et imprévisible ? Ce reportage vous emmène en Corse, où des expériences de terrain et des simulations permettent aux scientifiques de mieux comprendre la dynamique des feux de forêt.

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Nous le savons tous instinctivement : la température est en général plus fraîche au coeur d'une forêt. Mais peut-on aller plus loin et mesurer ce microclimat de manière plus précise, à l'échelle de quelques mètres ? Les scientifiques du projet IMPRINT se sont lancés dans l'aventure en équipant notamment trois forêts françaises de centaines de capteurs de température. Au fil de leur étude, les forêts révèlent peu à peu leur fonction de climatiseurs naturels.

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Éléphants, crocodiles, hippopotames… au Botswana, le Delta de l'Okavango se transforme en véritable paradis pour la faune pendant la crue qui dure plusieurs mois dans l'année. Venez découvrir avec une équipe de scientifiques français les particularités géologiques, hydrologiques et climatiques de cette région exceptionnelle.

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Un bon bain moussant pour votre téléphone et votre ordinateur… Promis, ce n'est pas une grosse bêtise irréparable, mais un moyen novateur de réduire les déchets électroniques et la pollution. Et même pas besoin de les faire sécher dans du riz ! Promis, on vous explique tout dans cet épisode.

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The decline of coral reefs around the world seems irreversible. However, scientists have not yet spoken their last word! In this report from French Polynesia, a team of researchers attempt to reverse this trend by helping coral adapt to climate change.

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Lutter contre la pollution atmosphérique urbaine suppose la fiabilité des mesures et l'information active du citoyen. Le projet SMILE propose de mailler la ville en déployant une flottille de capteurs low-cost interconnectés rendus précis grâce à un procédé nouveau d'auto-calibration. L'emploi de drones permettra de générer des cartographies 3D à l'échelle d'une rue sur une plateforme citoyenne où se rencontreront toutes les parties prenantes : citoyens, académiques, décideurs politiques, monde…

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SURe est une plateforme cloud prédisant les îlots de chaleur et la sévérité de la COVID-19 à l'échelle du coin de la rue. Construit à partir de modèles théoriques validés sur de nombreuses villes, SURe révolutionne la façon d'accéder aux données environnementales à l'échelle du quartier sans réseaux de capteurs. SURe fournit des prévisions en temps réel, qui varient en fonction de la localisation, de la saisonnalité, de la densité de la population locale et de la texture de la ville.

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As part of its participation in VivaTech 2022, the European event dedicated to technological innovation, CNRS is presenting a sample of its deeptech know-how through various start-ups from its laboratories. These start-ups include Rosi Solar, which uses raw materials from the photovoltaic industry's waste, and FunCell, whose biosourced additives are used to reinforce paper and cardboard.

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Une équipe de chercheurs embarque chaque année à bord du Marion Dufresne pour étudier des animaux peu connus : le macrozooplancton et le micronecton. Ces organismes de milieu de chaine alimentaire se composent de gélatineux, de crustacés et de poissons. Mais pour les étudier, il faut d'abord les repérer en pleine mer grâce à un instrument acoustique, un écho sondeur. Puis ils sont pêchés, triés par espèces et comptés. En les suivant d'année en année, les scientifiques peuvent mieux comprendre l…

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It is a unique tool for studying corals and marine ecosystems. In this report, navigate the lagoons of French Polynesia aboard a scientific vessel, a ship-laboratory developed by scientists from the CRIOBE research centre, in Moorea.

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Les arbres sont comme nous : depuis quelques années, ils prennent un gros coup de chaud, et ça ne devrait pas s'arranger tout de suite... Alors pour comprendre quel impact le réchauffement climatique aura sur nos forêts et leurs écosystèmes, on vous emmène sur un site exceptionnel où des chercheurs et chercheuses soumettent des chênes méditerranéens à un petit coup de stress en simulant l'avenir de notre climat... Pour la bonne cause bien sûr !

A pandemic is a complex phenomenon, an invariant for humans in their environment. In fact, from the Neolithic era to the present day, from the cattle plague to Sars-Cov-2, the emergence of new infectious diseases is often the result of changes that humans force on their environment. The emergence of a global health crisis in 2020 is a real warning sign on the uses of life. In this documentary, discover how biologists, anthropologists, mathematicians and historians can help us learn…

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Antarctica is a hostile territory due to its isolation and extreme climatic conditions, but it is also a place of unique opportunities for research and has been a protected area reserved for scientific exploration since the Madrid Protocol was signed in 1991. This film presents the work of four researchers from various fields who went to Antarctica to conduct their research project: studying animal behaviour, observing the Earth's magnetic fields, collecting and analysing micrometeorites and…

Episode 3: It is definitely good to stop polluting more. But even better is cleaning up our planet! Researchers have developed technologies to create synthetic products that not only do not generate more pollution, but also remove existing pollution! Through phyto-restoration using plants, researchers are able to 'naturally' depollute waste water and soil, producing reusable compost with very little impact on the environment.

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Birds are an increasingly rare sight in our cities. In this report, researchers from the Centre for Biological Studies of Chizé (CEBC) investigate the problems – noise, light, lack of food – that affect various species of birds in urban areas, and seek solutions to save them from extinction.

Faced with global warming, coral reefs are on the front line. As global temperatures rise, the coral bleaches and dies. This decline has an impact on its entire ecosystem. Coral reef researchers Serge Planes and Laetitia Hédouin explain why research at CRIOBE is crucial to saving the coral. This video was produced as part of the OneOceanScience campaign organised by Ifremer, CNRS and IRD. Scientists from 33 countries take part in this digital world tour and explain in a series of short…

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Antoine Aiello a une carrière foisonnante : chercheur en modélisations et simulations comportementales des systèmes complexes, président de l'université de Corse… et désormais directeur de la plateforme Stella Mare, et son crédo est de : « transformer la recherche en richesses afin de répondre à des questions socialement vives ». La plateforme Stella Mare, labellisée par le CNRS en 2011, réunit scientifiques, professionnels de la mer, gestionnaires de l'environnement et acteurs…

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Episode 2: As the melting of ice intensifies and glaciers erode year after year, threatening to accelerate the rise in water levels, researchers from the CNRS are closely monitoring the Argentière glacier (Alps) using an original method to better understand and measure its movements.

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Episode 1: In the future, what if toilets separated our organic waste directly into a reusable product, and our urine was used to fertilise the fields with minimal pollution? We take you on a journey to discover the toilets of the future!

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Nanoplastics with a size of less than a thousandth of a millimetre are the finest form of plastic pollution. The Pepsea research project focusses on a type of nanowaste that is still poorly understood. Researchers chose Guadeloupe to study its impact on the environment. The island is exposed to the ocean and the North Atlantic Gyre making it an area of plastic accumulation. It is the perfect field of study for researchers who are going to explore its beaches and mangroves. They investigate the…

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Bio Inspir' studies the depolluting qualities of certain land and aquatic plants. This start-up is especially interested in water mint, a small plant native to the southern French Occitanie region that has exceptional capacities for purifying water containing metallic and organic elements. Used in the form of a powder or alive, this plant can purify contaminated water directly at industrial sites. #BioInspir' finds industrial applications for the research conducted by the laboratoire de Chimie…

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LEAP is a new generation aircraft engine that reduces fuel consumption and carbon emissions by 15%. It was jointly designed in a collaboration between Safran Aircraft Engines and several CNRS laboratories, including EM2C (Laboratoire Énergétique Moléculaire et Macroscopique, Combustion/molecular and macroscopic energy and combustion laboratory). The advantage of this partnership is to improve knowledge on the production of soot, which is fine particles resulting from the incomplete combustion…

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A new scientific project launched by the Tara Oceans Foundation has embarked on the schooner TARA to sail the nine largest European rivers, in order to follow the route plastic takes before it transforms into microplastic. The scientists are using a manta net, which allows them to take samples from the surface of the water due to the small mesh size, and capture microplastics in the open sea, on the coast or in rivers. The aim is to determine the types of plastic contained in European rivers…

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Can human development continue at this pace without causing a loss of biodiversity? A group of researchers at the French Institute of Pondicherry believes so. By studying the impact of human activities on a biological hotspot in the South of India, they hope to find the key to a harmonious coexistence between humans and wildlife.

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The Youtube channel Zeste de science explores all aspects of scientific research, proving that even the most complicated scientific facts can be explained in less than 5 minutes, and that even the most seemingly trivial events of everyday life, if thoroughly studied, can contribute to the biggest technological advances. Episode 12: How come all trees have more or less the same shape? Through a virtual simulation of the evolution of a forest, a cross-disciplinary research group…

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Due to climate change, the Argentière glacier in the French Alps has been losing a metre of thickness every year for the past 30 years. A team of scientists has equipped the icy giant with more than 100 sensors to listen to its inner workings for a month.

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Plastic waste that accumulates in the ocean slowly deteriorates into smaller pieces. Scientists now estimate the amount of microplastics under the sea at 5000 billion tons, but the amount of nanoplastics remains unknown. That is why a French team decided to collect samples from the Mediterranean Sea to detect traces of nanoplastics. First, they concentrated the water by ultrafiltration and then used a dynamic light scattering technique to identify the nanoparticles. The final step was to resort…

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Due to global warming and ocean acidification, coral reefs are now an endangered ecosystem. Aboard research shooner Tara, scientists embarked the Tara Pacific expedition in 2016, whose goal is to diagnose the health condition of corals. They aim at creating the most complete database about corals to date. To that end, they use visual analysis, samples, and a new cartography tool for ocean floors, the Hyperdriver. Divers soon noticed the high mortality rate of the reefs, with most corals losing…

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The aim of the PlastiGar study project is to monitor plastic pollution in the Garonne over three years to assess its impact on biodiversity in 14 separate sites. The film shows us how the researchers carry out measurements of microplastic concentrations in the river and how the first laboratory analyses are carried out. Starting in 2019, the project will be extended to study the presence of plastic in living organisms.

Established in 2009, the Haut-Vicdessos valley Human and Environment Observatory (OHM, Observatoires Hommes-Milieux) in one of those entities created in France and in the world by the CNRS's INEE (Institut Ecologie et Environnement/ Institute of Ecology and Environment) and pooled together as part of the DRIIHM excellence laboratory, or Labex. Its director, Didier Galop, makes a presentation of this cross-disciplinary observatory whose mission is to observe, document and investigate into…

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All life on Earth exists on a thin layer that surrounds the planet. To better understand this so-called "critical zone," researchers are setting up state-of-the-art instruments and creating open-air laboratories all over the world. We take you on a guided tour of one of these environmental observatories in France.

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In French Guiana, leatherback turtles—the largest sea turtles in the world—return to the same beach multiple times over the year to lay their eggs. But fewer are making it back, threatening the species with extinction. Researchers have been tracking and monitoring them to better understand the increasing anthropogenic and environmental pressures on their ecosystem.

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A very unique phenomenon is taking place on the French Guyanese coastline. In the heart of the mangrove, shoals of mud and vegetation roam along the coasts and greatly modify the contour of the coastline. This dynamic marshland ecosystem is being studied by geographer Antoine Gardel and his team, who have developed observation techniques to better understand this ever-changing natural environment.

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Associated with waste and squalor in the collective unconscious, gutters are essential elements of the sanitary life of our towns and villages. A whole universe of cells and micro-algae thrives there, fed as much by their direct environment as by waste water. In order to measure the proportion of anthropic and environmental contributions to the composition of their water, a series of samples were taken from Parisian gutters randomly from the 1,700 kilometre-long streets of the French capital,…

La série « La science au box-office » s'approprie les codes des bandes annonces hollywoodiennes pour vous faire partager les plus étonnantes études, découvertes et innovations scientifiques de notre époque. Une expédition scientifique accoste en Guyane suite à l'apparition sur le littoral de mystérieux bancs de vase et de végétaux qui bouleversent sa topographie et son écosystème.

La série « La science au box-office » s'inspire des codes des bandes annonces hollywoodiennes pour vous faire partager les plus étonnantes études, découvertes et innovations scientifiques de notre époque. Suite à l'apparition dans le ciel d'une variété de frelons colonisant les campagnes et menaçant l'écosystème, une équipe de scientifiques multiplie les initiatives pour repousser l'invasion.

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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.

About 70.8 % of the Earth's surface is covered by oceans. This huge reservoir of biodiversity is home to millions of species. Three researchers, Gilles Le Boeuf, Nadine Le Bris and Nathalie Niquil, explain the impacts of climate change on the marine environment. The multiple alterations caused by humans weaken ocean ecosystems and undermine their role as natural climate regulators. These far-reaching changes, which affect the abundance and diversity of marine species, have an impact on the…

Pendant longtemps, les discussions sur le changement climatique n ' ont pas pris l ' océan en compte. Quel rôle l ' océan joue-t-il dans le climat et quels sont les impacts du changement climatique sur l ' océan? Trois chercheurs, Sabrina Speich, Gilles Reverdin et Benoît Meyssignac, reviennent sur deux problématiques, le réchauffement et l'élévation du niveau des océans. Les mesures effectuées par des marégraphes, puis des satellites ont démontré que le niveau de la mer est monté…

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Inspired by participatory democracy, the Open Forums are venues where citizens can discuss the consequences of climate change on the environment and biodiversity, set up new protocols in conjunction with scientists and finally contribute to global change issues that affect us. On the occasion of one of these forums held in Marseille on June 9, 2015, citizens and scientific speakers explained how they operate.

The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina nigrithorax) or yellowlegged hornet is an invasive predatory species which arrived in France from China in 2004. Since then, it has colonized France and all of Europe. Eric Darrouzet, a biologist at IRBI, specialized in this insect, explains its lifestyle and all the problems related to its rapid expansion for the environment, public health and economies. Finally, he talks about his team's work to develop trapping techniques to combat this predator (such as the…

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On Lake Titicaca, between Bolivia and Peru, the Pachamama mission researchers study the changes and transformations of pollutants in order to better hinder their mutations and reduce their poisonous impact on the environment. They focused on methylmercury, the most toxic form of mercury. It poisons molluscs and small animals that feed on the biofilms present on the totora (reeds that have been exploited for centuries by local populations), then their predators, thus infecting every link in the…

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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.

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Since 2004, the yellow-legged hornet—also known as Asian hornet—has been spreading throughout Europe at an alarming rate. How can we get rid of this invasive species without killing other insects? The key is in finding the perfect trap...

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Ten years after the terrible tsunami that devastated Indonesia, Sri Lanka, southern India and western Thailand, Franck Lavigne, a researcher at the Physical Geography Laboratory, looks back on his experience with the Tsunarisque scientific mission that began in January 2005. Using images from the film "Tsunarisque, appréhender une catastrophe" (Tsunarisk: scaling the disaster) made in 2007, the geographer tells the challenges of this expedition. For nearly two years, a team of Franco…

MISTRALS is an international umbrella programme of interdisciplinary and systematic research and observations dedicated to understanding the environmental functioning of the Mediterranean basin under the pressure of global change and to predict its future evolution. It consists of 8 thematic or transversal programmes including ChArMEx, HyMex, MerMex, BioDivMex, PaleoMex, TerMex, SICMed, SocMed. Étienne Ruellan, director of the Mistrals programme, elaborates on this vast project.

This documentary, based on the account of various scientists, dives us into the heart of the intensive ChArMEx (Chemistry Aerosol Mediterranean Experiment) research campaign mounted during summer 2013. Researchers are analysing the atmospheric pollution, tracking a huge dust plume sent up from the Sahara Desert and rised above the Mediterranean area towards Europe. The purpose of the project is to study air pollution in Western Mediterranean basin, in order to understand its origins…

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