Thinking Differently the Chemistry

The materials developed by Gérard Férey ' s laboratory are porous. They can consequently be used as molecular cages and contain pharmaceutical drugs.

Within the frame of the sustainable development, researchers try to develop batteries inspired by the living chemistry. In this short film, Jean-Marie Tarascon from the LRCS (Laboratory for reactivity and solids chemistry) describes these researches.

In this short film, Philippe Colomban, a researcher from the LADIR, presents the works of scientists who use the laser and the Raman scattering technique to identify the pigments and the adjuvants in the rock paintings done by the San people in South Africa.

In this short film, Georges Massion from the “Laboratory for Medicinal chemistry of the Epigenetic Targeting of Cancer” presents some examples of molecules from the sea which have furthered the clinical research.

It is essential to understand the ultimate chemistry which happens in catalytic converters in order to filter the toxic gazes produced by the engines and transform them into harmless residues. With Frédéric Thibault-Starzyk (CNRS) from the LCS (Laboratory for catalysis and spectrochemistry).

Marcel Hilbert, a researcher from the Laboratory for Therapeutic Innovation, evokes the creation by many researchers of a national chemical library which contains 40 000 molecules made by chemists and about 15 000 collected natural substances extracts. Robots are used to test them and maybe discover new biologically active molecules and thus develop new pharmaceutical drugs.

Daniel Lincot, a researcher from the “Laboratory for electrochemistry, chemistry of interfaces and modeling for energy” (LECIME), evokes the dozen of existing photovoltaic industries. A few are exploited, as the silicon solar cells, but new cells have appeared as the thin films or the dye-sensitized solar cell. The aim is to decrease the costs and to facilitate the recycling.

The pollutants are numerous and some can persist in the environment over several decades. In this short film, Philippe Garrigues, a researcher from the Institute for Molecular Sciences explain the different detection techniques which are used.

In this short film, Philippe Walter, a researcher from the LC2RMF, explains how they analyze residues from some well-conserved Egyptian objects, as make-up flasks…

A tumor is a set of cells which grows in an exponential and anarchic way.Iin this short film, Gérard Déleris, a researcher from the Laboratory for Pharmaco-chemistry, explains the chemists ' researches who work on very specialized antitumor treatment.

In Isabelle Rico-Lattes ' laboratory, researchers use the green chemistry concepts which revolutionize, among others, the pharmaceutical drugs sector.

In this short film, Gérard Férey and his team, who have developed hollow sphere-shaped molecules in which we could notably trap the greenhouse gases, explains this process.

Batteries are devices able to transform chemical energies into electric energies. Actual research allows to glimpse an amelioration of the stocking capacity of a scale factor of two even a scale factor of three, in a decade or two. In this short film, Jean-Marie Tarascon from the “Laboratory for reactivity and solids chemistry” (LRCS) explains these new techniques.

In this short film, Nathalie Karpel Vel Leitner, from the Laboratory for “Water Chemistry and Microbiology” (LCME), exposes different innovative processes concerning the cleaning up of water, as the electron gun or the use of a catalyst… Indeed, most of the industrial sectors use water in their process of production, which has for consequence pollution. Many innovative processes are being studied…

In this short film, Marcel Hibert, a researcher from the Laboratory for Therapeutic Innovation, discusses a new advance in the treatment of autism. Since a decade, a hormone was discovered: the oxytocin. With its receptor, it plays a key-role in the relationship between a new-born and his social group. This discovery could lead to the development of a drug against autism…

In this short film, Philippe Colomban, a researcher from the LADIR, evokes the restoration of stained glasses. As the building moves, they get naturally damaged. The goal is to identify, on set stained glasses, the original parts from the ones which have been replaced during a non-documented restoration…

In this short film, Philippe Garrigues, a researcher from the Institute for Molecular Sciences, evokes the water polluting, due to pharmaceutical products. When someone ingests a drug, this one will not be completely metabolized: between 50 and 90 % will end up in the wastewater. For some pharmaceutical products, the purification rate is relatively low. The impact on the environment is being actually studying.

In this short film, Georges Massiot evokes the taxol, a molecule coming from the Pacific yew. It was discovered in the sixties, when the United States of America decided to declare the war to cancer. During the eighties, the felling of many European yews of the Gif-sur-Yvette campus allowed Pierre Potier and his team to discover a molecule looking like the taxol…

Philippe Walter from the laboratory of the Research and Restoration Center of the French Museums (LC2RMF), explains in this short film what are the techniques used by an artist such as Leonardo da Vinci. The study of some of his works and in particular the Mona Lisa, allows to understand how da Vinci, among his multiple abilities, realized a real work of chemist: he elaborated himself his own glazes…

Today, an hour of sunlight on Earth is the equivalent of the worldwide energy consummation on a year. In this short film, Daniel Lincot, a researcher from the LECIME (Laboratory for Electrochemistry, Interfaces Chemistry and Modelizations for Energy), explains the exploitable potential everywhere in the world, where chemists play an important role in the conception of solar panels.

In this short film, Isabelle Rico-Lattes from the IMRCP (Laboratory for Molecular Interactions & Chemical and Photochemical Reactivity) explains what the green chemistry is. It consists in a chemistry resolutely turned to the future, cleaner, using catalysts which can be recycled and less solvent and reagents.