Finding "The One" in the pre-Tinder age

Perusing through a million matrimonial ads from the past hundred years or so reveals changes in the criteria for love over the 20th century, and hint at deeper transformations in societies themselves.

Prehistory's "connected" mass production

In 2015, archaeologists unearthed a unique artefact in Iraq: a kiln comprising two interconnected chambers dating from the Chalcolithic (7000 to 5000 BC). To find out how it worked, they decided to build a replica – with surprising results.

Rebel with a cause

Sophie Germain’s name will soon be engraved on the Eiffel Tower. A brilliant self-taught mathematician, she had to fight throughout her life to gain equal recognition to her male contemporaries, and bore the full brunt of the sexism of her time.

The magic of sound and light physics

Maïmouna Bocoum, a physicist specialising in acousto-optics at the Paris-based Langevin Institute, develops imaging technologies for the early detection of breast tumours. She was awarded this year’s Irène Joliot-Curie “Young Female Scientist” award.

The dispossessed who came in from the cold

The international crisis over Greenland has highlighted the wealth of the Far North's underground resources, but at the same time obscured the role of its inhabitants in their extraction. All around the Arctic Circle, indigenous peoples are taking action to gain control over the mining boom in their lands.

Are video games to blame for today's violence?

At a time when the game “GTA VI”, whose launch has been postponed to November 2026, is drawing ever-greater attention in the media, a social psychology researcher investigates the impact on player behaviour of video games with aggressive content.

Avatar vs science

Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third instalment of the cinematic saga, premiered in movie theatres in late 2025. Ecologists and biologists have been examining the scientific premises of the film and the links between science and creative imagination. So, is the rich biodiversity of the moon Pandora plausible?