Nom Machine
journal

Sleeping in cold blood

Researchers have revealed the existence of an infraslow physiological rhythm during sleep in reptiles. The discovery sheds light on the evolution of sleep… and its mysteries.

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.

Slaves to parasites

The extraordinary odyssey of toxoplasmosis, a parasite that manipulates its hosts to turn them into cat food.

Maths is a piece of cake

Mixing cake batter, following a recipe, cutting a Yule log. These everyday gestures in cooking actually conceal complex concepts from mathematics and computer science, as shown in an exhibition called "In My Kitchen" in southwest France.

Shedding coherent light on the brain

The physicist Valentina Emiliani has been awarded the 2026 Irène Joliot-Curie Female Scientist of the Year prize, in recognition of her work in neurophotonics, at the intersection of optics and neuroscience.

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.

Breaking the wall

Every year, the spring season heralds high-profile running events. As the Paris, Boston and London marathons have just come to a close, CNRS researchers explain why some runners experience a sudden drop in performance towards the end of the race.

Europe takes the lead in planetary defence

The Ramses mission to asteroid Apophis is set to launch in 2028. It forms the cornerstone of a planetary defence programme designed to protect our planet from the risk of collision with near-Earth objects.

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.