A previously unpublished sonnet by Cervantes, recently discovered in an account of Neapolitan festivals, reveals the exceptional socio-professional status of the author of "Don Quixote" in the Renaissance.
Why is the outermost part of the Sun's atmosphere, the corona, so much hotter than its surface? Ten years after formulating a hypothesis based on a numerical model, CNRS researchers have now used direct observations of the star's surface to confirm their theory.
The concept of an “energy transition” is misleading, states the CNRS science historian Jean-Baptiste Fressoz. He explains why coal and oil never replaced wood, and that the fight against climate change must be based on available, affordable technologies.
Oil isn't the only treasure hidden in the Arabian desert. French-Saudi archaeological teams are gradually unearthing a hitherto unsuspected heritage, including urban development, languages, hunting techniques, agriculture and architecture. CNRS News takes a look at this wealth of discoveries.
Due to global warming and ever greater human activity, phytoplankton blooms are becoming increasingly frequent in lakes and oceans. Their impact on health, the economy and the environment is already being felt right across the entire living world.
Forty-four years after the earliest cases of AIDS were identified, the historian Marion Aballéa retraces the social, economic, cultural, scientific and public health history of the first pandemic linked to globalisation.
With large-scale observation campaigns, innovative data analysis methods and theoretical advances on all fronts, astrophysics and cosmology are entering a high-precision era with the potential to unravel many of the unsolved mysteries of the Universe. Including that of its origins.
By combining theoretical abstraction with practical impact, Stéphane Mallat has left a lasting mark on mathematics and computer science. From the JPEG 2000 image compression standard to the mathematical foundations of artificial intelligence, he has shaped tools that have become essential. He is the 2025 recipient of the CNRS Gold Medal.
Few weapons are available to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which continue to cause millions of deaths. However, scientists are currently resuscitating a century-old solution, bacteriophages, which are viruses that only attack bacteria.
The disappearance of non-avian dinosaurs didn’t mark the end of giant organisms in the living world. From enormous mammals to oversized insects and plants, CNRS News takes a closer look at some of the mammoth creatures that have inhabited our planet, and whose huge size often masked numerous weaknesses.
