Over the past few months, our planet has been ìmpacted by intense solar flare activity on the Sun. This phenomenon, which caused the polar auroras that recently lit up European skies, could also disrupt a number of industries. To better predict such solar storms, scientists are hard at work developing the emerging discipline of space weather.
The actress Hedy Lamarr died 25 years ago. A brilliant inventor, she devised a system for encoding data transmissions that became widely used in telecommunications. But for decades, history has remembered her only as a Hollywood movie star. As the world celebrates International Women’s Day this month, two women scientists provide an insight into her inventions and their impact in later years.
Researchers submitted various scenarios to three chatbots, including ChatGPT, to see whether they took human values into account in their answers to questions.
White dwarfs are the extremely dense, compact remnants of stars that have ended their lives, and are at the origin of tremendous explosions known as novae. This phenomenon (not to be confused with supernovae, which destroy the star) is thought to be the source of the excess lithium in the Universe.
Based in Namibia, the H.E.S.S. telescope array monitors the showers of particles produced when the highest-energy cosmic rays ever observed in the Universe impact the Earth's atmosphere.
Researchers have developed the world’s first index evaluating prison conditions, attesting to the enforcement – or more often the violation – of the fundamental rights of inmates. The results for twelve countries or nations, including France, are available online.
Are the dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park” realistic? How does the film franchise explore the impact and applications of science? These are some of the topics addressed in a book published last autumn, as explained by two of its authors, Jean-Sébastien Steyer and Jean-Philippe Uzan.
Ten years after the terrorist attack against Charlie Hebdo, the legal expert Thomas Hochmann points out the difficulty of regulating freedom of expression without veering into censorship, especially in the media.
Astronomical observatories can yield exceptional discoveries, but they are sometimes built with little regard for the environment and local people, sparking public opposition. The sociologist and historian Pascal Marichalar takes a closer look at these issues, drawing on his research in Hawaii.
As a remake of the 1922 film Nosferatu was recently released, the sociologist Arnaud Esquerre takes a new look at the vampire – a figure that, from its emergence in the 18th century to the present day, has questioned the organisation between the dead and the living.
