Science & technology news in France

CryoSat-2 The Ice Observer Soon In Orbit (Special Report)

On February 25 this year, the CryoSat-2 satellite engineered by EADS ASTRIUM will be launched by a Russian-Ukranian Dnepr rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. CrysoSat will be the third of EAS's Earth Explorer satellites in orbit follow (...)

Promoting the Sensory Property of Children's Food (Special Report)

At the eighteenth Meeting of Nutrition Scientists held by the Danone Institute last November, INRA Research Fellow Sandrine Monnery-Patrisat at the Dijon Center of Taste Science and Food (Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, CSGA) presen (...)

ICT et Health - Three Competitive Clusters Pool Skills and Expertise (Cluster Update)

MEDICEN, SYSTEM@TIC and CAP DIGITAL, three Ile-de-France competitive clusters, realized that the design, deployment and application to patients involved increasing "cross-discipline" expertise and skills. So, they decided to pool their skills and exp (...)

Tomorrow's Information Society - EIT Selects the ICT Labs Project (Innovation News)

In early 2009, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT, created by the European Commission) issued a call for proposals for the formation of the Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) on the issues of 'Climate Change', 'Sustainable (...)

IT - LIRIMA, the First Building Block of a Europe-Africa Alliance (Innovation News)

Last November INRIA and six African Universities signed a convention for the creation of the LIRIMA International Laboratory (Laboratoire International de Recherche en Informatique et Mathématiques Appliquées, international research laboratory of com (...)

Isobutane Bioproduction - Global Bioénergies Steps Up Process Development (Innovation News)

Founded in 2008 by Marc Delcourt and Philippe Marlière, Global Bioénergies (staff of about 15) is the only company in Europe and one of world's few to develop processes for producing hydrocarbons biologically. Under an exclusive license, the company (...)

The Chemical Energy of Photosynthesis Producing Electricity (Live from the Labs)

Scientists at the CNRS Paul Pascal Research Center (Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal, CRPP) in Bordeaux have transformed solar energy into electric energy in an environmentally-friendly and renewable manner. The new strategy has led to the development (...)

Thyroid Hormone Action on the Energy Balance in the Brain (Live from the Labs)

Expressed in the brain, the gene Mc4r integrating information on the amount of fat stored in peripheral tissues is a key relay in the production of leptin that regulates the appetite by controlling the feeling of satiety, hence its name 'the satiety (...)

Laval Virtual 2010 - Not-to-be-missed Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Show (Event)

Next April 7 to 11 in Laval (Mayenne département), Laval Virtual will be holding the Twelfth International Meeting on Virtual Reality. The three-day event dedicated to virtual reality, real-time 3D and new interaction technologies will be open to pro (...)

Les Rendez-Vous Carnot 2010 - Where Researchers and Economic Stakeholders Interact (Event)

Next May 5 et 6 in Lyons, the Rendez-Vous Carnot 2010 will be organized by the Association of the Carnot Institutes working the Rhone-Alps Region and the Greater Lyons Area. Created three years ago and based on the principle of B-to-B meetings, Rendez (...)

TER@TEC 2010 - The High Performance Computing Event (Event)

Next June15 et 16, the Fifth TER@TEC Forum will be held at Ecole Polytechnique. The is the not-to-be-missed event in Higher Performance Computing (HPC). Once again the event will be bringing together top international experts in digital design and sim (...)

A Cube for the Intuitive Manipulation of 3D Contents (Special Feature)

On December 3, 2009, Immersion, a small Bordeaux-based business and leader in solutions for virtual reality and visualization, unveiled Cubtile, the world's first 3D multi-touch computer device. Thanks to touch technology, contents can be intuitively (...)

GNS 2010: A Major Event in Taste, Nutrition et Health (Special Feature)

After the success of the 2009 Congress on 'From Birth to Old Age', which drew a high percentage of foreign participants, the 2010 Taste-Nutrition-Health Congress (GNS 2010), which will be held on March 23 and 24, 2010, in Dijon, already promises to b (...)

3D Live - Eight Partners Developing Tomorrow's 3D Television (Cluster Update)

Launched in March 2009, 3D Live is a collaborative project that has been accredited by the three French 'Image' competitive clusters, Images et Réseaux (images and networks) in Brittany and Pays de Loire, Imaginove in Rhone-Alps, and Cap Digital in I (...)

Smart Capsules Release an Active Principle (Innovation News)

So-called 'smart' capsules recently designed by researchers at the Integrative Chemistry, Multiscale Materials and Emulsions (CIMMEs), Paul Pascal Research Center (CRPP) in Bordeaux can release their contents on demand, merely by raising the temperat (...)

SensLab - A Platform for Testing Sensor Networks (Innovation News)

Environment monitoring, home automation, or tracking wild animals, the applications for communicating sensors abound, and are fast moving into our daily lives. Tomorrow, they will be replacing cables in cars. This explains why the French National Res (...)

The Rabies Virus: Controlling the Life and Death of the Neurons it Infects (Live from the Lab)

Researchers at the Pasteur Institute and at CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) Viral Neuro-Immunology Unit headed by Monique Lafon, and the Biomolecule Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Unit headed by Muriel Delepierre, have just identifi (...)

An Organic Transistor Mimicking the Main Functions of a Synapse (Live from the Lab)

A group of researchers at the Institute of Electronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnology (Institut d'Electronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie, CNRS / Lille1 University / Valenciennes University / Isen Recherche) and at CEA LIST hav (...)

A Pilot for Manufacturing Second Generation Biofuel (Spotlight on the Regions)

The Biomass to Liquid (BtL) pilot facility, the first of its kind in France, will be built in Bure-Saudron, located on the border between the Haute-Marne and Meuse départements. The facility will be testing the complete biofuel production chain, from (...)

Neurinfo - A New Generation MRI Platform for Neurological Diseases (Spotlight on the Regions)

The Brittany Region, Ile-et-Vilaine département, Rennes, Europe (FEDER), the French National Research Agency (ANR) and the French Ministry for Research and Higher Education co-financed Neurinfo, the new generation MRI platform, which was set up on th (...)

A Doctoral Candidate Awarded for Research on Nanotubes in Textiles (Special Feature)

Third-year doctoral candidate at GEMTEX, the laboratory of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Industries Textiles (ENSAIT, graduate school of textile craft and industry), Aurélie Cayla is conducting research for the European INTELTEX (INTELli (...)

Understanding How Nutrition Can Prevent the Development of 'Ill-Being' (Special Feature)

During the next Taste-Nutrition-Health Congress (GNS 2010, Goût, Nutrition, Santé) of the Vitagora competitive cluster on March 23 et 24, 2010, in Dijon, INRA Research Director Sophie Layé will be speaking on the topic of 'well-being'. We are all awar (...)

Systems Sciences and Energy Challenges Chair Created (Education Outlook)

The Ecole Centrale Paris and Supélec have decided to create the Systems Sciences and Energy Challenges teaching and research Chair in partnership with the European Foundation for Tomorrow's Energies launched by EDF (electric utilities) in 2008. Plann (...)

Sustainable Energy - AREVA T et D and Ecole Centrale de Lyon Partnership for Research and Education (Education Outlook)

AREVA's Transmission and Distribution (T et D) division has signed a partnership with Ecole Centrale de Lyon (ECL, a leading engineering school) to create research and training programs on sustainable energy networks. The engineers at the division of th (...)

ENSTA ParisTech Upping its Involvement in Nuclear Energy (Education Outlook)

Last December 7, the AREVA Nuclear Engineering Chair was inaugurated. The event follows up on the announcement of AREVA's sponsorship of the ENSTA ParisTech class of 2011 and of ENSTA Paris Tech's contribution to the International Nuclear Energy mast (...)

CHARM 3 - Acquiring Better Knowledge of the Channel Maritime Area (Innovation News)

From October 1 to 31, 2009, the Channel Ground Fish Survey (CGFS) was conducted aboard the Gwen Drez, an oceanographic vessel out of Boulogne-sur-Mer. The survey is one of the largest sources of data for the CHARM (CHannel integrated Approach for mar (...)

A Spectrometer with Unmatched Performance (Innovation News)

For several years, trace gas spectroscopy has kindled widespread interest. The very highly sensitive absorption spectroscopy can identify compounds in trace amounts. It is used in fundamental research as well as in fields such as metrology, the in si (...)

The Hydrogen Sector: Platinum-free Catalytic Material (Live from the Lab)

Using hydrogen as an energy vector is an attractive solution. However, the hydrogen power sector cannot grow unless two key steps are controlled: one, the mass production of hydrogen by water electrolysis in devices called electrolyzers and two, the (...)

Viral Biofilms - Discovery of a New Propagation Mechanism for Some Viruses (Live from the Lab)

Bacterial biofilms have been known for a while. They form the dental plaque on teeth. They can also be found in industrial facilities and intestinal flora. When they colonize medical implants, such as prostheses or catheters, the biofilms may cause r (...)

Languedoc-Roussillon Incubator Creates More than One Hundred Innovative Businesses (Spotlight on the Regions)

At the end of last November, Languedoc Roussillon Incubation (LRI) awarded its LRI 100 trophies to the first 100 businesses from incubated projects. After nine years in business, the regional incubator has a tally of more than 100 innovative business (...)

Piezo Institute - A European Research Center on Piezoelectricity (Special Feature)

Do you know what piezoelectricity is? Perhaps not, although the word might seem familiar. It means the ability of certain materials to generate an electric charge in response to mechanical stress. They also have the opposite effect, i.e., the applica (...)

SAENA Technologies Engineering Nanoparticle-based Spectral Barcode (Special Feature)

SAENA Technologies exploits a technology stemming from the research conducted by the Spectroscopy and Nanomaterials team at the Lyons Institute of Nanotechnologies (CNRS/Ecole Centrale de Lyon/INSA of Lyons/ Claude Bernard University of Lyons). Offic (...)

Development of a Center of Excellence on Green Processes (Cluster Update)

As this is the goal set by the three Competitive Clusters (PASS, PEIFL and TRIMATEC), they signed a partnership agreement to this effect on November 5, 2009. The Pôle Parfums Arômes Senteurs Saveurs (PASS, perfume, aromas, scents, savors) hub is the (...)

Total and MIT Sign Research Agreement on Batteries for Solar Power Storage (Innovation News)

The four million-dollar, five-year agreement for the development of a new stationary batteries for solar power storage, which was signed by Total and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is in line with the MIT Energy Initiative [1] that (...)

GOLAEM Target - Moving Humans for Simulations (Innovation News)

Moving humans are always absent from digital simulation. So reports Patrice Le Moing, the General Manager of the Golaem startup, a product of the Bunraky team at the Rennes INRIA Center and the first project to receive support from IT-Translation, fo (...)

The Intrinsic Taste of Water and Consumer Preferences (Innovation News)

In December, Eric Teillet will be defending his thesis, thus completing three years of research on the intrinsic taste of water for the Eau Bonne A Boire (good drinking water) project, also called Sens'eau sponsored by Lyonnaise des Eaux and accredit (...)

Bronchiolitis: The 3D Structure of Key Virus Region Revealed (Live from the Lab)

More than 70% of winter bronchiolitis cases in young children is caused by Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). Scientists believe that all children will have been infected by the virus before the age of three. A third will develop lower respiratory tr (...)

FILONAS Optimizes Firefighting Operations with Geopositioning (Spotlight on the Regions)

FILONAS has been part of the firefighters' equipment in Chongqing, China since December 2008. It is now being tested by the Haute-Garonne Fire and Rescue Department Service, SDIS 31. FILONAS is the outcome of an eponymous project stemming from 6 smal (...)

Plant International Meeting - The Davos of Plants (Event)

The Third Plant International Meeting (PMI), now considered as the "Davos of Plants", will be held in Angers from January 12 to 14, 2010. Three hundred and fifty decision-makers and researchers are expected to attend the event that is organized every (...)

Seventh Week of Sound (Event)

From January 12 to 24, 2010, the Seventh Week of Sound will be held in forty cities across France. The not-to-be-missed event on sensitizing the public and societal stakeholders to our sound environment. The Seventh Week, this year sponsored by the ' (...)

BIOMEDevice Europe 2010 - The First European Event on the New Generation of Combined Medical Products (Event)

Next February 1 and 2, BIOMEDevice Europe 2010, the number one European event on the booming market of the new generation of combined products, will be held in Paris. The development of the products is considered as one of the most promising for mark (...)

International Biomarkers Congress on Rare, Polyfactorial and Neglected Diseases (Event)

On December 10, 2009, Génopole and Généthon will be holding the International Biomarkers Congress on Rare, Polyfactorial and Neglected Diseases, in Paris. As biomarkers are the now key tools for the discovery of new drugs and the development of perso (...)

INSA de Lyon - A Leading Engineering School on the Move! (Special Report)

The five INSA universities located in greater metropolitan areas (Lyons, Rennes, Rouen, Toulouse and Strasbourg) make up the top ranking network of public engineering schools in France. INSA of Lyons, the oldest school that was created in 1957, enrol (...)

From Picosatellites to Formation Flights - The Birth of a Startup called Novanano (Special Report)

Novanano founders Spas Balinov and Stanislaw Ostoja presented FlyMate at the last Bourget Aerospace Show in June. Engineered in partnership with CNES, INSA of Lyons and different Lyons-based companies, the device can eject 10x10x10cm picosatellites w (...)

A One-Stop Window for the Agri-Food Sector (Special Report)

It's name is Qualiment (QUALIté nutritionnelle et sensorielle des ALIMENTs, Nutritional and Sensory Quality of Food) and it is tasked to facilitated industry operators' access to laboratories and to optimize the latter's response. A growing number of (...)

Photovoltaics -Total, Ecole Polytechnique and CNRS Create NanoPV (Innovation News)

The joint research team called NanoPV that has just been created by Total, Ecole Polytechnique (top graduate engineering school) and CNRS (LPICM, Laboratoire de Physique des Interfaces et des Couches Minces, Laboratory of Interfaces and Thin Film Phy (...)

Thermal Cameras with Enhanced Capabilities in the Making (Innovation News)

Sofradir, a leader in advanced infrared (IR) detectors for defense, space and civil applications and FLIR Systems Inc., the global leader in thermal imaging, IR cameras and night vision systems, are working together on third-generation dual-band dete (...)

Cost Assessment Software for Biodegradable Waste Recovery (Innovation News)

Biodegradable waste recovery is making huge strides thanks to support from the public authorities. But for the local authorities, what is the best investment among the range of recovery techniques? To help with this decision, CEMAGREF and its partner (...)

New Neural Circuits Identified in the Retina (Live from the Labs)

Several discoveries over the past years have altered the image of the retina as a mere 'filter" through which the visual world is transmitted from the eye to the brain. Actually, the retina performs sophisticated processing of visual information and (...)

Eco-trap Tested for Pine Processionary Caterpillar Control (Live from the Labs)

Pine Processionary Caterpillars are so-called 'defoliator' insects that attack pines and cedars by eating their needles. These garden, green area and forest pests are now moving northward and upwards due to climate warming. Their propagation generate (...)

CSGA - France's Unique Cluster for Taste ad Food (Spotlight on the Regions)

The idea has been around for several years. The scientific community in the Dijon region, specialized in taste and sensory perception, was determined to build a large strong cluster with international visibility, focused on olfaction, taste and food. (...)

Q@LI-MEDiterranée Meetings - Innovating to Lower the Impact of Inputs on Wine-growing, Arboriculture and Market-gardening (Event)

On November 6 2009, the Q@ALI-MEDiterranée competitive cluster is organizing a day on the following topic, Innovating to Lower the Impact of Inputs on Wine-growing, Arboriculture and Market-gardening, in Montpellier. The purpose is to foster discussi (...)

CEMAGREF - Three Challenges for Sustainable Water and Land Management (Special Report)

Have you ever heard of CEMAGREF? Of course, the reputation of the teams working at the Public Scientific and Technological Establishment (EPST) is well-established. Strangely enough, CEMAGREF is one of the least well-known of all the major French pub (...)

Food - World Unique Platform at the Paul Bocuse Institute (Special Report)

Next December will be the first anniversary of the Paul Bocuse Institute's Research Center at the Ecully Castle near Lyons. Agnès Giboreau, an AgroSup Dijon graduate in engineering and specialist in sensory analysis, is the Director of the world uniq (...)

A New Generation of Level Sensors In the Works (Special Report)

SPSI, a pressure sensor design and production specialist set up n Champigny-sur-Marne near Paris, is a small R et D business whose products are used in the automotive, aviation, food processing and defense industries. Up to 100% of French refineries wer (...)

NUTRICE to Improve Rice Cooking (Cluster Update)

"The rice cooker market is very big, especially in Asia. The market is now dominated by the most cost-efficient technology. We have to understand the influence of every cooking parameter (that currently available appliances control) on the organolept (...)

Composite Structures - The EADS Foundation and Ecole Centrale de Nantes Endow International Chair (Education Outlook )

The Pays de Loire Region has enabled France to become the leader in vital research on modeling the manufacturing processes of composite structures, major technological challenges for the aviation and space industries. This explains why the EADS Found (...)

Nanotechnologies - CNRS Creates its First Joint International Research Unit in Asia (Innovation News)

CINTRA stands for CNRS International - NTU - Thales Research Alliance, the name of the CNRS''s first Joint International Research Unit based in Singapore. The three partners (CNRS, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) of Singapore and Thales) that (...)

Biotech - Grenoble Based Startup Cytoo Raises 3.2 Million Euros (Innovation News)

Cytoo, a Grenoble based company with a subsidiary in Boston, was created in 2008. It manufactures and sells innovative products for cell based assays, high content analysis and cell screening. Its products use adhesive micropatterning technology that (...)

Photovoltaics -Total, GDF SUEZ and Photovoltech Join IMEC Program (Innovation News)

IIAP (Industrial Affiliation Program) was launched by IMEC, an world renowned independent research institute specialized in nanoelectronics and nanotechnology. The multi-partner R et D program focuses on sharply reducing silicon in crystalline silicon s (...)

Second Paris Energy and Climate Days (Event)

From October 22 to 25, 2009, the City of Paris will be holding the Second Paris Energy and Climate Days, in Paris. Six weeks away from the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, the event will be an opportunity to mobilize all the (...)

Meet InnoV - A Keynote Event on Innovation and New Technologies (Event)

Meet InnoV, a major business convention dedicated to innovation and new technologies, will be held on November 26 and 27, 2009, at Paris XII-Val de Marne, in Créteil. This will be an opportunity to meet every innovation player, from the major groups (...)

What Role Does Hormonal Regulation Play in Sensory Perception and Eating Behavior? (Special Report)

Marie-Chantal Canivenc-Lavier worked on 'endocrine disrupters and cancer' for a long time within the INRA Nutritional Toxicology team, which was dissolved on January 1, 2007 during the streamlining of the public research organization. The endocrinolo (...)

The Rhone River - A Unique Ecological Observatory (Special Report)

The Rhone River was long considered untamable due to its power, complex hydrological regime and flash floods. However, it has quieted down since the 19th century, thanks to numerous development projects. Levees and channels for flood protection, dams (...)

LESSAC - An Appealing Experimental Economic Tool for Industry Operators (Cluster Update)

Among France's six experimental laboratories, LESSAC (Laboratoire d'Expérimentation en Sciences Sociales et Analyses des Comportements, Experimental Laboratory in Social Sciences and Behavior Analysis) is one of the world's largest. Headed by Profess (...)

ParisTech Entrepreneurs Providing Development Leverage for the Capital (Innovation News)

The new incubator called ParisTech Entrepreneurs that has just been inaugurated has set a goal of increasing business creation in Paris over the next years. By 2014, eighty creators of 'young shoots' will be enjoying premises and services and drawing (...)

First Database on Food Polyphenols Now Online (Innovation News)

Polyphenols are the natural antioxidants the most widely found in human food, mainly fruit and vegetables. Polyphenols help prevent cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis, and cancers. According to certain estimates, we (...)

The Efficiency of a Mini-robot for Laparoscopic Surgery (Innovation News)

Laparoscopic surgery is a technique using a miniature camera to perform a small incision. With the marketing of ViKY, which has received EC marking for the Europe zone and FDA approval, laparoscopic surgery has gone on to the next stage. Today the su (...)

Nanodrops for Bioactive Molecule Synthesis and Screening (Live from the Lab)

Thanks to the automation and miniaturization of bioactive molecule production, large-scale research on this type of compound has boomed over the past decade. Today the pharmaceutical industry's high-speed screening on 96, 384, or 1536-well micro-pane (...)

Increasingly Smaller Microcameras (Live from the Lab)

Although microcameras built into today's marketed portable cellular phones have made huge advances, their processing capabilities are still limited. Depending on resolution, they have fixed a focal length lens or an auto focus system with few pixels (...)

CAPARMOR Supercalculator for Oceanography (Spotlight on the Regions)

Until the eighties, oceanography was mainly descriptive to meet societal demand. It has gradually become increasingly predictive. To meet this challenge, it is increasingly using modeling techniques that, when combined with huge computing power, find (...)

Stratospheric Aircrafts: the PEGASE Competitive Cluster Organizing the European STRATOFLIGHT Convention (Event)

Next October 20 et 21, the PEGASE competitive cluster partnered with the HACOS networks is organizing STRATOFLIGHT, the first European Business Convention on Opportunities and Challenges of Stratospheric Aircrafts, on the Avignon Chamber of Commerce a (...)

Populations and their Energy Consumption in 2200! (Event)

On October 6, 2009, the Academy of Science is holding a conference called 'Populations and their Energy Consumption in 2200 - What Outlooks? What Environment? What Medium and Long-term Actions', at the Institut de France. Michel Combarnous, Bordeaux (...)

Development of a New Approach Using Immersion for Sensory Evaluation (Special Report)

From August 7 to 9, the second SPISE 2009 (Summer Program In Sensory Evaluation) symposium, a biennial, international event for sensory evaluation specialists, was held in HoChiMinh City, Vietnam. Several Dijon based researchers from AgroSup Dijon an (...)

European Nuclear Energy Leadership Academy Launched (Education Outlook)

Last July, six companies [1] including the AREVA Group signed an agreement to establish the European Nuclear Energy Leadership Academy. Hailed by the European Commission, the agreement that was hatched at the European Nuclear Energy Forum (ENEF) lays (...)

National Consortium for Agriculture, Food, Animal Health and the Environment Gets Off the Ground (Innovation News)

On June 29, the six founding members [1] signed an agreement establishing the consortium, marking the start of their collective effort. The partnership is a move to address the challenge of designing new models in agriculture, food supply, and the su (...)

AREVA Signs Strategic Biomass Partnership with Astonfield Renewable Resources (Innovation News)

The partnership to develop biomass power plants across India, producing a total output of 100MW, comes as part of AREVA's strategy to strengthen its supply on the renewable energy market, with a focus on India and Southeast Asia. Under the terms of t (...)

CEA and ENEA Cooperate on Nuclear Energy and Renewable Energies (Innovation News)

CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission) and ENEA (Ente por le Nuove technologie, l'Energia et l'Ambiente, Italian Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment) have just signed an agreement to cooperate on nuclear power and renewable energy (...)

IMAkinib, a Program Developing Biomarkers for Oncology (Innovation News)

Cancer is still growing fast in terms of incidence, mortality rates and associated costs. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that cancer-related mortality will climb 51% from 2002 to 2030, with approximately 11.5 million deaths linked to t (...)

A Better Understanding of the Childhood Development of Taste and Smell (Innovation News)

The five-day 8th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, an event sponsored by Vitagora among others, ended on July 30 in Florence, Italy. Alongside the ECRO (European Chemoreception Research Organization) congress and the congress of its US counterpart, (...)

European Congress on Environmental Pathologies (ECEP 2009) (Event)

Next October 9 and 10, the Union Régionale des Médecins Libéraux de Haute-Normandie (URMLHN, Upper Normandy Regional Union of Private Physicians) is holding the First European Congress on Environmental Pathologies, at the Zénith in Rouen. Following t (...)

2009 Water Days in Toulouse (Event)

Next September 11 et 12, the association H20 mon Amour (H20 my love), which brings together water stakeholders from all walks of life, working with Effervesciences, a bimonthly journal created in 1991, is organizing (as it does every year) a cross-dis (...)

Scientific Day at the Grenoble Institute for Metals in Biology (IMBG) (Event)

Next September 24, the Institut des Métaux en Biologie de Grenoble (IMBG, the Grenoble Institute for Metals in Biology) working with CNRS, Institut des Neurosciences de Grenoble (Grenoble Neuroscience Institute), INSERM and Joseph Fourier University (...)

Grenoble Innovation Fair - Fostering Partnerships and Innovation Transfers (Event)

Next October 22 et 23, the first Grenoble Innovation Fair will be held in Grenoble. The international event is co-organized by Gravit, a research enhancement consortium, Grain, a business incubator, and Petale, an enterprise providing support to young (...)

SUNAERO, A Small French Business Exporting its Technology to the USA (Special Report)

A small French business has exported its technology to the United States and received US Air Force Certification! As it is something that seldom ever happens, it deserves an explanation. SUNAERO Vice President Thierry Regond recounts below the amazin (...)

First Solar Blimp Getting Ready to Cross the Channel (Special Report)

A century after Louis Blériot aboard Blériot XI first accomplished the feat, a team of engineering and business students decided to cross the Channel aboard the Néphélios, the first solar-powered airship designed for the Sol'R Project. In late August (...)

EIVP, a School of Urban Engineering, the Ultimate Tool for Sustainable Cities (Special Report)

The Ecole des Ingénieurs de la Ville de Paris (EIVP, the Engineering School of the City of Paris) will be holding its summer school from August 31 to September 4, 2009. The School was established to meet the city's need for engineers in 1959. EIVP, t (...)

Drones Conquering the Skies (Cluster Update)

Drones are an extremely promising field. Helping it grow is a priority of Pégase (Pegasus), the competitive cluster in the PACA (Provence Alpes Côte-d'Azur) Region. The cluster has just published a short well-written pamphlet (Les Cahiers de Pégase c (...)

A Masters in Nanoscale Engineering at Ecole Centrale Lyon (Education Outlook)

Centrale Lyon will be starting a new course called Nanoscale Engineering next October. The two-year course for a Master by research is for undergraduates with a bachelor's in physics, chemistry or biology who are planning a career in research or indu (...)

INRIA Creating a Small Business Club (Innovation News)

The Club is briefed to give impetus to exchanges on Information and Communication Science et Technologies between public research and small businesses. The Club is for any small businesses requiring innovation in this field - either through their supp (...)

Are Flash Memories Soon to be Replaced? (Live from the Lab)

The so-called 'nomad' electronics permeating our daily lives critically depend on components that can preserve data when the device is off. They are what is called 'nonvolatile' memories. Today there are three major memory families, i.e., high energy (...)

Master's in Health Food Marketing (MAS) - Still Studying in School and Already Working in a Company (Live from the Lab)

Health food is more than a passing fad, for several years it has proven to be a strong trend meeting a recognized problem - the way we eat conditions our health. Aware of the stakes involved, the ESC Dijon Bourgogne Group created a Master's degree sp (...)

Conference on Chemistry and Food (Event)

Next October 7, a conference on Chemistry et Food will be held at the Maison de la Chimie in Paris. Food safety has always been an important challenge. How can chemistry contribute to, or affect safety? Healthy tasteful food is not only based on the (...)

Alliance for the Sea Sciences - From a National Network to a Global Network (Event)

Next September 28 and 29, a Conference on the Alliance for the Sciences of the Sea - From a National to a Global Network will be held at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. IFREMER is organizing the Conference as part of its twenty-fifth annivers (...)

Saint-Gobain Banking on Strategic Partnerships with Startups (Special Report)

Nova External Venturing, which was created by the Saint-Gobain Group in 2006, is a unit dedicated to setting up strategic partnerships in energy, the environment, and home lighting between the major industrial group and startups around the world. Thr (...)

PV Alliance or the R et D Solar Power Play (Special Report)

Building a partnership to ensure all the assets for winning the next solar battle is the goal of PV Alliance, a consortium (est. September 2007) bringing together Photowatt, the incumbent mover and doer of solar power in France, LITEN (the CEA's Labo (...)

Farine+ Project - A Glimpse at Tomorrow's Breads (Special Report)

The Farine+ project is especially important because it deals with bread, the staple foodstuff of numerous societies and the outcome of a long agricultural, technological, and gastronomical evolution. The project is also unique worldwide because it ad (...)

AREVA University Campus Inaugurated at Aix-en-Provence (Education Outlook)

AREVA Chairperson of the Board Anne Lauvergeon inaugurated the AREVA University campus in Aix-en-Provence during a ceremony attended by elected officials and customers. This first achievement s a major challenge for the group. The campus, which opene (...)

Hospital-acquired Infections - 9 Million Euros for the NOSOBIO Program (Innovation News)

Out of the 15 million yearly hospitalizations in France, 750,000 cases are complicated by a nosocomial infection, i.e., a hospital-acquired infection, which is the cause of death of 4,200 people. At the same time, hospital-acquired infections entail (...)

Ateams - The First INRIA Team Created Outside French Borders (Innovation News)

Last June 25, the INRIA Ateams team was officially set up. It is attached to the Lille research center of the public research establishment, but is located at the Centrum Wiskunde et Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam. The team is special as it is the fir (...)

High Performance Computing - The Ter@tec Technology Park Operational by mid-2010 (Innovation News)

Last June 30 and July 1, more than 600 high performance computing specialists attended the Ter@tec Forum [1] at Ecole Supélec near Paris. During the event the construction of the Ter@tec Technology Park was announced. Unmatched elsewhere in Europe, t (...)

PIANO Project Announcing First Results on the Role of Carbon Monoxide in Plant Defense Responses (Innovation News)

The MPMI (XIVth Congress of the International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions) will be held from July 19 to 23, 2009, at the Quebec Convention Center. The event will be bringing together some 900 scientists from all over the world, w (...)

AIDS VACCINE 2009 (Event)

From October 19 to 22, 2009, AIDS VACCINE 2009, the latest session of the most important international conference on HIV-Aids, will be held in Paris. Co-organized by Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise and Agence Nationale de Recherches (national research (...)

INRIA and Brazil Cooperating on the COLIBRI Computation Colloquium (Event)

On July 22 and 23, 2009, INRIA, the Brazilian IT Society (SBC), and the UFRGS IT Institution are co-organizing the COLIBRI colloquium during the 2009 Year of France in Brazil, in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The purpose of the colloquium, the flagship (...)

Aérosolutions 2009 - New Opening on the Space and Defense Markets (Event)

On December 1 and 2, 2009, Aérosolutions 2009, the major international business event in the Aerospace and Defense industry, will be held in Bordeaux. The fifth biennial show will feature three types of events: a business convention with prescheduled (...)

Engineering a Single Odor-Sensitive Bionose (Special Report)

The FEMTO-ST Optics Department, a Joint Research Unit partnered with the CNRS and attached to Franche-Comté University (UFC), the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et de Microtechniques (ENSMM, graduate school of mechanical engineering and micr (...)

Bionetwork Banking on Sublingual Galenic Forms (Special Report)

Professor François Allaert is a rare find among academics. About twelve years ago, he created his first business, CEN Biotech, and then created another, CEN Nutriment, which was inaugurated last February. Meanwhile, after having set up the Medical Ma (...)

An Outstanding Example of Remote Epidemiology Cooperation in Senegal (Special Report)

RVF or Rift Valley Fever that mainly affects domestic animals, but that may also contaminate humans, causes major socioeconomic problems in African livestock farming areas. This is why the research conducted by the Dakar Centre de Suivi Ecologique (C (...)

EASI, European Training in Aerospace (Education Outlook)

No European country can remain the single stakeholder in the field of aerospace. Actually, public agencies and companies are increasingly European. Accordingly, ECATA (European Consortium on Advanced Training in Aerospace) academic partners, [1] incl (...)

AREVA in Talks for EPR Reactor Deal in Ohio (Innovation News)

AREVA, Duke Energy, and UniStar Nuclear Energy have just announced they are in talks to build an EPR reactor on the first industrial site dedicated to clean energies in the United States. The selected site covering about 3,700 acres and belonging to (...)

DREAM - A European Project Developing Food Models (Innovation News)

In terms of composition and structure, foods are very complex objects. However, although scientists have a good grasp of food composition, they know much less about its structure that is decisive for understanding the effect of food on the human body (...)

Teaching Surgery Has Entered a New Realm (Innovation News)

Paris based Useful Progress (est. 2003), the technological leader in scanner 3D image processing, has just announced a partnership deal with Paris-based Online Master Class (est. 2006), a innovative publisher of surgery e-learning programs. Their pur (...)

A Breakthrough toward the Industrial Production of Fluorescent Nanodiamonds (Live from the Lab)

The fate and interactions of fluorescent dyes in cultured cells or in the body can be investigated by coupling fluorescent molecules with proteins or nucleic acids (RNA or DNA). Similarly, fluorescence is used in material science to detect electromag (...)

Poultry Feather Keratin, a Source of New Textile Products (Live from the Lab)

Developing new textile products from proteins is the goal of the researchers at the INRA Agropolymer Engineering and Emerging Technologies Joint Research Unit of Montpellier (UMR IATE). Granted, nature is rich in proteins. However, industry can only (...)

CILAS Developing a Demonstrator for Remote Biological Agent Detection System (Special Feature)

In early 2009, the Délégation Générale pour l'Armement (DGA, French weapons procurement agency) charged CILAS, the laser technology and optronics specialist, with conducting a Prior Studies Program to develop a remote biological agent detection syste (...)

EMMA Laboratory's Skills et Expertise - Controlling Transfers in Water Poor Matrices (Special Feature)

At Agrosup Dijon, the research topics at the EMMA (Eau, Molécules actives, Macromolécules, Activité; Water, Active Molecules, Macromolecules, Activity) Laboratory headed by Philippe Cayot may seem diverse at first. But a closer look highlights that t (...)

Scilab Open Source Software Transferred to the Digiteo Foundation (Innovation News)

Scilab, which was designed by researchers from INRIA and Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (graduate school of engineering), is a scientific computing tool tailored to meet the diverse needs of industry. The open-source software is an innovative (...)

113 Businesses and 800 Jobs in 8 Years Thanks to the AGORANOV Incubator (Innovation News)

The AGORANOV incubator was founded by Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC), Dauphine University, the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS, graduate school), and ParisTech in 2000. Chaired by UPMC President Professor Jean-Charles Pomerol, the incubator i (...)

Sniper Detection: The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory Testing CILAS's SLD 500 (Innovation News)

After several test campaigns run in different weather conditions, and over a range of distances, CILAS has just delivered two second generation models of its sniper laser detection system, the SLD 500, to the US Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC). T (...)

Inauguration of a Taxonomy and Zooplankton Ecology Cluster (Innovation News)

Zooplankton comprising a huge diversity of organisms (roughly 36,000 to date) - some microscopic and others visible to the naked eye - plays a key part in the aquatic environment. It is the link in the food chain connecting the plant and animal world (...)

Molecular Mechanism Enabling Bacteria Antibiotic Multiresistance Deciphered (Live from the Lab)

Bacteria multiresistance to antibiotics first appeared in the fifties, following the widespread use of these drugs. It was subsequently discovered that resistance genes were easily captured, disseminated, and exchanged from one bacterium to another b (...)

A Major Project Called COAG for the Cheese-making Industry (Spotlight on the Regions)

Rennet, a coagulant extract from the abomasum, i.e., the fourth compartment of the stomach of young ruminants that are slaughtered before weaning, has two active fractions: chymosin that is dominant, and pepsin whose proportions increase as the calf (...)

Prize Awards Ten Years of Research on Emerging Viral Diseases (Special Report)

Ten years ago, IRD Research Director Eric Leroy created the Emerging Viral Diseases Unit at the Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville (CIRMF, Franceville International Medical Research Center), in Gabon. The Unit is special in t (...)

The Importance of Primate Models for Neurodegenerative Diseases (Special Report)

Argentine born Romina Aron-Badin joined the MIRCen (Molecular Imaging Research Center), France's unrivaled imaging preclinical platform, last December. Some of her "closest daily collaborators" within the Therapeutic Strategies team at the the Neurod (...)

STTL Technology - Increased System and Integrated Circuit Security (Cluster Update)

Now that side channel attacks have become widespread, cryptology, i.e., encrypting a message so that anyone who does not have the decoding key cannot read it, has now become an essential part of the design of digital systems. The attacks affect the h (...)

Improved Assessment of the Status and Demographic Structure of Fishery Resources (Innovation News)

Sclerochronology is a scientific discipline that is used determine the age of fish. The age of a marine vertebrate individual is estimated based on its scales, vertebrae, operculum bones, fin radius, but essentially based on what is called otoliths, (...)

Moving Toward Low Cost Mass Production of Hydrogen (Innovation News)

Containing more energy than natural gas, nonpolluting and nontoxic hydrogen could gradually replace fossil fuels, and meet most of our planet's energy needs. However, although the hydrogen atom bonded to oxygen is extremely abundant in the form of wa (...)

RAPID Backing Dual Innovation of Small Businesses (Innovation News)

Minister for the Economy, Industry and Employment Christine Lagarde and Minister for Defense Hervé Morin have just announced the launch of a support system called RAPID (Support System to Small Businesses for Dual Innovation). The purpose is to back (...)

Polymer Electronics on Flexible and Conformable Substrates - Processes, Functions, and Industrial Outlooks (Event)

On June 16, 2009, the Observatoire des Micro et NanoTechnologies (OMNT, observatory of micro- and nanotechnologies) in partnership with the MINALOGIC and PLASTIPOLIS competitive clusters, is organizing a seminar called, 'Polymer Electronics on Flexib (...)

First Science, Research et Society Forum (Event)

On June 20, 2009, science meets society during an extraordinary thought-provoking day of discussion at the Collège de France in Paris. The First Science, Research et Society Forum will be inaugurated by philosopher Michel Serres and will continue with (...)

Solar Event - The Meeting Place for Solar Power (Event)

From June 26 to 28, 2009, the Second Solar Event, the must-attend show for anyone - professionals and individuals alike - interested in solar power, will be held at the Savoie Technolac site on the banks of the Bourget Lake, in Savoie. This years vis (...)

The Science Days at Nantes University (Event)

On June 8, 2009, Nantes University is organizing its Second Science Days. Nearly 2,000 convention-goers have already registered for the event. Two programs with different goals will be held concurrently. The first features 21 scientific conferences, (...)

ProTip Banking on Artificial Larynx! (Special Report)

Engineering an artificial larynx in porous titanium and beginning the first tests on humans is the bold goal that the small team at ProTip has set. Indeed, the business has just completed its first round of funding for 1 million euros. The first impl (...)

IUVV et REVV Graduate Courses on Wine and the Vine (Special Report)

Although wine always draws on time-honored know-how, it is also increasingly relying on efficient R et D, which obviously requires a sound training tool. The Dijon Jules Guyot Institut Universitaire de la Vigne et du Vin (IUVV, The Wine and the Vine Uni (...)

ULIS Launches Fourth Generation High Definition Infrared Detectors (Innovation News)

The image quality of an infrared (IR) detector depends on spatial resolution, or number of pixels. In other words, the higher the number of pixels, the better the image quality. By doubling the number of pixels of its new XGA format (1024 x 768) 17 m (...)

Airbus/EADS and Russian Industry Sign the Biggest Contract in the History of their Cooperation (Innovation News)

The agreement of unprecedented duration (lasting until 2020) covers the supply of titanium to Airbus and other EADS Divisions, and die forging parts for all existing Airbus aircraft, including new programs, such as the A350XWB. VSMPO/AVISMA, a Russia (...)

New Tools for Ongoing Water Quality Monitoring (Innovation News)

Spot sampling is the routine technique used by aquatic environment monitoring networks (Water Agencies, Departmental Directorates for Sanitary and Social Affairs, and so on). The low -cost easy-to-use technique has a drawback though, it only represen (...)

ADIC, Intuitive Machine's Personal Digital Assistant (Innovation News)

Vincent Zgueb, the laureate of the 2007 National Contest for the Creation of Innovative Technology Businesses, created the startup, Intuitive Machine, an INRIA Lorraine Center spin-off. ADIC, the Personal Digital Assistant engineered by Intuitive Ma (...)

Rabies - A Study of the Virus' Past Giving Birth to Hope for the Future (Live from the Labs)

After Asia, Africa is the second largest rabies afflicted continent. Every year, despite effective vaccines, 24,000 people die of rabies in Africa, every year. The infection is mainly transmitted by dogs. In an attempt to understand the evolving dyna (...)

Photovoltaics - Organic Solar Cells Taking Off (Live from the Labs)

Photovoltaic solar energy works by transforming a fraction of solar radiation into electricity by means of solar cells, which are interconnected to form a photovoltaic solar cell module. Currently marketed solar cells are made of inorganic materials (...)

Glycerol Fighting Cardiovascular Diseases (Live from the Labs)

A patent on the protective effect of glycerol on cardiac functions was filed by researchers at the 'Membrane Lipids and Functional Regulation of the Heart and Blood Vessels' joint research unit. Preliminary research has confirmed the hypothesis that (...)

Genome Sequence of Two Strains of Marine Micro algae Micromonas (Live from the Labs)

The genome sequencing of two strains of the marine algal genus Mircromonas was undertaken by an international consortium (the United States, Belgium and France), including several French laboratories, such as the 'Models in Cell and Evolutionary Biol (...)

Is there a Promising Future for Agro Materials and Biofuels? How Can They Be Used, But Not Abused? (Event)

Next June 4 for the World Environment Day on 'Your Planet Needs You - Unite to Combat Climate Change', the Toulouse National Polytechnic Institute (INP) will be organizing is major debate on, 'Is there a promising future for agro materials and biofue (...)

ISEN's Unique Underwater Acoustics Expertise (Special Feature)

It is a rare occurrence when a French laboratory, i.e., the Acoustics Department headed by Professor Jean-Claude Debus at the Institut Supérieur de l'Electronique et du Numérique (ISEN, Higher Institute of Electronics and Digital Technology), a Frenc (...)

'Taste' Education Vital for Children (Special Feature)

That is the main conclusion of the research conducted for the EduSens project. The conclusions were presented at the first conference of the National Research Program on Human Food and Nutrition (PNRA, Programme National de Recherche en Alimentation (...)

MyOcean Answering the Question, What Will the Ocean Be Like Tomorrow? (Innovation News)

MyOcean was launched by the French Mercator Ocean center and the Midi-Pyrénées Region, as part of the European GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) initiative. It materializes Europe's efforts to provide new services dedicated to the (...)

Alcatel-Lucent and Institut TELECOM Inaugurate Joint Laboratory on Media Ubiquity (Innovation News)

Working on future applications in digital media is the aim of the joint research laboratory inaugurated in late January by Alcatel-Lucent and Institut TELECOM. The future will bring the 'ubimedia', that is to say a digital environment where the indiv (...)

Outstanding Second Anniversary Report for the Nanosciences Foundations (Innovation News)

The Nanosciences Foundation, a foundation for scientific cooperation set up by a February 2007 ministerial decree to support the 'Nanosciences on the Frontier of Nanoelectronics' Réseau Thématique de Recherche Avancée (RTRA, advanced research themati (...)

TOXALIM, a New Research Hub on Food Toxicology (Innovation News)

The research hub on food toxicology (TOXALIM) has just been inaugurated at the St Martin du Touch INRA site in Toulouse. The European-scale hub brings together all the resources and facilities of four INRA research units, including 3 in partnership w (...)

CNRS and Bayer CropScience Strengthen Collaboration (Innovation News)

CNRS and Bayer CropScience (BCS), a leader in innovation for crop protection and plant biotechnologies, have renewed a framework agreement signed in 2005. "The renewal of the framework agreement will clear the way for the intensification of scientifi (...)

Probing Molecular Nanomachines on the Atomic Scale Just Takes 1 Second! (Live from the Labs)

The functional and structural study of biological nanomachines is a very hard task because of the size of the objects, their flexibility, and the complexity of the protein substrates (proteins, peptides, DNA, RNA, and so on). An added difficulty is t (...)

Yeast as a Cell Model for a Neurodegenerative Disease (Live from the Labs)

A rare and severe neurodegenerative disease - spinocerebellar ataxia known as SCAN1 - is characterized by a loss of balance and coordination in adolescents, resulting in death around the age of 25. It is caused by the gradual death of cells that do n (...)

A Store Window Can Turn into an Interactive Screen (Spotlight on the Regions)

This what Hilabs, a new Grenoble based startup created in 2008, is offering businesses. Passerbys can look at a catalogue on a touch screen that lights up at their approach. "The really new and original feature is that it takes into account what happ (...)

SPARS'09 - Structure and Sparsity for the Adaptive Signal Representation (Event)

From April 6 to 9, 2009, the second international conference, SPARS'09 will be held at the Palais des Congrès in Saint-Malo. The event brings together researchers from three scientific communities - signals and images, applied mathematics and statist (...)

The 2009 Rendez-Vous Carnot (Event)

Next May 13 and 14, the 2009 Rendez-Vous Carnot will be held at the Palais des Congrès in Versailles near Paris. The Association of Carnot Institutes [1] are the organizers of the event that is backed by the Yvelines General Council, ASCR, ANRT, ANR, (...)

Mapping the Earth's Gravity Field - GOCE Takes Off (Special Report)

On Tuesday March 17, the European Space Agency's (ESA) GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite was lofted into a near-Sun-synchronous low earth orbit (280km altitude, 96.7° inclination to the equator) by a Russian R (...)

Laval Virtual 2009 - Eagerly Awaited by Virtual Reality Stakeholders (Special Report)

From April 22 to 26, 2009, the now famous 'Laval Virtual', the must-attend event for virtual reality stakeholders, will be held in Laval (Mayenne département). It will be the eleventh International Conference that brings together industry operators, (...)

Perfume et Cosmetics - Two Clusters Sign Partnership Agreement (Cluster Update)

One party is the Parfums Arômes Senteurs Saveurs (PASS, perfumes aromas scents savors) competitive cluster, the number one French concentration of leading world companies in ingredient production for aromas and perfumes. A total of 550 businesses sca (...)

SEB Putting Taste Back into Steam Cooking (Cluster Update)

With the steady rise of pathologies related to poor nutrition, such as obesity or cardiovascular diseases, improving dietary habits is more than just a necessity, it is an imperative. Obviously, the approach involves a more balanced diet, but also a (...)

91 R et D Projects Selected for the FUI's 7th Call for Projects (Cluster Update)

The projects from 53 competitive clusters selected from among 190 submitted files will be receiving 107 millions euros in State funding. The regional and local authorities have announced their intention to fund most of the projects along with the Sta (...)

Ongoing International Development for ENSTA ParisTech (Education Outlook)

An even dozen for ENSTA, i.e., the number of double degree partnerships that Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées (a graduate school of engineering) has signed with foreign universities, to date. The two latest agreements were signed in (...)

Ex@tec, Joint Laboratory Set up for High Performance Computing (Innovation News)

In early March, the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the nonstock corporation GENCI (Grand Equipement National de Calcul Intensif, large equipment for intensive computing), US INTEL, and the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines an (...)

Realtime Sugarcane Harvest Monitoring (Innovation News)

The CIRAD coordinated SUCRETTE project works on developing methods and products based on remote sensing to meet sugarcane industry needs. As part of a thesis, supervised jointly by CEMAGREF and CIRAD, Mahmoud El Haj devised an automatic analysis meth (...)

Joint French-American Research on Nanoparticle Impact on the Environment (Innovation News)

Nanoparticles of nanometric size ranging from 1 to 100 nanometers are attractive for a range of different uses. Unsurprisingly, they have caught the attention of industry operators. However, the large-scale use of nanoparticles requires better knowle (...)

Thales Angénieux Wins Third Oscar - This Time for High Performance Zoom Lenses (Innovation News)

At the 81st Academy Awards, the famous Hollywood Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded a Scientific et Technical Award to four engineers, Bruno Coumert, Dominique Chervin, Jacques Debize, and Christophe Reboulet from Angénieux, a Thales (...)

First Measurement of Long Molecular Wire Electric Conducting Capacity (Live from the Labs)

Tomorrow's electronic circuits will be made of individual molecules connected to one another through 'molecular electric wires' (consisting of a single long molecule). However, first researchers needs to understand how electric current flows through (...)

Clinical Relevance of MRI Scanning in Children with Autism (Live from the Labs)

Brain abnormalities are linked to certain types of autism, an affliction with multiple causes. This was shown by a group of researchers at the CEA Frédéric Joliot Hospital Department (SHFJ) in Orsay and the Necker Public Children's Hospital of Paris (...)

Flow Cytometry - A Mature Technology Little Exploited by Industry Operators (Special Feature)

Ten years ago, the University of Bourgogne decided to set up a Flow Cytometry (FC) [1] technical platform. Anabelle Sequeira-Le Grand, a doctor in immunology with a background in microbiology, is the head of the platform, which is installed at the In (...)

Red Blood Cells Used as Therapeutic Vectors (Special Feature)

ERYtech Pharma, which was created by Yann Godfrin and Pierre Olivier Goineau in November 2004, is a biotech business pioneering the encapsulation of therapeutic molecules into red blood cells. Recent positive Phase II clinical trial results of GRASPA (...)

CNRS Launches a Far-reaching Operation in Africa (Special Feature)

The agreement that was reached last January 15 in Paris is a first. It was signed by Catherine Bréchignac, CNRS President, Basile Guissou, Delegate General of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique et technologique (CNRST) in Ouagadougou, B (...)

The Vitagora Cluster and Thailand: A Common Interest for Berries (Cluster Update)

After several weeks of the first far-reaching mission of the University of Bourgogne, the Asia mission organized in May 2008 by the Vitagora Cluster established an initial contact to assess respective skills. This prompted the organization of another (...)

Health - Ongoing Reform of Academic Studies (Education Outlook)

The text of the reform of the freshman year of medical studies is being examined by the Senate. Last December 16, the French National Assembly voted a bill replacing the freshman year of medical school called PCEM1, by the freshman year toward a Bach (...)

High Economic and Environmental Performance for Large Scale Farming (Innovation News)

INRA and five agricultural technical institutes of the large-scale farming networks (ARVALIS, CETIOM, ITB, ITL, and UNIP) [1] have to decided to roll out a bold long-term R et D program to develop production systems called 'High economic and Environment (...)

A Collaborative Platform Serving the Visually Impaired (Spotlight on the Regions)

Four leading ophthalmologic specialists [1] created Ophta Biotech that brings together all the keys players in diagnostics, therapy, and ophthalmologic research, and works closely with patients' associations. The goal is to promote the emergence of p (...)

Ter@tec 2009 Days (Event)

On June 30 and July 1, 2009, this year's Ter@tec Days will be held at Ecole Supelec, in Gif-sur-Yvette (Essonne département). The event is the meeting place for international experts in High Performance Digital Simulation. Its very first year (2006), (...)

The Pradel Panel (Event)

The Fifth Pradel Panel will be held at the Olivier de Serres - Le Pradel estate, in Mirabel, on September 17 and 18, 2009. The Pradel Panel was created in 2000 for the quadricentennial anniversary of the first edition of Olivier de Serre's work calle (...)

BioSquare (Event)

From March 9 to 11, the Eighth BioSquare International Business Convention will be held in Lyons. It will bring together the main industry operators in pharmacology and biotechnologies. The event is primarily an opportunity to meet a wide range of f (...)

Arronax - The Promise of New Radionuclides for Medicine and Research (Special Feature)

The Arronax cyclotron, which is set up at Saint-Herblain near Nantes, was inaugurated last November. It will soon be operational and produce radioactive elements, or radionuclides, mainly for the medical industry and research. Testing the one-of-a-ki (...)

Award Goes to Bernard George for Long Career Dedicated to the Vertebral Artery (Special Feature)

Every year the Nobel awarding Karolinska Institute of Stockholm, several days before the Nobel Ceremony, also gives the Olivecrona Prize to a neurosurgeon in recognition of the excellence of his or her contribution to the field. For the second time s (...)

The Tenerrdis Cluster Clears the Way to Private Funding for Small Businesses and Industries (Cluster Update)

Based in the Rhone-Alps Region, the Tenerrdis Competitive Cluster that develops new energy technologies counts 60% of small businesses and industries among its industrial members. Accordingly, Tenerrdis authorities have recently decided to roll out s (...)

The Cancer-Bio-Health Cluster Launches a Private Investors' Club (Cluster Update)

In a situation where the government wants to marshal private capital to fund competitive clusters and innovative businesses, Cancer-Bio-Santé (CBS, Cancer-Bio-Health), the competitive cluster bringing together two regions (Midi-Pyrénées and Limousin) (...)

Strasbourg Equipped with a Top-Performing Transmission Electron Microscope (Innovation News)

The electron microscopy platform of the Alsace Materials and Nanoscience Center headed by IPCMS [1] Director Marc Drillon brings together 14 research laboratories, 3 engineering schools, and 2 innovation and technology transfer centers. It now has th (...)

Easier Identification of Women at High Risk of Breast Cancer (Innovation News)

Five to ten percent of breast cancers occur in a setting of genetic predisposition linked to mutations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, for example. However, screening for mutations in these genes is time-consuming and difficult. However, hereditary bre (...)

Promising Clinical Trial of a Vaccine Against Shigellosis (Innovation News)

Every year, Shigellosis, or bacillary dysentery, caused by several serotypes of the bacterium Shigella, is to blame for hundreds of thousands of deaths - particularly of young children - in developing countries, according to the World Health Organiza (...)

The Mechanism of Influenza Infection Unveiled (Live from the Labs)

When the influenza virus, which kills several hundred thousand people every year around the world, infects a host cell, it produces many copies of itself that go on to attack even more cells. A viral enzyme called polymerase is key to this process. I (...)

Nicotine Alone Does Not Trigger Addiction (Live from the Labs)

This is what a CNRS and Collège de France research team [1] headed by INSERM Research Director Jean Pol Tassin has just proved. Whereas nicotine is usually regarded as the main component to blame for the addictive properties of tobacco, the researche (...)

Cosmetic and Sensory - From Neuroscience to Marketing (Event)

From June 24 to 26, 2009, Cosmetic Valley, the competitive cluster considered as the world's leading resource center for perfumes and cosmetics, is organizing the international Cosmetic and Sensory Congress in Tours. The Congress will be held over fi (...)

The 11th Pacific Science Inter-congress and the Second Symposium on French Research in the Pacific (Event)

From March 2 to 6, 2009, the largest scientific event every organized in French Polynesia will he held in Tahiti. The State and French Polynesia jointly with the Pacific Science Association (PSA) have decided that the Second Symposium on French Resea (...)

Naval Meetings 2009 (Event)

On March 4 and 5, 2009, the Congrès et Expositions de Bordeaux and Business Convention International (BCI) are organizing the first Naval Meetings, in Bordeaux. It is the first time in Europe that the naval and marine industries will have a dedicated (...)

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, a Model Nobel Laureate for Medicine (Special Report)

Last December 10, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi received the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, in Stockholm. She shares the prize with Luc Montagnier for their discovery of the retrovirus to blame for AIDS, and with Harald (...)

2008 CNRS Gold Medal Awarded to an Outstanding Geneticist (Special Report)

CNRS Senior Researcher Jean Weissenbach's scientific career bears witness to the fact that he is an outstanding geneticist although this self-effacing man that Jean Bernard called "the Vasco de Gama of Science" may not think so. The sixty-two year-ol (...)

Grape Juice with Greater Nutritional Value (Cluster Update)

The participants in the Fijus-R@isol project are working on a range of grape juice with higher nutritional value (lower sugar content, rich in polyphenols, and controlled acidity) and on setting up a 'grape juice' network. The project, which was cert (...)

Setup of Two French-Chinese International Associated Chemistry Laboratories (Innovation News)

CNRS, Rennes 1 University and Zhengzhou University (Henan province) have created the International Associated Laboratory (LIA) called 'Functional Organophosphorus Materials (MOF). The LIA brings together the Rennes Chemical Science Laboratory and the (...)

Truffle Farming - Industrialists Funding an Innovative Scientific Program (Innovation News)

Two leading names in French food-processing, Delpeyrat, the creator of a wide range of products such as truffles, foies gras, confits, ready-made dishes and cured meats, and STEF-TFE, Europe's cold supply chain specialist for foodstuffs, from a simpl (...)

A First in France - High Resolution World Map of Sea Surface Temperature (Innovation News)

The Meteo-France (French Weather Bureau) Center for Space Meteorology (Lannion, Brittany) now offers just that. The high-resolution product based on the EUMETSAT METOP-A satellite observations is a first in France. The exceptional width of the instru (...)

Setup of Three French-Japanese Research Facilities (Innovation News)

The research facilities should consolidate scientific collaboration between the countries in computer science, robotics, and fluid mechanics. The first, the Japanese Robotics Laboratory (UMI JRL) brings together the CNRS and the National Institute o (...)

Discovery of a Fundamental Mechanism in Plant Morphogenesis (Live from the Labs)

One of the major themes of developmental biology is understanding how genetic regulation networks relate to the shape of multicellular organisms. Genes indirectly control tissue geometry by affecting the chemical and mechanical properties of individu (...)

New MRI Technique Predicting CVA Development (Live from the Labs)

There are as many people who become disabled following a CVA (cerebrovascular accident or stroke) as patients suffering from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. So NEURiNFARCT, the new technique for the early prediction of the evolution of cerebral (...)

Yearly Seminar of the Observatory for Micro- and NanoTechnologies (OMNT) (Event)

On February 4, 2009, the yearly seminar of the Observatory for Micro- and NanoTechnologies (OMNT) - an event hailed by the micro- and nanotechnology community - will be held during Minatec, in Grenoble. The purpose will be to explain clearly the late (...)

A Look at Tomorrow's European Astronomy (Special Report)

Europe is today's leader in astronomy with the world's most successful optical observatory, the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and cutting edge-facilities ranging from radio astronomy on the ground to probes in space. However, if it is to maintain its p (...)

Antimicrobial Plastics for Food Packaging (Special Report)

Industry operators are mostly using cleaning and disinfecting to get rid of unwanted bacteria. However, the result of the long, unwieldy and costly procedures is not always very satisfactory. Not to mention that REACH and BIOCIDES (new regulations in (...)

Modeling Ice Cream Production to Create New Products (Special Report)

We all know and love ice cream, but do we know how it is made on an industrial scale? Although ice cream is a seemingly simple product, its fabrication involves a variety of complex hydrodynamic and thermal processes, with poorly known interactions a (...)

Coopol - The French-Chinese Cooperation Program of the French Competitive Clusters with the Chinese Technological Parks (Cluster Update)

Promoting innovation and synergy between academia, research centers and industry is a strategy shared by France through its competitive clusters and by China through its high-tech parks. So, an intergovernmental agreement was signed a year ago on Nov (...)

CEA and Partners Take Hydrogen Storage a Step Further (Innovation News)

Last June, European Commission experts and representatives from 40 European partners (industry operators and academics) belonging to the StorHy (French acronym for hydrogen storage system for automotive applications) project reported on 54 months of (...)

A New Generation of Passive Hydrogen Masers for Atomic Clocks (Innovation News)

SpectraTime, a member of the Orolia group, has just confirmed its position as strategic supplier on the onboard atomic clock market and as world leader in clock technologies for satellite navigation. Less than a month after receiving a 2.5 million-eu (...)

Successful Airbus Flight Tests of the Continuous Descent Approach (Innovation News)

CDA (Continuous Descent Approach) is a procedure whereby a plane descends from a fairly high altitude continuously without flying level. It also reduces plane noise, fuel burn and emissions (CO, HC, NOx). AURORA, a project implemented by Airbus, Scan (...)

A New Source of Neurons in the Adult Brain Providing New Outlooks (Live from the Labs)

In 2003, Pierre-Marie Lledo and his team at the Pasteur Institute (Perception and Memory Unit, CNRS URA 2182) radically changed central neurobiology dogma by discovering stem cells in the heart of the adult brain. The researchers demonstrated that ce (...)

Bronchiolitis Vaccine Using Viral Nanoparticles (Live from the Labs)

RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) viruses that are to blame for 70% of human and bovine bronchiolitis are similar albeit distinct. The nucleocapsid protein, i.e., the protective shell of all the virus genes, or the nucleoprotein (N), is 94% homologou (...)

Microscopy Techniques Optimized Thanks to a New Fluorescent Protein (Live from the Labs)

Booming nanoscopy is a field in microscopy that allows samples to be imaged at spatial resolution to the order of a few dozen nanometers, considerably higher than the resolution provided by traditional optical microscopy. One nanoscopic technique use (...)

Design Research Workshop (Event)

On December 4 et 5, 2008, the fifth Design Research Workshops will be held at the Ecole Polytech, Tours University. "We have decided to pursue the pathways that were explored during the earlier workshops in Nîmes, Nancy, Bordeaux and Nantes, " explain (...)

INRA's Third Crossroads for Agricultural Innovation (Event)

The Carrefours de l'Innovation Agronomique (CIAg) (crossroads for agricultural innovation) are multiyear events serving to foster the transfer of research findings produced by INRA teams, by disseminating them to agricultural professionals. The Cross (...)

Sixth BioVision Show (Event)

Some 3,000 people from around the world are expected at the World Life Science Forum that will be held from 8 to 11 March 2009, in Lyons. Organized by the Scientific Foundation of Lyons and the Southeast, the sixth BioVision Show will be broken down (...)

A Week Dedicated to Sound and the Challenges of Ecological Sound (Special Report)

In 2004, Christian Hugonnet rose to this challenge by creating the "Week of Sound". This is because the sound engineer, with a background in acoustics, considered that sound - notwithstanding the fact that it crosscuts several fields - had too long b (...)

Iceberg Detection via Satellites - An Experimental Tool by CLS (Special Report)

Until now, Toulouse-based CLS that has been working successfully on environmental surveillance, the sustainable management of marine resources, and maritime safety for more than twenty years outfitted all the boats participating in the major world ra (...)

Fighter Planes - Optimizing Data Display in Pilot's Helmet (Cluster Update)

Fighter plane or helicopter pilots wear helmets with different built-in functions, including a display screen. This enables them to increase their reactivity and operational efficiency. So-called 'compliant' data, i.e., the data superposed on landsca (...)

Does Sustainable Development Clear the Skies for Airships? (Cluster Update)

Since its inception, Pégase, a competitive cluster working to develop the economic activity of the aeronautic and space industry in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region (PACA), has been looking closely at the 'airship' sector. A workshop was needed (...)

'Eco-Innovations' Now Have an International University Chair (Education Outlook)

It was officially created last December 3, at the Chateau de Versailles, with President of the Versailles Estate and sponsor of the initiative Jean-Jacques Aillagon attending. The new university chair called Generating Eco-Innovation is the outcome o (...)

Group 4 Banking on Training Engineer-Managers (Education Outlook)

Leopold Cohen and Laurent Michel are both forty year-old engineers from the business world. In 2004, they decided to bank on training engineer-managers by setting up Groupe 4 in partnership with a business network. Today the group has 5 Education Cen (...)

The EMERTEC 4 Fund Banking on Sustainable Development and Mobility (Innovation News)

A year ago in January 2008, Emertec Gestion launched Emertec 4. Since its 1999 creation by CDC Entreprises and CEA, the company, which manages different seed funds in new high-tech businesses, has created four funds, i.e., Emertec, Emertec 2, Emertec (...)

Terahertz Cascade Laser - A Solution to Remedy their Lack of Directivity (Live from the Labs)

So-called 'terahertz' waves, which lie in the far infrared red range between mid-infrared and microwaves, have the property of penetrating skin, clothing, paper, wood, cardboard or even plastic. These advantages offer numerous applications in medical (...)

Underused Natural Dyes with Huge Potential (Spotlight on the Regions)

Patrick Brenac was at the Second International Symposium and Exhibition of Natural Dyes (ISEND2008) in Daegu, South Korea, last September. He heads a small Rochefort based business with the evocative name Couleurs de Plantes (or plant colors). At the (...)

Satellites (Recommended Reading)

What would we do today without the extraordinary platforms called "satellites", a word brought to us by the great astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1610, to qualify the celestial bodies gravitating in orbit around a planet? Once in orbit, so-called 'arti (...)

Trailblazing Women Holding the Key to Engineering Future (Special Feature)

The ICWES, the Fourteenth International Conference of Women Engineers et Scientists was held in Lille, from July 15 to 18, 2008. After the 2005 ICWES in Seoul and pending the 2011 ICWES in Adelaide, Lille is the first French city to host the event sin (...)

METSA - Increasing Electronic Microscopy Availability (Special Feature)

Next November 20, the UltraSTEM scanning transmission electron microscope, a unique instrument in France, will be inaugurated at the Laboratory of Solid State Physics (LPS), Paris-Sud Orsay University. During the event, the national platform called M (...)

Active Packaging for the Food-processing Industry (Cluster Update)

This is the goal of EMAC, a project that has been co-certified by three competitive clusters (Vitagora, Plastipolis and Industries et Agro-Ressources) and retained by the Sixth Call for projects of the Fonds Unique Interministériel (FUI, government a (...)

A Unique Master's Degree in Equine Science and Management (Education Outlook)

Propelling equine research in Basse-Normandie to world class status is the goal of the "Equine Network" competitive cluster. It has set the same objective for education, an area where only technical training courses have been available, until now. Th (...)

Total Inaugurates Pilot Plant Producing Methanol Based Plastics (Innovation News)

Today's oil and natural gas derivatives, naphtha or ethane, are used to produce olefins, which are subsequently converted into polyolefin, the raw material for plastics. To diversify the source of plastic feedstock, Total has just cleared the way for (...)

Curie Institute Opens the Center of Developmental Biology and Cancer (Innovation News)

Inaugurated last October 13, the international research center marks a new stage of the Curie Institute's scientific and medical policy, underscored by a 16% growth in research activity. A staff of one hundred with recruitment ongoing has been broken (...)

More than 40% of New CNRS Patents Already Commercialized (Innovation News)

This is a very positive result for the optimization of French public research From July 1, 2007 to 30 June 2008 , the CNRS published 284 patents, as owner or co-owner, of which 116, or 41%, have already been commercialized. They should be added to th (...)

A Unique Animal House for Studying Prion Diseases et Emerging Diseases (Spotlight on the Regions)

In France, INPREST (French acronym for enclosed national facility for communicable spongiform encephalopathy research) is a unique enclosed animal house for the study of prion diseases and emerging diseases, which was inaugurated last July. The 4,120 (...)

Sixth Week of Sound (Event)

The Sixth Week of Sound will be held in Paris from January 13 to 17, 2009, and tour the regions from January 21 to 25, 2009. The next Show will feature even more events and meetings and visit numerous towns since 24 cities are on the agenda. The Week (...)

Ninth Science et Timber Industry Conference (Event)

Next November 20 and 21, the Ninth Science and Timber Industry Conference will be held in Bordeaux. Organized by the Association for Research on Forestry Production and Wood in the Aquitaine Region (ARBORA), the purpose of the Conference is to report (...)

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