Computing Science

n° 20 Quarterly January 2011

international magazine

The FuTuRe oF Computing Science

w Gérard Férey Recipient of the advancing the frontiers CNRS 2010 Gold Medal

N°20 I quarterly I jaNuary 2011 Contents | 3

4 I 5 In the News 30 I 31 Innovation cooperation, Bio-refineries of the Editorial Conclusion of the 2010 Eliminating toxic waste, Home future, Democracy in question, International Year of Biodiversity, pollutant detectors, LLTech’s Book reviews. France a clean-tech leader, innovative imaging technology. CNRS tops ERC grants, Ernst Jung 42 CNRS Facts and Gold Medal, Maurice Allais 32 I 34 In Images Figures POLYTECHNIQUE

(1911-2010), Chikungunya’s viral Unearthing Anatolia’s ancient Latest data on the largest COLE

/ É structure. civilization. fundamental scientific institution in Europe. ERNER 18 I 19 Profile 36 I 41 CNRS Networks

© B. W Gérard Férey, CNRS 2010 Gold Israel country profile, DERCI: a 43 Snapshot BY phIlIppe baptIste, Medal recipient. new office for international Plankton up close. sCIeNtIFIC DIreCtOr OF the CNrs INstItute FOr COMputer sCIeNCes (INs2I) 6 I 17 Live from the Labs Recent advances in computer and Driverless electric cars, Evapotranspiration, information sciences have triggered a revolution whose spectacular develop- The mathematical properties of Actin, Better ments have radically transformed our /CEA antidepressants, Asteroid collision, Surface daily lives. Today, CNRS faces new plasmons, Oceans of magma, Cutting-edge EYMANN challenges in digital technology, cancer treatments, The world’s first insects.

especially in the health and environmen- R A.-C. © tal protection sectors. QUE By founding the Institute for 35 Insights Computer Sciences (INS2I),1 our national research center has strengthened its Geneticist Jean Weissenbach /CNRS PHOTOTH è position in this highly competitive area. discusses recent progress

With the primary goal of pushing the on “artificial life.” ÉBÉDINSKY boundaries of computer science and © C. L information technology, the INS2I is also actively involved in research at the interface of software and hardware, like automatic control, signals, imaging, robotics, and systems-on-chip. This interdisciplinarity, which makes new tools and concepts available in all disciplines, is at the heart of CNRS’s agenda. What's more, CNRS welcomes all current and future debates raised by such novel scientific and social practices. Through the INS2I, CNRS intends to pursue a policy of excellence for the benefit of the scientific community, while encouraging knowledge transfer and CONSORTIA

LFI enhancement through partnerships with ET

industry. It also intends to develop inter- HFI , national collaborations through new ESA ;

international joint laboratories like the QUE Japanese-French Laboratory for Informatics (JFLI), created in 2009 in 2

Tokyo. Similar structures are being /CNRS PHOTOTH è developed with Argentina and Canada,

both in areas related to the foundations FRÉSILLON of computer science. They should be © C. operational by 2011. 20 I 29 Focus 01. Institut des sciences informatiques et de leurs interactions. 02. With the University of Tokyo, Keio University, and The Future of Computing Science the National Institute of Informatics (NII) of Japan. 21 I The Digital Revolution 25 I Navigating the Datasphere 28 I Quantum Computers: the Ultimate Challenge w 4 | In the News cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

2010 InternationalYearofBiodiversity A Positive Outlook

areas should be raised to 10%. All parties agreed to intensify their efforts to back up this biodiversity protection plan through new financial mechanisms. France is highly committed to the fight for biodiversity preservation. As a first step, the French government has promised to double public funds allocated to the development of biodiversity by 2012. This will be followed by a regular increase to reach the global target of €500 million per year by 2014. A second encouraging factor came on December 21 from the United Nations’ 65th General Assembly (UNGA). Following up on Nagoya’s conference agreement, the UNGA 2010

N adopted a resolution for the creation of Pa Ja the Intergovernmental Platform on

COP10 Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services © q the coP 10 was (IPBES). Its mission is to provide held in nagoya ood news finally came on The signatory countries agreed to governments with scientific expertise and (Japan) on october October 29, the last day of the implement a strategy whose main goals knowledge assessment to help them make 18-29, 2010. Ginternational Conference of the will be to increase protection of existing the right decisions in terms of environ- Parties to the Convention on Biological natural environments. For example, land- mental and biodiversity protection. Diversity (COP 10) held in Nagoya based protected areas and national parks Such important measures taken at (Japan). The 193 participating nations should be extended from 12.5% of the the close of the International Year of agreed to a treaty that lays down basic Earth’s surface to 17% by 2020. Similarly, Biodiversity bode well for the 2011 rules on how nations should access ge- the global percentage of protected marine International Year of Forests. netic resources from plants, animals, and fungi, and how benefits linked to their use should be shared. The Nagoya commit- ments should ensure the fair and equitable sharing of biological resources between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Innovation w Almost 80% of all innovation in clean energy technology, including solar photovoltaics, technologies results from patents filed by six wind power, biofuels, or carbon sequestration. countries, including France. This was revealed Japan tops the ranking, followed by the US, by an international study1 based on the Germany, South Korea, France, and the UK. examination of some 400,000 patent 1.ConductedbytheEuropeanPatentOffice(EPO),theUnitedNationsEnvironment Programme(UNEP),andtheInternationalCentreforTradeandSustainable documents in the field of clean energy Development(ICTSD). N°20I quarterly I JaNuary 2011 In the News | 5 RoP

Erc starting grants: © CNRS Photothèque/o cnrs, European Leader once again w The European Research Council’s third Starting Grant competition for young researchers has approved 427 proposals. Among the 72 projects based in France, 55 origi- nate from CNRS or associated laboratories, making the French research organization first singlee RC grant recipient once again. Physical sciences and engineering account for 32 grants, followed by humanities and social sciences (10), and life sciences (13). the competition subsidizes innovative projects by researchers who have completed their PhDs within the past 2 to 12 years and who need funding to set up or consolidate a research team. the budget for this year’s Starting Grants exceeds €580 million, which represents a 40% increase over last year’s. A total of 2873 applications from candidates of 39 nationalities were registered, up by 14%. With 72 selected projects out of CNRS Bids 269 applications, France ranks second behind the uK (79 projects) and ahead of Germany (66 projects). Farewell to ernst Jung Gold Medal Maurice Allais w Maurice Allais, laureate of the 1978 CNRS Gold w Michel Lazdunski was awarded the Ernst Jung Medal for Medal and 1988 Nobel Prize in Economics, passed Medicine in Gold 2011 for his lifetime achievement in medical away on October 9, 2010. Born in Paris in 1911, he science. Professor at the Medical School of the university of Nice- graduated from the École Polytechnique in 1933. Sophia Antipolis in southern France, and director of the iPMC1 Deeply concerned by the Great Depression of the institute in Sophia Antipolis, lazdunski is a world-renowned expert 1930s and its disastrous social consequences, he on ion channels. lazdunski and his team have made internationally- studied economics in the hope of finding recognized contributions to both basic and applied research in solutions to the major challenges of his time. His pharmacology (antihypertensives, antidiabetics, and inhalational work, in particular on capital theory, the optimal anesthetics) and pathology (pain perception, cardiac arrhythmia, allocation of resources and the “overlapping and cerebral ischemia). his work was rewarded with a CNRS Silver Medal in 1976, and with generations” model, which he introduced in 1947, the CNRS Gold Medal in 2000. has had a lasting influence in macroeconomics. the ernst Jung Foundation, funded by hamburg merchant ernst Jung in 1967, launched Self-declared as a “free-market socialist,” Allais the ernst Jung Prize in Medicine in 1976 and thee rnst Jung Gold Medal for Medicine rewarding often voiced his opinion on French national PMC i

A/ lifetime achievements in 1990. the award ceremony will be held inh amburg on May 6, 2011. politics. He was a senior researcher at CNRS from uil 01. institut de pharmacologie moléculaire et cellulaire (CNRS /u niversité de Nice Sophia Antipolis). 1946 until his retirement in 1980. © F. AG

cnrs makes the headlines i Snapshots of Viral Infection

w The Chikungunya virus is a mosquito-borne while an American team has uncovered the crystal alphavirus which has caused widespread structure of surface glycoproteins at acidic ph of the outbreaks in the last five years.t he virus has glyco- Sindbis virus,2 another alphavirus pathogen that can protein spikes on its surface that are formed and cause fever in humans. both reports made the cover maintained at neutral ph. in the acidic conditions of Nature last December. Comparison of the two encountered in target cells, these spikes dissociate structures should help understand the infection and fuse with host endosomal membranes, thus process and provide potential targets for vaccines. infecting the cell. 01. J. e. voss et al., “Glycoprotein organization of Chikungunya virus An international team including CNRS particles revealed by X-ray crystallography,” Nature, 2010. 468: researchers has revealed the crystal structure of 709-12. 02. l. li et al., “Structural changes of envelope proteins during

1 NAtuRe 2 DeCeMbeR 2010, vol 468, N° 7324 CoPyRiGht 2010 CoPyRiGht 468, N° vol 7324 2010, 2 DeCeMbeR NAtuRe © RePRiNteD by PeRMiSSioN FRoM MACMillAN PubliSheRS ltD: ltD: PubliSheRS MACMillAN FRoM PeRMiSSioN by © RePRiNteD Chikungunya’s envelop glycoproteins at neutral ph, alphavirus fusion,” Nature, 2010. 468: 705-8.514. w 6 Spotlight | Live from the Labs cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

TransportationTheVipa,anautonomousdriverlesselectricvehicledesignedin partnershipwithCNRS,wasoneoftheattractionsatthe2010ParisMotorShow. Driving to theFuture Clermont-Ferrand

01 R ligie S obile ToM au © 01 this driverless vehicle can accommodate four to six passengers. In late 2008, four prototypes were tested at the airbus assembly site in toulouse. For two weeks, they provided transportation for no fewer aT a gLance than 1500 people. name : VIPa, for "Véhicule Individuel Public autonome" by Vahé ter mInassIan (autonomous Public vidual vehicle) is the fruit of a cooperative Individual Vehicle) effort between a laboratory specialized in his is no standard passenger car. electronics and automation (LASMEA),1 TechnicaL capacity: 4 to 6 passengers feaTures: autonomy: 8 hours This machine, the result of a col- the French car manufacturer Ligier, and maximum speed: 20 km/h Tlaboration between researchers and the Apojee engineering firm. This driver- DeveLopers : lasmea (cnrs laboratory) industrials, could one day entirely trans- less electric vehicle—straight out of a ligier (car manufacturer) form urban transportation. The Vipa (an science fiction novel—was unveiled to the apojee (engineering firm) acronym for “Véhicule Individuel Public public at the 2010 Paris Motor Show this Autonome,” or autonomous public indi- past October. n°20 I quarterly I january 2011 Live from the Labs | Spotlight 7 w

02 02 the Vipa navigation system, developed by researchers at the lasmea in clermont- Ferrand, requires only a computer and a front-end camera. 03 the images recorded during the preliminary drive with a human operator (left) enable the Vipa computer to identify reference points (in It can accommodate four to six passengers, seated or hèque yellow) that it then compares with the images ToT captured while driving in automatic mode

standing, and automatically adjusts its speed to the obstacles Pho encountered on the road. Capable of negotiating narrow city (right). /CNRS streets over several kilometers with no outside help (GPS TiN Cha navigation, for example), the Vipa could eventually become to J. © the city what the elevator is to the skyscraper. It could also prove 03 very useful in large public places like airports, train stations, or hospitals, and “could be used to transport goods in large manufacturing sites,” explains Thomas Leblanc, who headed the project at Ligier and is currently seeking to get the Vipa approved for city use. Last but not least, it could be used by persons with reduced mobility. from ficTion To reaLiTy ea

The car industry has for years dedicated research to autonomous SM la vehicle navigation systems. In some airports, driverless electric © buses are already shuttling passengers between terminals, building, a window, etc.) and matching Apojee, the consortium was set up in guided by magnetic studs on the ground. “Yet this technology them from one frame to the next in order 2009 for three years. Half of its funding is expensive to install and permanently fixes the vehicle’s to calculate their positions in space. In the comes from the Clermont urban area, the course,” LASMEA director Michel Dhome points out. In paral- third phase, which takes only a few Auvergne regional council, and the lel, researchers have been working on prototypes that can track minutes, the Vipa’s “brain” compiles a 3D European Regional Development Fund their own location and movement to the nearest centimeter map of the reference points along the (FEDER). The Vipa shown at the 2010 using something called differential GPS, an enhanced version route. These are then compared with the Paris Motor Show is the first of a fleet of of the commonly-used GPS. However, “this technology is not images captured by the camera during a dozen to be manufactured by Ligier in exactly suitable to city streets, where satellite navigation signals the automated drive, enabling the vehicle early 2011. Intended for show, they could are frequently disrupted by interference,” Dhome explains. to track its own 3D position in real time, soon be followed by mass-produced “This limits the system’s use to open according to the “learned” route. vehicles if the commercial launch is a spaces. The Vulcania amusement park (in Using mobile robots, LASMEA success. central France), for example, has several researchers have shown that the Vipa can Meanwhile, the LASMEA will soon machines of this type in regular use.” automatically and reliably reproduce a be equipped with a new, smaller proto- path with a precision of less than a deci- type with the same functions. Called visuaL memory meter. Developed by Ligier, which also Vipalab, it will be used to test new video The Vipa has no such problems, thanks to designed the chassis and body, its electric equipment that LASMEA researchers its “visual memory” that makes it both motor runs on four lead storage batteries plan to develop and integrate in the Vipa. adaptable (it can be deployed on a new site of 8.5 kWh each, offering eight hours of One of these promising features is the in just a few minutes) and reliable (it re- autonomy at speeds deliberately limited ability to drive around an obstacle or stop mains operational inside buildings). The to 20 km/h. Apojee, which created the at a simple hand signal to pick up a development of this innovative naviga- architecture of the electrical and IT passenger. tion device started in 2002 at the system, developed the Vipa’s safety device 01. l aboratoiredessciencesetmatériauxpour l’électroniqueetd’automatique(CNRS/université LASMEA, first in the form of students’ based on “a triple protective barrier using blaise-Pascal). theses and then as a project on land sensors,” explains Jean-Denys Canal, the 02.Programmederechercheetd’innovationdansles transportsterrestres. transport research and innovation firm’s managing director. In addition to (PREDIT)2 in association with the rubber bumpers and ultrasound devices ViaMéca Competitiveness Cluster. The to stop the vehicle in an emergency, a vehicle requires nothing more than a laser rangefinder at the front constantly computer and a video camera equipped scans the road ahead at a 25-meter onLine. with a wide-angle lens. It works in three distance, enabling the Vipa to stop or > www.lasmea.univ-bpclermont.fr phases. First, a human operator drives the adjust its speed to stationary or moving vehicle while the onboard camera records obstacles. the route. In the second phase, the computer analyzes the images, identifying TowarD mass proDucTion visual points of reference (the corner of a A consortium with financial backing of contact InFormatIon: €4 million will now be in charge of pro- lasmea, clermont-Ferrand. michel Dhome ducing this car for a wide market. > [email protected] Composed of the LASMEA, Ligier, and w 8 News | Live from the Labs cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

Environment The Water Cycle Runs Off Course

By FuI lee luk the team’s surprise, EVT then fell markedly stand the retroactions of this type of between 1998 and 2008, by about 8 mm phenomenon on climate,” Viovy adds. If w Life on Earth relies on the water per decade. the wane in EVT is here to stay, already cycle, whereby H2O from evapotrans- EVaPOTRaNsPiRaTiON. Researchers believe this recent drop fragile ecosystems face an ongoing piration (EVT) returns to the planet’s The sum of plant in EVT can be explained by drier soil decline in precipitation, bringing greater transpiration and surface as precipitation. The recycling of evaporation of making less water available for evapora- water stress on vegetation and hence water does not, however, mean that EVT water from soil and tion. While the dip is more drastic in the lower terrestrial productivity, less carbon levels are stable. Scientists from the water bodies such Southern Hemisphere—chiefly drought- absorption, and more temperature LSCE,1 a laboratory specialized in as oceans. prone Africa and Australia—what is “even fluctuations. environmental research, have taken part more surprising,” remarks Nicolas Viovy 01. Laboratoire sciences du climat et de in a global study2 exposing a recent of the LSCE, is that a similar pattern is l’environnement (CNRS / CEA / Université de Ver- sailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines). decline in EVT. observed in Europe and the US, where the 02. M. Jung et al., “Recent decline in the global land evapotranspiration trend due to limited moisture EVT levels were gauged by merging team did not think water availability supply,” Nature, 2010. 467: 951-4. satellite and meteorological observations could become a limiting factor for EVT. 1049090. with in situ data gathered by FLUXNET, a Again, global warming may influence this Guyancourt global network that measures CO2, water shift: since more vapor can be held by a vapor, and energy exchanges between warmer atmosphere, less moisture ecosystems and the atmosphere. The remains in the ground. team expected global warming to cause Further monitoring is needed to verify more H2O to evaporate, bringing up EVT whether this trend is part of a mere varia- contact InFormatIon: levels. Indeed, EVT rose by around 7.1 mm tion or a longer-term tendency. “We will IPsl, guyancourt. Nicolas Viovy per decade between the satellite now aim at improving models to reduce > [email protected] measurements in 1982 and 1997. But to subsisting uncertainty, and also to under-

0201 RAU : F. B HOTOS © p Wrinkles Under stress By elIas aWad nitial State I wFrom the small crevices on our skin to the PERiOd. The period of a 02 large mountain ridges on the Earth’s surface, all wrinkles result from a similar process: the compres- sinusoid is the distance between sion of a rigid membrane. two peaks of the I

ncreasing Compression similarly, when an apple dries up, its skin shrinks curve. to adapt to the smaller volume, hence the wrinkling. Physics labs study this wrinkling process with thin elastic membranes placed on soft, thick substrates, mimicking the skin and flesh.r ecent work on such a 03 model by a Franco-Belgian research team partly unveiled the physical mechanisms that determine 1 ompressed State how this type of material reacts to compression. C “When undergoing compression, a membrane resting on a soft substrate begins to form a regular pattern of sinusoidal wrinkles, with an up-down symmetry,” explains arezki Boudaoud,2 who co- q 01 a thin film (in blue) is bound to a soft headed the study. the team wanted to investigate what happens elastomeric substrate. 02 a moderate horizontal when such material is subjected to high compression levels. “Beyond a compression of the sample yields a sinusoidal certain threshold, the wrinkles suddenly lose their symmetric profile folded surface. 03 Further compression leads to above and below the horizontal axis,” explains Boudaoud. one ripple altered shallow and deep folds. dips deeper, while the next becomes shallower.a s compression further n°20 I quarterly I january 2011 Live from the Labs | News 9 w

Cell Biology New research shows that the spatial organization of actin, key to a cell’s shape, is directed by mathematical rules in addition to biochemical reactions. Natural Mathematics Grenoble

q self-assembled networks of actin filaments. Filaments interact with one another and reproducibly form specific architectures when nucleation is induced on micropatterns with circle or eight-branch star shapes.

Blanchoin explains that actin nucleation—its growth and location within a cell—is controlled by protein signaling. It was commonly believed that its shape and density were similarly controlled. To test such theory, the LPCV team designed a micropatterning method that allowed

/CEA them to grow actin fibers on specific geometric forms—rings and angles—in a EYMANN solution. They then observed the shapes

: A.-C. R the actin filaments took as they grew.

HOTOS All the forms that actin took in © p solution—whether rigid and densely By mark reynolds interwoven or elastic and thinly spread— are very similar to patterns found within n the human body, very little living cells. Because the solution did not happens by accident: from the color contain protein signals that could have iof our eyes to the shape of our directed the shape of the actin, the skull, everything is mediated by protein researchers were able to prove that it is the Wrinkles Under stress By elIas aWad signaling. Hence the assumption that geometry of the actin’s environment actin—a protein that essentially acts as rather than biological signaling, that increases, so does the period of the dipping ripples the skeleton of our cells—takes its various determines its form. until it becomes twice that of the original sinusoid. forms through a similar process. Previous research carried out in the and it keeps doubling as compression intensifies. Not so, says Laurent Blanchoin, who US had already shown it was possible to to explain this behavior, the researchers with his colleagues from LPCV1 showed use actin to construct simple nanoscale derived a universal mathematical model that that actin’s spatial organization within structures like gold wires. Blanchoin describes the formation of folded patterns the cell is governed as much by geometry explains that his results and the induced by mechanical instability. this should as it is by biology.2 This discovery has subsequent mathematical models of actin help to understand the morphogenesis of a important implications for nanotechnol- behavior indicate that it should be number of living tissues like wrinkled skin, ogy. “What it means is that, with the exact possible to precisely build more complex cerebral convolutions, or fingerprints.t he model same biochemistry, with the right nanoscale structures using actin’s should also make it possible to improve the geometry, you can generate the forms predictable growth patterns as a frame. micro-manufacturing of structures with specific that you need [at the nanoscale],” explains 01. Laboratoire de physiologie cellulaire végétale topography, especially in microbiology and (CNRS / CEA / INRA / Université Grenoble-I). Blanchoin. 02. A.-C. Reymann et al., “Nucleation geometry governs optics. Actin is a series of filaments, which ordered actin networks structures,” Nature Materials, 2010. 9: 827-32. 01. F. Brau et al., “Multiple-length-scale elastic instability mimics together take a number of forms within a parametric resonance of nonlinear oscillators,” Nature Physics, 2010. doi:10.1038/nphys1806. cell: parallel bundles, tangled stalks, or 02. Laboratoire de physique statistique (CNRS / Ecole normale su- périeure / Universités paris-VI and -VII) in France and Laboratoire elegant lattices rising from multiple bases Interfaces & fluides complexes (Université de Mons) in Belgium. to a common point—not unlike the Eiffel contact InFormatIon: contact InFormatIon: Tower. The form and density of these lPcV, grenoble. ens, lyon. Manuel Thery arezki Boudaoud various combinations help different cells > [email protected] > [email protected] Lyon Laurent Blanchoin take different shapes—from stars in > [email protected] neurons to rods and cones in the retina. w 10 News | Live from the Labs cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

Biochemistry New Hope in Fighting depression

By elaIne coBBe the enkephalin neurotransmission path- Rougeot stresses that the tests are way. Enkephalins suppress the transmis- at an early stage and clinical trials on w Chronic pain sufferers often sion of pain messages, and opiorphin humans are still a long way off. “The next develop depressive disorders. This is seems to strengthen the action of step is to carry out further toxicity tests why scientists are keeping a close eye enkephalins, thus increasing their pain- on rats.” Researchers place great hopes Paris on new results that suggest a killing effectiveness. A series of tests on in this new molecule that could prove as recently-discovered molecule may be laboratory rats showed that opiorphin effective as morphine and be of value in effective in treating both pain and also influenced emotional states, thus the very specific field of combined anti- depression—with fewer side effects than inducing antidepressant-like effects.3 depression treatment and pain relief. current treatments. Those tests demonstrated that, for 01. Biochimie structurale et cellulaire (CNRS / Institut Catherine Rougeot and her team at the same doses, opiorphin’s analgesic pasteur). 02. Ethologie appliquée - Technopôle de Nancy- the Institut pasteur in paris,1 in coopera- potency is comparable to morphine, but Brabois, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy. 03. H. Javelot et al., “Human Opiorphin is a naturally tion with neuropsychopharmacology without the known side effects such as occurring antidepressant acting selectively on specialists from ETAp,2 first discovered induced tolerance and strong addic- enkephalin-dependent delta-opioid pathways,” Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 2010. 61: the molecule sialorphin in rats. Given its tion, thus making it particularly inter- 355-62. strong analgesic capacity, the team tried esting in long-term pain management. to locate the equivalent molecule in Nor does it produce many of the side contact InFormatIon: humans and identified it as opiorphin. effects often associated with antide- Institut Pasteur, Paris. Rougeot describes human opiorphin pressants, which can include sedation Catherine Rougeot > [email protected] as a “regulator of regulators,” involved in or hyperactivity.

Astronomy

space-time—the sheer size of the trail of debris in all its detail from the A Small Bang asteroid belt means that they are rarely Earth or from the Hubble Space seen until long after they have occurred. Telescope, which orbits the Earth.” So By tom rIdgWay However, the 2009 collision was the researchers turned to the OSIRIS remarkable in that it allowed camera aboard the European Space w in February 2009, a trail of debris researchers to study a recent event, as if Agency’s “comet-chasing” probe, appeared in the asteroid belt between paleontologists had unearthed a “fresh” Rosetta. The resulting high-resolution Mars and Jupiter. It was initially thought dinosaur body. images taken beyond Mars’ orbit were to be a comet and consequently named “To interpret the trail as the result of then combined with later data collected p/2010 A2 (comets’ names begin with p/). a collision, it was essential to under- by Hubble and ground-based telescopes Yet closer study by a European team1 stand its shape and evolution,” says to reconstruct the trail’s evolution. over the following months revealed the philippe Lamy from the LAM in Marseille. The simulation revealed that the colli- trail to be the result of a collision This meant using a variety of observa- sion took place between February 1 and 20, between an asteroid and a small rock a tion tools. “Given the fact that the 2009, and that the pieces of debris mea- few meters in diameter.2 Earth’s orbit and that of the asteroid are sured at least 1 millimeter on average. “It While collisions between asteroids practically in the same plane,” explains Marseille has given us new insight into asteroid /IDA p are relatively frequent—in terms of Lamy, “it wasn’t possible to observe the debris trails,” says Lamy, “and beyond that, a snapshot of what has been going on for M/DAS p q the colliding millions of years in the Solar System.” asteroid P/2010 a2 as seen by rosetta. 01. Including researchers from the Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Marseille (LAM) (CNRS / Uni- versité de provence) and the Laboratoire d’études spatiales et d’instrumentation en astrophysique (Observatoire de paris / CNRS /Universités paris-VI D/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/U

p and paris-VII).

S/U 02. C. Snodgrass et al., “A collision in 2009 as the origin p of the debris trail of asteroid p/2010 A2,”Nature, M 2010. 467: 814-6. EAM

OSIRIS T OSIRIS contact InFormatIon: FOR

S lam, marseille. p Philippe Lamy > [email protected] © ESA / M n°20 I quarterly I january 2011 Live from the Labs | News 11 w

Engineering Scientists are taking a keen interest in the controlled generation of surface plasmons, due to their many potential applications. Towards Controlling s urface Plasmons

By seBastIán escalón

ho will finally succeed in tam- ing surface plasmons, the odd Welectromagnetic waves that propagate along the surface of metals? Produced when a beam of light hits a properly patterned metal surface for instance, plasmons behave both as photons and electrons. They are the subject of

much research, as their properties are ARCELONA likely to produce a variety of applications. But to make this possible, they first need /ICFO-B to be produced and controlled. Two re- UIDANT cent studies involving CNRS teams have , R. Q achieved significant progress in the field. ENGER The reason why so much effort is © J. R q electron microscopy image of plots of titanium dioxide nanoparticles curving the trajectory of surface plasmons on a being devoted to surface plasmons is that gold surface. they present a fundamental advantage over light. Guiding light requires rela- components: a semiconductor laser the source and the observer. And this tively bulky optical waveguides or fibers. whose light travels through a material Orsay obstacle becomes completely invisible to Yet using surface plasmons, the energy that amplifies its intensity; a device called the observer on the receiving end of the contained in a beam of light can be a “coupler” that injects the plasmons into plasmons. This remarkable feat ushers confined on a metal surface, within a the waveguide; and the waveguide itself. plasmons into the field of transformation minute space much smaller than the “Until now, we had to rely on a bulky and optics, a method that makes it possible to wavelength of the light beam itself. As a impractical system to generate surface control the propagation of light. We are result, surface plasmons could be used to plasmons and inject them into the metal bound to hear a lot more about these very transmit information at a far higher waveguide designed to carry them,” unusual waves in the years to come. frequency than that of an electric current. explains Colombelli. 01. CNRS / Université de provence / Université paul- Cézanne / Centrale Marseille. “Plasmons could soon make the Although more fundamental, the 02. In collaboration with the Institut Langevin (CNRS / dream of combining electronics and work carried out by Enoch’s team, to- ESpCI parisTech / UpMC / Université paris Diderot), the Laboratoire de photonique et de nanostruc- optics in the same circuit come true,” says gether with the Institut de Ciències tures (CNRS) and the laboratoire Matériaux et phénomènes quantiques (CNRS / Université paris Stefan Enoch, researcher at the Institut Fotòniques in Barcelona, also holds great Diderot). Fresnel.1 Many other technologies could promise.5 “We have obtained the first 03. Institut d’électronique fondamentale (CNRS / Université paris-Sud-XI). benefit from plasmon research, such as experimental proof that plasmon propa- 04. A. Babuty et al., "Semiconductor Surface plasmon photovoltaic cells, chemical compound gation can be controlled using metama- METaMaTERiaL. Sources," Phys. Rev. Lett., 2010. 104: 226806. A metamaterial is 05. J. Renger et al., "Hidden progress: broadband plas- sensors, or near-field microscopy. terials,” Enoch explains. The metamate- monic invisibility," Optics Express, 2010. 18: 15757-68. an artificial compos- rial developed by the team is made up of ite material that TWO MaJOR disCOVERiEs a gold surface studded with an array of has electromag- A first team,2 led by Raffaele Colombelli titanium dioxide nanoparticles. Plasmons netic properties contact InFormatIon: 3 unknown in natural from the IEF has made great headway by normally travel along a surface in a Institut d’électronique fondamentale, orsay. materials. Raffaele Colombelli creating an ultra-compact plasmon straight line. However, these nanoparti- > [email protected] source of very small size (1 millimeter cles force them to move along a curved Institut Fresnel, marseille. 4 stefan Enoch long by 20 micrometers wide). This ultra- path. This means that the plasmons can > [email protected] compact system is made up of three travel around an obstacle placed between w 12 News | Live from the Labs cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

Geology Geophysicists have recently discovered the presence of two layers of partially molten rocks inside the Earth’s mantle. Unearthing Oceans of Magma

By clémentIne Wallace previously unnoticed layer of magma one or the other components of the around the globe, composed of rocks in mantle, but the mantle is a complex he Earth is made up of several layers, which geophysi- solid or liquid state—depending on their structure,” explains Guillaume Fiquet, cists have been able to delimit using seismic fusion temperature. from the IMPMC. “Peridotite, when T tomography—the geological equivalent of a medical For this study, the researchers subjected to those lower mantle pressures, scanner. This technique consists in recording the velocity of recorded seismic waves traveling is transformed into an assemblage of seismic waves as they spread through the Earth’s structures. vertically under 152 stations around the specific minerals or phases, typical “For example, higher temperatures generally reduce the speed globe. They were able to place this of what we find in the lower mantle.” of seismic waves,” explains geologist Eric intermittent low-velocity layer some As described in their study,5 the team Debayle, researcher at the LST1 in Lyon. 350 km under 89 of the stations. “Since used diamond anvil cells and infrared “And these seismic velocities can also our method is not sensitive enough to laser beams to recreate the pressure and provide information on the composition detect changes in structures that are less temperature conditions found at such and the relative liquid or solid state at than 30 km thick, we believe that our data depths. Using X-ray diffraction at the specific locations.” actually images the thickest parts of a European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Making our way down to the center Paris continuous global layer that shows steep they were able to determine which of the Earth, our first stop is 400 km lateral variations in thickness,” says mineral phases melt first. “We established, below the surface. We are inside the Lyon Debayle, describing a layer that, in some without extrapolation, the fusion curves Earth’s upper mantle, right above what is areas, could be as thick as 100 km. of the deep Earth mantle,” says Fiquet. known as the mantle transition zone. At “Our results show that at such pressures this depth, researchers have at times dEEPER MysTERiEs and temperature, we could have a layer of identified the presence of isolated areas Traveling deeper inside the Earth, an im- partially molten rocks lying at the base of where seismic waves are slowed down. portant boundary lies 2900 km deep, the mantle, and whose vertical extension Now, new findings2 by an interna - where the mantle meets the core. Right could possibly reach 50 km,” he adds. tional collaboration including researchers above this boundary, researchers have “This more or less coincides with the from Utrecht University (Netherlands), suspected the presence of partially molten ULVZ seismic observations.” the LST, and the EOST3 suggest these rocks, forming a sort of magma ocean. This layer, the authors stipulate, could pockets could actually be part of a q two layers of About 15 years ago, seismologists had correspond to the relics of the early magma were newly identified the presence of an abrupt reduc- magmatic ocean that probably existed identified: in the upper mantle, and in tion in seismic wave speeds (10 to 30%) in within the Earth when it was formed, Upper Mantle the lower mantle, several locations inside the lower mantle, about 4.5 billion years ago. just above the liquid just above the core-mantle boundary. They 01. Laboratoire de sciences de la terre (Université de Lyon-I / 0 core boundary. CNRS-INSU / Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon). named these zones the Ultra Low Velocity 02. B. Tauzin et al., “Seismic evidence for a global Zones (ULVZs). Several hypotheses were low-velocity layer within the Earth’s upper mantle,” Lower Mantle -350 km Nature Geoscience, 2010. 3: 718-21. put forward to explain ULVZs. One, in 03. Ecole et observatoire des sciences de la Terre (CNRS / Institut de physique du globe de Strasbourg / particular, suggested that some of the Université de Strasbourg). mantle’s rocks inside that zone are molten, 04. Institut de minéralogie et de physique des milieux condensés (CNRS / UpMC / Université paris Diderot / while others, whose points of fusion are Institut de physique du Globe / IRD). -2900 km higher, remain solid. 05. G. Fiquet et al., “Melting ofp eridotite to 140 Gigapascals,” Science, 2010. 329: 1516-8. Liquid Core To test this hypothesis, a team of 4 mineral physicists from the IMPMC, a contact InFormatIon: mineralogy institute in Paris, carried out lst, lyon. Eric debayle laboratory experiments on a rock called > [email protected] 6371 km peridotite, which is a good proxy for the ImPmc, Paris. Guillaume Fiquet mantle’s mineral composition. “Previous > [email protected] Inner Core studies used rocks that corresponded to n°20 I quarterly I january 2011 Live from the Labs | News 13 w

Tracking the Black Death By clémentIne Wallace

w Researchers have reconstructed the migration routes, each group carries evolutionary history of plague—the common ancestor mutations to which pandemic that eradicated over half of are added new mutations of its own.” europe’s population during the 14th century. Biocomputing algorithms were used “to understand where a disease to calculate the mutation rate and originates from, how it propagates, and at determine how the disease spread over what speed, a good variety of samples are time. the researchers traced the needed. We received over 300 conserved successive epidemics that ravaged isolates of Y. pestis—the bacterium europe and africa over 600 years ago. causing plague—from various countries,” “the disease was probably carried by explains evolutionist thierry Wirth, rats, which are a natural reservoir for 1 at researcher from the oseB laboratory Y. pestis,” notes Wirth. “these rodents LORENCE the French natural History museum. By travelled in merchant caravans along the , F CALA

analyzing and comparing the samples’ silk road and in chinese explorers’ /S genomes, his team located the molecular vessels heading West.” MAGES origins of the disease in china, at least the detailed molecular findings also I 2 2600 years ago. show that during the 19th century, after ERITAGE /H the authors used a technique called spreading from china to India and Hawaii, “denaturing High Performance liquid the plague finally reached thea merican OLLECTION chromatography” to screen dna samples ports of san Francisco and los angeles, C for single-nucleotide polymorphisms— before disseminating inland. ISTORICAL

dna sequence variations that occur when this study will serve as a paradigm to H

a single nucleotide in a gene differs trace the origins and understand the LETON p TA

between strains. “the genetic evolution of other major diseases like S information is quite homogenous despite anthrax and tuberculosis. pHOTO the variety of strains, so visualizing © 01. origine, structure et evolution de la biodiversité q according to a punctual mutations was relatively easy,” (cnrs / mnHn). contact InFormatIon: chinese legend, the says Wirth. “When a population divides 02. g. morelli et al., “Yersinia pestis genome sequencing mnHn, Paris. identifies patterns of global phylogenetic diversity,” Thierry Wirth Paris hero’s magic fan into two groups following different Nature Genetics, 2010. 42:1140-3. > [email protected] reduces plague- disseminating umbrellas to dust.

Chemistry Man-made Metalloenzyme

By mark reynolds The resulting metalloenzyme was crystal- “Natural enzymes are designed to do lized, and its dioxygen activation followed one thing perfectly. With artificial metal- Grenoble w There is no better producer of by X-ray crystallography. By slowing loenzymes, we will be able to create a lot chemical catalysts than nature. down the reaction, Stéphane Ménage, of different reactions, and therefore new Enzymes perfected over millions of years from the LCBM, and his collaborators products,” concludes Ménage. of evolution can perform chemical reac- from the IBS, managed to take images of 01. Laboratoire de chimie et biologie des métaux tions both precisely and very efficiently. the artificial enzyme before, during, and (CNRS / CEA / Université Grenoble-I). 02. Institut de biologie structurale (CNRS / CEA / Univer- Chemists hoping to mimic nature’s skill after it performed its enzymatic reaction. sité Grenoble-I). have largely been confined to trial and “For the first time, we were able to follow 03. C. Cavazza et al., “Crystallographic snapshots of the reaction of an aromatic C-H with O2 catalysed by error, but no longer. Researchers from the the reaction step by step and in real time,” a protein-bound iron complex,” Nature Chemistry, 2010. 2: 1069-76. METaLLOENzyME. LCBM1 and the IBS2 in Grenoble have now comments Ménage. A metalloenzyme created an artificial metalloenzyme and This unique observation of an is an enzymatic protein that, in observed it activate dioxygen using X-ray enzymatic synthetic active site paves the the active state, crystallography.3 way for engineering enzymes that can contains one or The researchers attached an iron efficiently produce custom-made mole- contact InFormatIon: more metal ions complex containing an aromatic cules—a breakthrough that may revolu- which are essential lcBm, grenoble. compound to a protein that normally tionize the way we produce medicines, stéphane Ménage for its biological >[email protected] function. transports nickel in common bacteria. clean fuels, or chemical components. w 14 News | Live from the Labs cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

Biology Whether it be in the area of adjuvant therapies to boost standard anti-cancer treatments or limit recurrence rates, in the development of more personalized medical approaches, or in finding ways to alleviate side effects, oncology research is constantly breaking new ground. By CLéMENTINE WALLACE Improving Cancer

Treatments Paris

Nantes synthetic Vectors Boost immune response

Nice recent study1 suggests a possible new therapeutic approach a could boost current treatments to fight hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a severe form of liver cancer with high recurrence rates. HCC has a very Immune Defenses Re-engineered poor prognosis, with recurrence rates reaching 65% at five years, and strategies esearchers led by sébastien Maury, to treat recurrences are not effective. david Klatzmann, and José Cohen, from 1 Researchers have recently started to pITARD the i3 laboratory, have tested a new explore immunotherapy approaches— © B. therapy that consists in muffling one set of q aFP-loaded nanospheres. R where a patient’s immune responses lymphocytes during the immune response to a against tumors are stimulated by inject- mice a chemical known to trigger the tumor.2 ing tumor-specific antigens. “Until now appearance of HCC tumor nodules When the immune system reacts to a tumor, two clinical trials failed, mostly because the expressing AFP. Before the nodules were types of lymphocytes are mobilized: effector T cells vectors used were viruses,” says CNRS visible, the scientists injected AFP-loaded and regulatory T cells. Effector T cells specifically researcher Bruno Pitard.2 “Virus vectors nanospheres inside the mice’s muscles. recognize “abnormal” components of tumor cells to come with their own sets of antigens that “We boosted the immune system’s destroy them; regulatory T cells, whose main job is also stimulate the immune system, thus sensitivity to AFP so that when the tumor to protect our own tissue from immune attack, diluting the anti-tumor response. nodules expressing the antigen appeared, recognize the “normal” components of the cancer But Pitard’s team discovered “nano- the immune response would rise quickly,” cells and thus protect the tumor. spheres,” a class of synthetic non-viral says Pitard. This treatment led to a 65% “From an immunological standpoint, tumor vectors that are not recognized by the reduction in tumor size as compared to cells are over 99% normal. So the body engages in immune system. “Nanospheres are a very non-treated animals. protecting the tumor during the immune attack. It’s simple molecular taxi, easy to produce 01. J. Cany et al., “AFp-specific immunotherapy impairs a mixed message that’s sent: protect and attack,” says growth of autochthonous hepatocellular carcinoma industrially,” says Pitard. Inside these in mice,” Journal of Hepatology, 2010. 4:115-21. David Klatzmann, director of the I3 laboratory. He nanospheres, the researchers inserted a 02. Institut du Thorax (CNRS / Inserm / Université de notes that when the tumor emerges, protective Nantes). tumor antigen expressed in 70% of HCC regulatory T cells are mobilized much more rapidly tumor cells, called alpha-fetoprotein than destructive effector T cells, thus preventing (AFP). “Because nanospheres do not tumor destruction. trigger an immune response, the immune contact InFormatIon: “Tests have shown that if regulatory T cells are system is entirely dedicated to eliminating Institut du thorax, nantes. absent during this first encounter between the Bruno Pitard the antigen they carry.” > [email protected] immune system and a tumor, the destruction takes The team administered to newborn place efficiently,” notes Klatzmann. “So the ideal n°20 I quarterly I january 2011 Live from the Labs | News 15 w

Personalized Analysis on Chip

simple, fast and highly Viovy’s team compared their system specific approach has been to flow cytometry on various types of developed to detect and samples: blood, pleural effusion, and fine a analyze tumor cells in micro- needle aspirates from healthy donors and biopsies of patients’ lymph nodes. patients with leukemia and lymphoma. A team of researchers led by Jean- “We obtained 100% agreement on the NAS, 2010 p

Louis Viovy, from the MMBM labora- diagnosis, from a number of cells ten to , AL 1 ET

tory at the Institut Curie in Paris have one hundred times smaller,” explains

developed a technique named Ephesia. It Viovy. ALIBA is composed of a “cell screen” consisting This new technique should improve S ROM of a network of pillars made of magnetic the reliability of microbiopsies, and con- . F URIE

microbeads bearing antibodies directed stitute an additional step towards more C against tumor cells’ surface proteins.2 personalized medical treatment, in which NSTITUT

Tumor cells, if present, are thus “caught” each patient is given a drug targeting the © I by the antibodies acting as hooks. This molecular characteristics of his or her q a lymphocyte B cell from a patient with a mantle lymphoma, trapped and imaged in ephesia lab-on-chip. system belongs to a new generation of own tumor. instruments called “lab on a chip,” 01. Macromolécules et microsystèmes en biologie et médecine (CNRS / Institut Curie / UpMC). contact InFormatIon: applying technologies inspired from 02. A.-E. Saliba et al., “Microfluidic Sorting and High mmBm, Paris. Content Multimodal Typing of Cancer Cells in Jean-Louis Viovy electronic “chips” to biochemical Self-Assembled Magnetic Arrays,” PNAS, 2010. 107: > [email protected] analysis. 14524-29.

Explaining Cisplatin’s Immune Defenses Re-engineered Notorious side Effects

approach would be to administer a drug that would hen infused with cisplatin, a with the rapid side effects observed in control regulatory T cells. Unfortunately, this drug platinum-based chemothera- patients,” notes Counillon. doesn’t exist yet.” Wpy drug, 30 to 50% of patients Using patch clamp and transport Researchers therefore imagined a protocol to experience quasi-instantaneous measurements, they further observed that specifically destroy regulatory T cells. They take a neurological side effects such as shaking, the change in architecture is linked to the large blood sample from a patient and treat it to asthenia, hearing defects, etc. “Many of blockage of certain proteins involved in destroy all regulatory T cells. The patient is then them find it unbearable and ask to change pressure sensitivity and neuronal administered a lymphocyte-depleting treatment treatments, even if the medication is excitability. This is a first step towards before the regulatory T cell depleted blood is working,” says lead researcher Laurent understanding cisplatin’s side effects. re-injected. “This way, you create an environment Counillon, from the IPMC.1 01. Institut de pharmacologie moléculaire et cellulaire (CNRS / Université de Nice / Sophia Antipolis). where the individual has very few regulatory T cells, Counillon’s team, who studies the 02. N. Milosavljevic, “Nongenomic Effects of Cisplatin: which should allow the effector T cells to be more biology of cell transporters and channels, Acute Inhibition of Mechanosensitive Transporters and Channels Q2 without Actin Remodeling,”Cancer efficient at attacking the tumor cells.” investigated the effects of cisplatin on cell Research, 2010. 146: 2219-27. The team tested this approach in adults with membranes.2 Using scanning electron leukemia relapse after bone marrow transplantation. microscopy and atomic force microscopy contact InFormatIon: “Four out of four patients who received the full on model cell lines, they observed that IPmc, nice. Laurent Counillon treatment responded, and two are today in long-term cisplatin triggers a rapid change in > [email protected] remission,” Klatzmann concludes. membrane architecture. “This coincides 01. Immunologie immunopathologie immunothérapeutique (CNRS / q UpMC / Inserm) . electron 02. S. Maury et al., “CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cell depletion improves the microscopy showing graft-versus-tumor effect of donor lymphocytes after allogeneic the difference in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation,” Sci Transl Med, 2010. membrane 2: 41ra52. morphology ICE between a control contact InFormatIon: fibroblast (left) and a /CCMA N I3, Paris. fibroblast treated for david Klatzmann

OUNON 10 minutes with

> [email protected] . G p cisplatin (60µg/ml). © w 16 News | Live from the Labs cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

storing the electricity supplied by the transducers during energy-producing flight periods, and delivering it as a constant flow to the sensors—all this at temperatures as low as -50°C. In principle, the micro-supercapacitor is similar to a classical supercapacitor. It consists of electrodes made of a carbon- based porous material and separated by an ionic liquid. When voltage is applied, the charge accumulates on the electrodes, where it is stored. Reversing the voltage releases the charge, delivering electrical current. The porous material makes it possible to increase the supercapacitor’s storage surface and hence its capacity.

sMaLLER aNd FasTER

/LAAS-CNRS To achieve such extreme power density,

UROU the LAAS micro-supercapacitor exhibits several improvements. First, it is built in © H. D a planar way on a silicon substrate, in- Electronics A Franco-American team has developed a stead of the conventional wound or stack technologies. The electrodes’ current col- new type of capacitor that pushes back the boundaries lectors, which are made of gold, are only of miniaturization for energy storage systems. 100 microns apart. “This reduces the Toulouse distance traveled by the ions in the liquid, allowing the supercapacitor to charge and discharge more rapidly,” explains LAAS an Ultra-Powerful researcher Magali Brunet. Furthermore, the electrodes were coated with a new material developed at Drexel University, Micro-Supercapacitor instead of the usual activated carbon. This new material contains nanoparticles made of graphitic layers arranged in an onion-like structure. Such nanoparticles By seBastIán escalón q a micro- September 2010 issue of Nature are easily accessible to the ions, making it supercapacitor on a Nanotechnology, was commissioned by possible to drastically reduce the time support device ightweight and compact portable (optical microscopy). Airbus, a subsidiary of the European required for accumulating energy. The communication devices is what aerospace company EADS. The aircraft result is a micro-supercapacitor that Ltoday’s microelectronics manufacturer wanted to equip its planes charges in less than one millisecond, well researchers are aiming to achieve. A with sensors to monitor their structural below today’s commercial devices, which key challenge in this ongoing revolution integrity. Airbus expected these sensors require about one second. One more year is to improve energy storage capacity. In to be self-contained—powered by micro- of research will be needed to produce a this very competitive field, a Franco- systems (transducers) capable of trans- complete and functional prototype. American team of researchers from the forming fuselage vibrations or ground/ 01. Laboratoire d’Analyse et d’architecture des 1 2 systèmes (CNRS). LAAS, the CIRIMAT, and Drexel sky temperature variations into electric- 02. Centre interuniversitaire de recherche et University in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, ity. But these energy sources are not d’ingénierie des matériaux (CNRS / INp Toulouse / Université paul-Sabatier). US), has reached an impressive milestone. continuous, whereas the sensors—work- They were able to design a micro- super- sUPERCaPaCiTOR. ing non-stop—require an uninterrupted capacitor the size of a fingernail with a A supercapacitor supply of electrical power. Temperature is a device capable power density (charge or discharge rate) of storing and then differences, for example, are only contact InFormatIon: 4000 times greater than that of the min- releasing electrical significant during takeoff and landing. To laas, toulouse. energy. Magali Brunet iature batteries currently on the market. meet this challenge, the researchers > [email protected] This project, featured in the created micro-supercapacitors capable of n°20 I quarterly I january 2011 Live from the Labs | On Location 17

paleoentomology Last summer, a French research team set off to a small island beyond the Arctic Circle to search for the fossilized remains of the world’s first insects. Tracking the World’s First insects

Paris

By marIe lescroart require detailed examination of the increases the volume of known deposits material. However, the 400 kilograms of of such fossils,” Garrouste points out. hen hunting for fossils, rifles samples collected look promising. Enthusiastic about these first results, the can come in handy. “There are team plans to return to the site next Wpolar bears in the region,” ROCK-sOLid EVidENCE summer. explains Romain Garrouste, a paleoento- “In the Lower Carboniferous we found 01. Laboratoire Origine, structure et évolution de la mologist and entomologist at the French very fine-grained clayey rocks, which biodiversité (CNRS / MNHN). 1 National Museum of Natural History. f acilitate the preservation of small contact InFormatIon: One of five scientists who traveled to anatomical details. What’s more, they’re oseB, Paris. Cyrille d’Haese Spitsbergen—part of the Norwegian rich in plant fossils, and plants are known > [email protected] archipelago of Svalbard, beyond the to attract insects,” says Nel. Fossil tree Arctic Circle—last summer, Garrouste trunks from the Upper Devonian, recalls their search for the remains of the evidence of one of the world’s oldest aMBER iN THE aRCTiC world’s earliest insect species. “We were known forests, were discovered in the based at Pyramiden, a Russian Archipelago’s Munindalen valley. Many It was on their way back, near at the time it was formed. “In the coal-mining concession abandoned in fish fossils from the same period were Svalbard’s “capital” Paleocene, Spitsbergen was at the Longyearbyen, that the team same latitude as it is today, which 1998. Every day we would walk some 25 also found. “These will enable us to date came across the northernmost meant several months of darkness kilometers exploring the surrounding the strata precisely, and reconstruct the amber deposit ever discovered, in a year,” Garrouste explains. “Yet area. We also rummaged through the environment of the time,” Nel explains. a Paleocene1 fossil site popular the region, which enjoyed a warm coal tips. They are made of carboniferous The expedition also uncovered slabs of with tourists. “It’s very interesting, temperate climate, was covered rocks that have already been brought up rock showing traces of trilobites, which even if we’ve found only a few with lush forests. If plants, insects, droplets for the moment,” or bacteria are trapped in the to the surface, and are a real treasure were marine arthropods from the explains Romain Garrouste. amber, they could give us trove for what we are looking for.” Devonian. “This discovery considerably Amber—the fossilized resin of information about the Arctic “The major advantage of this site is ancient trees—traps and environment during this climatic that you can find continuous outcrops of preserves remarkably well the optimum.” every geological formation in a coastal organisms that lived in the forest 01. 40-50 million years old. environment, all the way from the Lower Devonian, dating back 400 million years, up to the Mississippian, a sub-period of the Lower Carboniferous going back some 340 million years,” explains paleoentomologist and project leader André Nel. “These are key periods and environments for understanding how certain crustaceans adapted to life out of the water before evolving into winged insects.” Although fossils of a wide variety of insects have already been found in AESE more recent geological formations, there are virtually no traces of such organisms in the Devonian and Carboniferous, a gap : 2010 C. A. D'H that researchers are keen to fill. HOTOS © p Finding the insects, especially in the q detail (right) of the rocks (left) where trace fossils (ichnofossils) of marine arthropods very dark rocks of the Mississippian, will from the upper devonian were found in the mimerdalen Valley. w 18 Gérard Férey | Profile cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

CNRS 2010 Gold Medal A world-renowned chemist and specialist in porous solids gets France's top scientific prize. Gérard Férey, Materials Architect

BY ÉmIlIe BaDIn

What do I do for a living?” Gérard Férey asks. OrGaNIC. “I create organic and inorganic hybrid porous chemistry covers solids—‘Swiss cheese’ materials with regular pore him over there,” Férey says, pointing to a photo of himself stand- carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, patterns on the atomic scale. I make the pores as large as ing alongside the famous scientist. Three years later, in 1963, phosphorus, and possible. Since nature abhors a vacuum, these pores act as traps Férey left the school he had founded to pursue his studies at the

sulfur. Chemistry able to store CO2, for example.” Working with his team at the University of Caen. “There, two professors—Maurice Bernard involving other Institut Lavoisier in Versailles,1 Férey can also predict these and Alfred Deschanvres—made a lasting impression on me and elements is termed inorganic chemistry. “materials’ structure. “We have filed about a dozen patents,” he sealed my fate in chemistry.” reports. In recognition of the international impact of his work, After completing his thesis, Férey worked as an assistant in and of his long and brilliant career, Férey has been awarded the chemistry department of a technological institute in Le the 2010 CNRS Gold Medal, France’s highest distinction in Mans (western France). There, he learned the basics of the scientific research. chemistry of solids, a new discipline focusing on reactions within solids, rather than within solutions as in conventional ChemIstrY revealed chemistry. Now 69, Férey became a top-level chemist through a series of Determined to unravel the secrets of matter, to understand twists of fate. At the age of 19, following in his family’s footsteps, how its “building blocks” are assembled, Férey studied crystal- he became a teacher and founded a secondary school in his lography, the science of locating atoms in space and observing native Normandy. But a book by Linus Pauling (American how they arrange to form solids. Working with Félix Bertaut in chemist and physicist, 1901-1994) changed everything. “That’s Grenoble, he also investigated magnetism and neutron diffraction. His knowledge of these tools later enabled him to become an “architect” of matter. “I don’t like to spend more than ten years on the same

P OrOUs sOlIds: 250 Years OF sCIeNCe

It was in 1756 that Swedish angstroms (10-10 meter) in breakthrough made it possible scientist Axel Fredrik Crönstedt diameter. These cages absorb to change the size of the cages first discovered porous molecules of other substances, without compromising the materials. “He was heating like water, which explains the stability of the material as a stilbite, a natural mineral, and appearance of bubbles during whole. The solids thus obtained noticed that bubbles formed on heating. Manufacturers and are non-toxic, biodegradable, its surface when the material researchers immediately saw and easy to synthesize in large reached 150°C,” Férey explains. potential applications, especially quantities, therefore cheaper to But it wasn’t until 1930, with the for gas absorption. But such produce. Férey’s team has work of Linus Pauling, that solids are often costly to created computer programs for chemists began to understand manufacture and their cages are selecting the most stable atomic the crystalline structure of these too small to store significant arrangements. This allowed the ey/CNRS ey/CNRS Photothèque R

Fé strange minerals called zeolites quantities. Férey was a pioneer development of the famous

© (a Greek term meaning “boiling in the development of hybrid MIL-101: capable of absorbing q cage-like structure of mIl-101, the porous stone”). In these solids, the porous solids, whose backbone 400 times its own volume of CO2 , material developed by the team of gérard Férey. atomic structure forms regular consists of both organic and it is currently the material with this material can trap 400 times its weight in gas. pore patterns—or cages—a few inorganic elements. This the highest gas storage capacity. n°20 I quarterly I January 2011 Profile | Gérard Férey 19

the desired type of pores,” he recalls. Well ahead of his competi- tors, Férey started to imagine a host of applications for these innovative “Swiss cheese” materials.

materIal revOlUtION In 1996 the president of the newly-founded University of Versailles asked Férey to create a research center devoted to solid state chemistry and physics, which was to become the famous Institut Lavoisier. It was there in 2005—after 10 years of research—that he and his team developed the famous MIL-101 (Materials of the Institut Lavoisier n°101). This “miracle material” is a hybrid structure with cages four nanometers (4 x 10-9 meter) in diameter—a vast expanse on the atomic scale—that enable the material to absorb and store 400 times its own volume in gas. The industrial process behind it is protected by a number of patents. “As soon as the results were published, I got a phone call from Nissan, soon followed by other Gérard FéreY: 5 keY dates manufacturers,” adds Férey. It was ultimately BASF, the largest chemical 1941 Born in Bréhal, normandy (France) company in the world, that undertook the manufacturing of MIL-101. The 1968 Doctorate in chemistry from the group’s pilot factory can now produce university of caen one ton per day, and the final produc-

1996 Founding of the tion unit could have a daily output of Institut lavoisier in several hundred tons. Versailles MIL-101 has many potential appli- 2005 Development of cations from trapping CO2 to encapsu- mIl-101 lating drugs. “The trials on medicines 2010 cnrs gold medal have been excellent,” Férey reports. Now recipient perfected and patented, this revolution- ary method can provide the targeted and continuous release of a drug in the bloodstream of mice for two to three weeks, while preserving intact 75 to 100% of the active ingredients injected. Detectable by medical imaging devices, this new type of nanovector can be tracked from the intravenous injection to the target. “This new /CNRS Photothèque

AS technology, which in vivo tests have shown to be non-toxic, Pl F.

© could be used to treat a number of diseases, including juvenile leukemia, breast cancer, and AIDS.” subject or in the same job,” Férey comments. Hence his decision, Though Férey officially retired in September 2009, he keeps in 1988, to accept the position of deputy director of the CNRS’s a busy schedule. A member of the French Académie des Sciences chemistry department, “a wonderfully formative, beneficial, and of France’s ethics advisory committee, Férey participates and humbling experience. I was in charge of laboratory in restructuring France’s Chemical Society, a non-profit funding,” he explains. “Instead of asking for grants—something organization for the promotion of chemistry, and is very I was used to—I was now responsible for their distribution. And active in organizing the International Year of Chemistry to be to do so in all fairness, I had to understand every branch of held in 2011. “Being bored shows a great lack of imagination,” chemistry.” he concludes. At the end of his mission in 1992, Férey went back to re- 01. CNRS / université Versailles-Saint-quentin. search. He tackled a subject that had fascinated him for years: 02. Institut universitaire de technologie du Mans. porous solids. He began developing a number of in situ spectro- scopic methods to supplement the techniques of crystallography contact InFormatIon: to observe in real time the formation of crystals—the building Institut lavoisier, Versailles. Gérard Férey blocks of solids. “I was able to play with them, predict their > [email protected] structure, and explore hundreds of possibilities for synthesizing w 20 | Focus cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

TheFutureof Computing Science n°20 I quarterly I January 2011 Focus | 21 w

Informationtechnologyhasrevolutionizedall facetsofcommunications,fromthepersonalcomputer tothelatestandtrendiestsmartphones.Yetithasalso givenaradicalboosttoresearch,lendingscientists enormousamountsofcomputingpowertolocate distantgalaxies,deviseclimatemodels,sequencethe humangenome,ormodelourorgans.Andthisisstillonly thebeginning.Researchlaboratoriesaroundtheworld arebusydevelopinganewInternetthatwillalsoconnect billionsofobjectstogether,inventingpowerfuldata processingtechnologies,andedgingclosertothemuch- awaitedquantumcomputers.CNRSInternational Magazinereportsonthelatestbytes,bits,andqubits thatmakeupthebrightfutureofoneofthefastest growingfieldsinscience.

a Survey by mathIeu grousson and vahé ter mInassIan

TheDigital revolution

It is a fundamental and vices, are expanding at lightning speed. inevitable revolution, The Internet has revolutionized com- comparable to the inven- munications by eliminating such con- tion of the steam engine, straints as distance, time, and volume. In which marked the beginning of the in- science, computer modeling of any phe- dustrial age,1” says Gérard Berry, member nomena has become standard.” Twenty- of the French Academy of Sciences and one years after the invention of the World the digital revolution 21 i

RTIA 2009-2010 Chair of Computing and Wide Web—the Internet’s main applica- o NS

navigating the datasphere 25 i o Digital Sciences at the Collège de France. tion—it would be both tedious and futile FIC l “Our civilization is going digital. to attempt to list the countless upheavals quantum computers: the ultimate T e

FI “ Traditional industries, such as telecom- generated by recent progress in comput- challenge 28 i ,h SA munications, and the dissemination of ing. Yet they are comparatively few ;e culture are undergoing drastic changes. considering what the future has in store. hèque Others, such as IT and associated ser- ToT

Pho FaSt expanSIon 01 the 32 high-definition screens of the Wild

/CNRS What will this digital world of the future

N platform can display extremely large images.

llo Featured here is one of the most detailed be like? Difficult to say. New applications éSI shake up the IT industry every week.

FR photographs of our galaxy taken to date, .

01 C © 450,000 pixels wide. Nevertheless, specialists predict a spec- w 22 | Focus cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

02 NC eS e CI S AT ook A/l eg BR M. © 02 In the future, electronic prostheses such as that of the cyberhand project will be directly connected to the nervous system. tacular expansion of the Internet, which will eventually connect not only people, but also objects near and even inside us. “Today, autonomous computers worldwide are 15 to 20 times more numerous than computers that interact with humans,” explains Berry. For example, the latest car models feature more than 80 microprocessors that control everything from braking to combustion. “Currently, these hundreds of billions of processors scattered all around us are not interconnected. Tomorrow, with the advent of this ‘Internet of Things,’ all these machines will communicate with one another to collectively produce new applications. The road itself will communicate with /INRIA

our vehicles to inform on speed limits, kSoNeN kA warn about traffic jams, or monitor © 03 trajectories to avoid accidents.” Electronic prostheses will be directly a giant repository of information, but also explains Serge Fdida, professor at the connected to our nervous system, and an interactive space where people com- LIP64 and coordinator of the European circuits in patients’ bodies will send municate with one another,” notes Serge platform OneLab,5 a European project information on their health to a hospital’s Abiteboul, scientist at the LSV2 and at tackling the future Internet. “Although its IT system. Ultimately, it is the physicians INRIA3 Saclay. “In fact, some people are basic principle is not threatened, the who will call their patients in case of permanently connected to this space via Internet was not designed to handle remotely detected problems, and not the their cell phones,” adds this specialist in demands like mobility, security, and other way around. the management of the highly dissemi- platform diversity on a large scale: the Meanwhile, the way we control the nated data and knowledge of the present- combination of these factors disrupts its machines designed to receive our instruc- day Web—where information is accessed current structure. One must remember tions will also radically change. Touch via numerous channels (computers, cell that the Internet was initially designed for screens and motion detectors could soon phones, websites, social networks, etc.). clearly-identified, trustworthy individu- replace keyboards and mice on desktop als using static devices. This is certainly computers. Furthermore, progress in the adaptIng to the Future not the case today. Furthermore, the semantic Web will provide intelligent Such upheavals require major adjust- system has gradually changed to provide search engines able to find information ments. “Despite the Internet’s ability to numerous services, leading to the on the Web based on the meaning of a integrate new technologies and applica- development of ad hoc solutions such as question rather than on its syntax. tions—a key factor in its success—this security management, mobility, or con- “Finally, applications such as Twitter and evolution also makes it vulnerable,” tent distribution using overlays. Yet most Facebook, as well as the commercial suc- of these solutions are poorly integrated, a selection of pictures from the traveling exhibit A Digital cess of smartphones, have changed the World can be viewed on the online version of cnrs magazine making it very complex to manage the core utility of the Web. It is no longer just > http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/384.htm network and ensure its efficiency.” n°20 I quarterly I January 2011 Focus | 23 w

computers worldwide and to other research platforms. It has already made it possible to test several applications in a variety of fields like Internet content and autonomy. Now engineers no longer distribution (videos, eBooks, music), and hesitate to entrust “mission-critical” allowed the geolocation of IP addresses processors with tasks where human lives (the number used to identify every are at risk, such as the control of nuclear computer connected to the Internet). power plants, aircraft operation, or Another challenge brought on by the computer-assisted surgery. Yet “these increasing mobility of users is the limits systems are very expensive to design,” of radio technologies for mobile IT ser- says Joseph Sifakis, CNRS researcher at vices. “Second-generation mobile phone the Verimag laboratory8 and 2007 winner networks such as GSM were designed to of the prestigious Turing Award—the IT transmit voice, not to send images or equivalent of the Nobel prize. “Writing videos, or connect to digital television or mission-critical software requires specific the Internet,” notes Pierre Duhamel, development methodologies. This type of senior researcher at the L2S.6 As a result, program is 1000 times more expensive these networks are often close to satura- than regular software, and must be sub- tion in large cities. “Several solutions are mitted to an international certification being investigated, including network authority.” And while industrial methods coding—where data is sent over a net - for verifying such embedded systems do work made up of other cell phones that exist—current methods involve a type of may act as transmitters, receivers, relays, model checking co-invented by Sifakis— or routers. In any event, our research they remain ineffective beyond a certain teams are allocating most of their time level of complexity. “This prevents the and effort to meet this challenge,” he roll-out of several technologies requiring adds. Indeed, since September 2010, high availability or responsiveness. This Duhamel is coordinating the first major includes medical or vehicle-operation project dedicated to this innovative field software, but also applications relating to of network cooperation, as part of the the ‘Internet of Things’ where an Digiteo Advanced Thematic Research additional step is necessary to enable the Networks7 in the Paris region. cooperation of numerous embedded systems in a non-critical Internet envi - SyStemS SeCurIty ronment, i.e., that offers little security.” 03 multipoint touch screens used by the iParla team at labri make it possible to Security—first and foremost that of Faced with these challenges, some manipulate 3-d objects. 04 the proliferation people—is also a major concern. The scientists, following Sifakis’ example, of mobile terminals requires new network plethora of embedded processors per- have revisited the theory, hoping to find architectures, tested here on high-mobility forming a wide variety of functions in our solutions that would avoid a posteriori small objects wirelessly connected to one another. environment, without human interven- verification. “When engineers build a tion, already offer appreciable guarantees bridge, they use mathematical equations Four or five years ago, this situation in terms of responsiveness, availability, that guarantee that the structure will not prompted several countries including the 04 collapse,” he says. “No such tools are US, Germany, and Japan to launch ambi- available to programmers: they must tious research programs intended to lay build systems first and check operation the foundations of a more modular afterwards. My colleagues and I are Internet for the future. In Europe, the Fire trying to identify the theoretical basis project aims in particular to set up by that would guarantee that a computer 2015 an experimental platform for scien- system built from basic components tists, industry, and small and medium would function properly.” businesses to securely design, deploy, and test new tools and Web services. The the haCkIng problem OneLab platform is the first step—a test Finally, the increase in communicating phase of sorts—for this giant undertak- /INRIA objects makes IT security breaches a kY

ing. This prototype, which has beenopera - DINS growing challenge. Users are often eBe

tional for three years, provides access to a l unaware that their computers have been C.

restricted network of 1000 interconnected © hacked. Mobile phones, credit cards, w 24 | Focus cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

game consoles, as well as electronic keys best types of attack against a given cryp- 01. g érardBerry, Pourquoi et comment le or pay TV sets are all potential areas of tographic scheme. This can go as far as monde devient numérique, coll.“leçons study for the cryptographers who design Cryptography. trying to recover data from a smart card inauguralesduCollègedeFrance”(Paris: CollègedeFrance/Fayard,2008). security mechanisms, and the cryptana- All relevant by observing its electrical consumption techniques that 02. l aboratoirespécificationetvérification lysts who try to break them. “Today we ensure the secure or its electromagnetic radiation... For (CNRS/eNSCachan). are sharing more and more personal in- transmission of Nguyen, this cat and mouse game will 03.Institutnationalderechercheen formation, with little or no control over data. eventually apply to tomorrow’s technolo- informatiqueetenautomatique. where it ends up. That is why identity theft gies such as quantum computers, 04. l aboratoired’informatiquedeParis-6 and the protection of our private lives are although “if such a technology sees the (CNRS/uPMC). among today’s biggest concerns,” says light of day, we will have to transform 05.www.onelab.eu Phong Nguyen, researcher at the LIENS much of today’s cryptography.” 06. l aboratoiredessignauxetsystèmes 9 (CNRS/Supélec/universitéParis-Sud-XI). laboratory in Paris. Some researchers on 07.Digiteoisaresearchplatformdedicatedto the Crypto team at ENS are working on contact InFormatIon: scienceandtechnology.Withastaffof1200 provable security, i.e., ways to improve Serge abiteboul researchersfromsixinstitutes,theplatform > [email protected] security guarantees on cryptographic gérard berry collaboratesonanumberofprojects. programs. Others are testing the limits of > [email protected] 08.CNRS/universitéJoseph-Fourier/grenoble pierre duhamel INP. existing security systems by devising the > [email protected] Serge Fdida 09. l aboratoired’informatiquedel’eNS(CNRS/ 05 In cryptography, data is frequently > [email protected] eNSParis/INRIA). condensed (or “hashed”). the resulting phong nguyen > [email protected] condensed file makes it possible to generate a Joseph Sifakis digital signature used to authenticate a > [email protected] message sender.

05 /INRIA kSoNeN kA © n°20 I quarterly I January 2011 Focus | 25 w navigating

pany Orange or the French energy pro- vider EDF. Its goal is to develop an algo- theDatasphere rithm able to condense a large amount of data generated in real time so that it can be stored in a limited central memory for Whether you’re a tourist 06 later use. “This is typically the type of looking for the cheapest situation that France Télécom, EDF, or airline ticket, a physicist an- the French national railway company alyzing data from a particle accelerator, SNCF have to deal with every day,” says or an employee at a temp agency sifting Pascal Poncelet of the LIRMM,4 in through applications, you all have some- Montpellier. “For example, a TGV high- thing in common,” says Amedeo Napoli speed train records 250 data points per “ 1 from the IT specialized LORIA labora- carriage every five minutes to anticipate tory in Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy. “You are maintenance operations. But such a huge RN

trying to extract specific information ©Ce amount of data is impossible to store. from a huge amount of data.” In principle, 06 location of sites involved in the world’s two largest grid Events must therefore be sorted by order solving this problem couldn’t be simpler: infrastructures: egee in europe (in yellow) and osg in the us (in red). of importance, which changes over time.” prepare the initial data, feed it to a data Scientists themselves are heavy users mining algorithm, and wait for the system to provide the results intelligence, databases, learning of data mining techniques. The LHC, in the required format. But in a world where that volume of data techniques, and statistical methods. CERN’S giant particle collider in Geneva, is increasing relentlessly, extracting pertinent knowledge is a prime example. When it reaches its becomes a seemingly impossible task. optImIzIng data SIFtIng full capacity, 40 million proton collisions Looking for a holiday flight, hotel, and rental car, all at the One thing is certain: every field needs to will occur every second. Yet physicists lowest possible price, is a good example. As Michel Beaudouin- develop efficient methods to avoid being estimate that just 100 of those will be of Lafon, from the LRI in Orsay2 puts it: “Mathematically, we know flooded with unusable data often impos- interest and will need to be recorded. that the complexity of this type of problem makes it impossible sible to store. Take the French Midas Such events will have to be selected in real to find an exact solution in reasonable time, given the massive project,3 for example. It brings together, time using specialized algorithms. “These amount of input data.” Therefore, in practice, programmers among others, CNRS labs and companies are typically learning algorithms where must find clever ways of obtaining the most accurate result that have to deal with complex sets of the computer’s performance improves as within reasonable time. In fact, the burgeoning field of data data, like the telecommunications com- it processes the new data to be kept or mining brings together specialists from fields as different as rejected,” explains Beaudouin-Lafon, computer science, of course, but also machine architecture, whose laboratory is involved with the linguistics, and mathematics. These specialists use artificial LAL,5 to elaborate ways of analyzing the makIng pICtureS talk

If you think sorting video stream, for wearable cameras, and recognition of a 07 family pictures on your example. It is somewhat identify behaviors multitude of objects home computer is a trickier to transform this associated with the more or less buried in hassle, imagine sifting data into high-level disease so that doctors these images, such as through the largest information making it can follow a patient’s street signs, façades, or image databases in possible to positively evolution,” Benois- vegetation, in order to existence, which contain identify a particular Pineau explains. improve advanced millions. Luckily, tools object or event. This has Cord is working on the navigation.” like face recognition not prevented the iTowns project, a digital 01. l aboratoired’informatique 08 software are already emergence of map of Paris elaborated deParis-6(CNRS/uPMC). 02. l aboratoireBordelaisde available. Yet as increasingly powerful from photographs, and rechercheeninformatique Matthieu Cord of the applications, like the one modeled after Google (CNRS/université LIP61 points out, “the developed by Jenny Street View—but with Bordeaux-I/IPB enseirb-MatmecaBordeaux success rate is only Benois-Pineau’s team at an accuracy of just one /universitéVictor-Segalen). 2

50-60%.” Typically, a the LaBRI, a laboratory centimeter. “We are IS ol specialized algorithm near Bordeaux working developing tools to P can perfectly handle in conjunction with the automatically detect eo so-called “low-level” French national medical people and cars in order contact InFormatIon: Jenny benois-pineau 09 information: color, research center (Inserm). to blur personal data,” he ©IgN-STeR > [email protected] contrast, or pixel “We film Alzheimer explains. “But we are matthieu Cord 07 08 09 itowns automatically extracts all movement vectors in a patients at home with also working on the > [email protected] types of information contained in an image. w 26 | Focus cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

10 11

huge amount of data provided by particle accelerators.

trIal and error Particle physicists are far from being the RM e

INS only ones to handle large amounts of eu/ data. Pascal Poncelet’s team, working in

PARDI collaboration with researchers from the De . M ; French medical research center Inserm, RN e

C has developed an algorithm able to single © out the genes involved in various types of breast cancer tumors, based on patient data (genetic information, age, weight and size of the tumor, treatment used, and results obtained). “It gives doctors information on the potential evolution of the tumor,” the researcher explains. In a different field, Amedeo Napoli’s team has worked with astronomers to develop data mining software applied to information collected in astrophysics. Researchers hope this type of software will reveal particular characteristics or combinations that might have escaped a human operator. Can data mining work miracles? Not exactly. It is a relatively new field, first explored at the end of the 1980s, and still in full expansion. For Beaudouin-Lafon, “most methods used today are empirical. /INRIA

kY Parameters are adjusted manually and

DINS when something works, it is not really eBe

l clear why. In many cases, there are no C. © 12 quantitative criteria for judging the qual- ity of information extracted from a database. That is left up to specialists in the 10 11 some grId ComputIng experiments, such field.” Napoli adds: “much work still has as particle collisions to be done to handle very large amounts Grid computers are diseases or astrophysics. “France Grilles,” involving (left) or genome of data. At present, we can manage a few sequencing (right), virtual infrastructures The CNRS’s Grids several research generate large consisting of a set (or Institute (Institut des organizations and thousand objects with a few hundred amounts of data clusters) of computers, grilles) managed by universities. Its purpose attributes. Beyond that, the hardware’s that must be sorted including home Vincent Breton, has been is to coordinate the physical limits become apparent.” and analyzed. computers, that are the leading research deployment of a To overcome this obstacle, two com- 12 analyzing geographically remote center in this field in nationwide grid scientific data but working as a France for the past three infrastructure, which plementary approaches are currently sometimes requires network. These systems, years. Along with Grid will eventually be used. First, when a single machine does extensive which emerged a few 5000, a tool specifically integrated into a not have enough computing power for a computing years ago to meet the dedicated to grid European grid. For specific task, several computers can be resources as well as demands of particle research, it provides Breton, who heads the run in parallel. This is the principle of interconnecting physics experiments, scientists and industry program, its objective machines through enable research with a production grid is clear-cut: “to double grid computing (see box), which LHC has networks, as shown scientists and comprising around 20,000 resources and users pushed to the limit: it relies on 50,000 PCs here in the grid 5000 industrialists to have processors scattered over by 2015.” located in various research centers world- project. access to extensive some 20 centers at CNRS, 01.FrenchAtomicenergyand wide to analyze the 15 millions Gigaoctets computing resources at CEA,1 and universities. Alternativeenergies lower cost, in sectors Last September, this Commission. of scientific data (the equivalent of a ranging from engineering already sizeable system contact InFormatIon: to the study of reached new heights vincent breton neurodegenerative with the creation of > [email protected] n°20 I quarterly I January 2011 Focus | 27 w

20km-long pile of CDs) that researchers will collect every year. The second approach is based on supercomputers, like the one used since 2008 at CNRS’s IDRIS6—a monster capable of performing 207 thousand billion FLOPS. “In some FlopS. cases, such as weather simulation, for FLOPS stands for floating-point which it is difficult to parcel out the data operations per to a network of PCs, supercomputers second. It is a remain the best solution,” explains measurement of a Beaudouin-Lafon. computer’s performance. By comparison, an the human FaCtor average handheld But developing fast and high-performing calculator can computers is not enough. The data they perform around 10 FLOPS. have sorted still need to be understand- able to human users. Take Google for example: the search engine can bring up several thousand addresses for a query, but can only display a dozen or so per page. “It is a shame to have sophisticated data retrieval algorithms and yet not be able to display the results comprehen- sively,” says Beaudoin-Lafon. This raises the question of how search results can best be presented. To answer this question, the LRI has developed a new type of platform called

Wild: a wall of 32 computer screens— hèque over 130 million pixels in total—allowing ToT Pho users to grasp a huge amount of informa- /CNRS tion at a glance. “We are working with N llo

eight other laboratories from CNRS and éSI FR .

the Saclay Campus, on this project,” says C

13 © Beaudouin-Lafon. For neuroscience specialists, Wild can display 64 brain MRIs, “which offers an resolution, Wild-like tools make all the 13 the “substance indisputable advantage when trying to identify a pathology, difference. “I am convinced that this type grise” (grey matter) application used on considering there are significant variations even among healthy of approach will expand in the future— the Wild platform brains,” he adds. Similarly, in astrophysics, certain observatories not only for research, but also for allows users to now compile images much too large to be displayed on single industry,” concludes Beaudoin-Lafon. simultaneously computer screens. To view an entire image at its highest “Indeed, the amount of data is constantly compare 3-d reconstructions of 64 expanding, and the questions asked are patients’ brains. both increasingly vague and complex.” In other words, everything must be done to prevent today’s information society from drowning in this massive 800 ,000 quantity of data. 01. l aboratoirelorrainderechercheeninformatiqueet sesapplications(CNRS/universitéhenri-Poincaré/ petabytes* universitéNancy-II/Inria). 02. l aboratoirederechercheeninformatique(CNRS/ was the estimated amount of digital data in the universitéParis-Sud-XI). contact InFormatIon: 03.MicrowaveDataAnalysisforpetascalecomputers. michel beaudouin-lafon world in 2009. This number was expected to rise 04. l aboratoired’informatique,derobotiqueet demicroélectronique(CNRS/université > [email protected] to 1.2 million in 2010, and experts predict it to Montpellier-II). amedeo napoli 05. l aboratoiredel’accélérateurlinéaire(CNRS/ > [email protected] grow by 45% each year between now and 2020. universitéParis-Sud-XI). pascal poncelet 06.Institutdudéveloppementetdesressourcesen > [email protected] * 10 15 bytes. informatiquescientifique. w 28 | Focus cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

14 IBM © quantumComputers: the ultimate Challenge

t is every computer scientist’s advantage is the ability to store (in started as a simple idea floated in the dream: a computer so fast that principle) information representing a large 1980s by Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize Ibreaking a code, making long-term number of potential solutions to a given Laureate in Physics. For Julia Kempe weather predictions, or thrashing a chess problem in the same memory, and, by from the LRI1—elected Research Woman grandmaster would only take a second. If applying suitable algorithms, to process all of the Year in 2010—“Feynman explained this is still science-fiction today, it does not those solutions at once. This would turn that quantum computers would be able to prevent mathematicians and physicists today’s most powerful computers into calculate the properties of quantum from sketching the outlines of how this stone-age relics overnight. particles, such as electrons, much faster extraordinary machine might work. Its than a traditional computer. Each elec- name: quantum computer. Its underlying qubIt. the long road ahead tron could be encoded in a qubit, whereas structure: to take advantage of the surpris- A quantum bit is a But will such a machine ever make it out a large number of traditional bits are unit of quantum ing laws of quantum mechanics, which information—the of the laboratory? And if so, would it needed to encode the many states it may allow a particle, an atom, or a molecule, to quantum analogue really be able to work wonders? Nothing be in at the same time. But it was still all exist in two states at once. While today’s of the classical bit. is less certain. Quantum computers just an idea.” And a very good one at that. computers store data as bits equal to either A qubit has some In 1994, Peter Shor, then working at the similarities to a 0 or 1, quantum bits (or qubits ) can simul- classical bit. AT&T Laboratories in the US, formally taneously be equal to both 0 and 1. The demonstrated that a quantum computer n°20 I quarterly I January 2011 Focus | 29

spin oscillations 2008 14 quantum computers, like the one P. developed at mIt based on organic molecules, ou v15 are still very much in the experimental stage. molecular magnet ggR could factor a number—break it down FaCtorIng. IN with 15 coupled h 15 a large molecule containing several into a product of prime numbers—in The decomposition spins IS hundred atoms, when interacting with its uBl sz

of a mathematical P record time. Enough to make cryptogra- environment, slowly loses its quantum object (for example, uRe nature: a phenomenon known as NAT phers nervous, since factoring, because it a number, a / decoherence. requires lots of computing time, is polynomial, or a matrix) into a currently the key to all encrypted codes, BARBARA product of other B. time (µs) © whether for credit cards or top-secret objects, or factors, documents. Likewise, in 1997, Lov which when Grover, then also at AT&T, demonstrated multiplied together researcher managed to factor 15, showing find out that nature prohibits the very that a computer using qubits could con- produce the original. that the number could be broken down possibility of quantum computers...” siderably increase the effectiveness of al- into 3 times 5. “But to be really effective,” If quantum computers ever become a gorithms aimed at finding information in says Barbara, “a quantum computer reality, they will still not be the ultimate databases. Unfortunately, despite math- needs to include a few thousand qubits, computing machines, as their time- ematicians’ and physicists’ attempts to and be able to combine them in order to saving power could only be applied to demonstrate the advantages of quantum perform logical calculations.” solving specific problems. “While the computers at the time, these remained a For most scientists, two systems cur- benefit is considerable in the case of pipe dream. In fact, to this day, no one rently offer the most interesting perspec- factoring, it is less obvious when search- knows exactly what a qubit will be made tives. These include superconductor ing through unsorted data, determining of: atoms, ions, molecules, electrons, qubits, or microscopic electronic circuits the shortest route on a map, or playing a superconductor circuits? What’s more, allowing electric current to flow in both game of chess or Go,” notes Santha. “And the type of medium itself—solid, liquid, directions at the same time. “They are quantum computers would provide little or gas—also remains a mystery. very easy to manufacture and duplicate benefit put to other types of data, like Several teams around the world are and can be laid out in chips with several sorted lists for example.” currently testing all types of materials qubit superconductors,” says Barbara. Does this mean research into quan- that could potentially be used as basic The second and most promising develop- tum computers is pointless? Far from it. components in future quantum proces- ment relates to “gaseous ions trapped by “Whether or not we build a quantum sors. “We are studying qubits whose 0 powerful laser beams that provide several computer, our research helps us learn and 1 states correspond to the spin states minutes of coherence, despite relatively how to control quantum laws and under- (a kind of rotation of the particle around restricted systems.” stand the fundamentals better,” explains itself) of molecules or ions of certain “Quantum computers are still a long Barbara. As for Kempe, she insists on the metals in solid matrices,” explains way away,” admits Barbara. “But I think advantages of developing quantum algo- Bernard Barbara, of the Institut Néel2 in they may become a reality within a few rithms: “They represent very powerful Grenoble. decades.” Miklos Santha, also at the LRI, mathematical tools for addressing funda- is less optimistic: “We might eventually mental questions linked to complexity, deCoherenCe IS the enemy and also for studying what a traditional But physicists are far from proposing a computer can and cannot do. Finally, as turnkey computer. For now they are try- reCeNTlYPuBlISheD quantum factoring algorithms threaten ing to understand and, insofar as possible, classical cryptography, it is essential to overcome the major pitfall in the path to The LLL Algorithm, Survey and develop quantum cryptography, which is quantum computers: something called Applications. Series: Information already used to exchange secret data.” decoherence . As Barbara points out, “any deCoherenCe. Security and Cryptography. Nobody knows whether quantum com- system in a quantum superposition of Time during which a Phong q. nguyen and Brigitte vallée, eds. puters will ever make it out of the labora- quantum system is (Berlin: springer, 2010). various states is extremely fragile. not corrupted by its tory. But it does not matter. Even if the Through interactions with the environ- external Joint Source-Channel Decoding. A concept proves unattainable, it remains ment, it can lose in a fraction of a second environment. Cross-Layer Perspective with an endless source of inspiration—and a the properties required for any quantum Applications in Video Broadcasting over genuine scientist’s dream. Mobile and Wireless Networks. calculation, and the more qubits it con- Pierre duhamel and michel Kieffer 01. l aboratoirederechercheeninformatique(CNRS/ Paris-XI). tains, the more unstable it is.” At present, (amsterdam: academic Press, 2009). 02.CNRS. the best computing feat performed with Machine Learning Techniques for qubits is that of Isaac Chuang at the Multimedia: Case Studies on Organization Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Retrieval. matthieu cord and Pádraig contact InFormatIon: (US). In 2001, using the spin of molecules cunningham, eds. (Berlin: springer,2008). bernard barbara > [email protected] with seven effective nuclear spins, the HCI Remixed, Reflections on Works That Julia kempe Have Influenced the HCI Community. > [email protected] miklos Santha thomas erickson and david W. mcdonald, > [email protected] eds. (cambridge: mIt Press, 2008). w 30 | Innovation cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

Innoveox New Solution to Toxic Waste

by carolIne Dangléant uteandwithanefficiencyof99.99%,thesystemreleaseswater,

carbondioxide(CO2),andoxidizedmetalsandmineralsintheir qThe technology developed by Innoveox is an alchemist’s purestform.Asallthesecomponentsareunmixed,theycanbe dream: itcanturnanytoxicliquidwasteintocleanwaterand recycled.Thistechnologyisamajorecologicalleapforward,as recyclableby-products,withtheaddedbonusofcreating toxicindustrialwasteisusuallyburnedorburied.“Thisprocess energyatthesametime. makesitpossibletorecycledangerousproductssuchasexplo- Intendedmainlyforliquidindustrialwaste(usedoilsand sives,”marvelsJean-ChristopheLépine,presidentofInnoveox. solvents, pesticides,petroleumwaste,etc.),thistechnology Thecompany’ssecretliesinthethreeinjectionsofoxygen,a Paris is the result of two decades of research at ICMCB,1 that processpatentedbyCNRS.Thisprocessandtheheatlevelsit wereledbyFrancisCansell,nowdirectoroftheBordeaux generatesprovidethemassiveamountsofenergyrequiredto PolytechnicInstitute. achievethesupercriticalhydrothermaloxidationreaction. Theprocessisbasedonareactioncalledsupercriticalhydro- Sofar,Innoveoxisacost-efficientalternativetocurrentwaste thermaloxidation,asortofcoldcombustionoforganicmatter. disposalmethods.Theequipmentcanbeinstalleddirectlyat Uponenteringthetreatmentunit,wasteliquidsareheatedto theindustrialplant,eliminatingallfinancialandenvironmental 250°Candpressurizedto221bars,i.e.,nearly220timesatmo- costs linked to waste transportation. After two years of sphericpressure.Theyarethensubjectedtothreeinjectionsof existence,Innoveoxispreparingtosetupitsfirsttreatment oxygen,leadingtothegradualdestructionofthemoleculesby units.Thehazardousindustrialwastemarketisunlikelyto oxidationwhilemaintainingcombustion,whichcanraise resistthis“miraculoustransmutation”technique. temperaturesto550°C. 01.Institutdechimiede Thesetemperatureandpressureconditionstaketheliquid’s lamatièrecondenséede Bordeaux(CNRS). contact InformatIon: differentcomponentstotheirsupercriticallevel.Putsimply, Innoveox, Paris. thisstateallowsoxygentoinstantlydissolveintheliquid, Jean-Christophe Lépine > [email protected] whereitcanoxidizethedifferentmolecules.Inonlyonemin-

Ethera Detecting Pollutants at Home

01 02 whichisreleasedfromglues,furniture, carpets,flooringandsomecosmetics. Thesensorsaremadeofmaterials ETHERA / thattrappollutantsinnanometer-size THI - pores.“Westartwithaliquidsolution TRAN H.

.- thatcontainssilicon-basedprecursors,” T © explains Thu-Hoa Tran-Thi, senior 01 formaldehyde, chlorinated products, researcherattheLaboratoireFrancis- hydrocarbons… we Perrin and co-founder of Ethera. “By ES g might be breathing controllingthetemperature,acidity,and MA yI these at home. 02 the typeofprecursors,weobtainagelwith ethera-developed gETT / countlessporesoftherequiredsize,each

EN captors change color g when in contact with containing probe molecules.” For ERHA

V atmospheric instance,inthepresenceofformalde- F. © pollutants. hyde,achemicalreactionoccurswith by DenIs Delbecq pollutant-detectiontechniques.Starting Fluoral-P molecules, causing a color in2012,theywillmarketthisproduct changethatcanbequantifiedeitherwith w How can traces of harmful airborne underthenameEthera,anewly-created acolorchart,orwithanopticaldevicefor substances be detected without using companythatwontheFrenchNational greaterprecision. cumbersome equipment? Workingon 2010awardsforthesupportofinnovative “Today,formaldehydeisdetectedby thisparticularproblem,researchersatthe start-ups.Ethera’sairpollutionsensors samplingtheatmosphereandanalyzing LaboratoireFrancis-Perrin1inSaclayhave changecolorinthepresenceoftraces—a itinthelaboratoryusing chromatogra- recentlydevelopedfastandeasy-to-use fewmicrogramspercubicmeterofair— phy.Withourporousgels,theresultsare sensorsthatcouldrevolutionizecurrent of molecules such as formaldehyde, directlyobtainedonsitewithinafew n°20 I quarterly I January 2011 Innovation | 31

01 With the current method, it takes a 01 02 few days to take this image of a breast tumor biopsy. 02 the lltech system can take this image in just a few minutes. 03 the lltech optical biopsy device is already being commercialized. ECH LLT : HOTOS ©P LLTech Anewinventioncouldrevolutionize currentimagingtechniques,bymakingthemmore precise,simpletouse,andimmediate.

oNLINe > www.lltech.fr 03 3DintheFlesh Paris

by Jean-PhIlIPPe braly viewing is possible within a few minutes, and the systems are easy to operate.” hree-dimensional non-destruc- This technique could find applica- tive imaging of tissues at the tions in a number of fields. During breast Tcellular level is now possible in cancer surgery, for instance, these instru- real time —in or ex vivo—using the opti- ments could allow real-time, ultra-precise cal biopsy devices developed by French viewing of the tumor to be removed. start-up LLTech. This company, created Dermatologists could immediately find minutes,”Tran-Thipointsout.“Inaddition, in 2007, has based its technology on two out whether or not a black spot is a thesamedevicecanbere-useddozensof CNRS patents derived from research melanoma. Many other uses are being times.” carried out at the Langevin Institute in considered. These range from measuring Besidescalibratedsystemsforultra- Paris.1 One of LLTech’s founders was a drug efficiency during test phases, to precise measurements, Ethera also researcher at the Institute. determining cosmetic products’ degree of produceskitsforthegeneralpublic.“We LLTech technology, called full-field skin penetration, or analyzing different targetthedetectionofformaldehyde, optical coherence tomography, uses light stages of embryo development. aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, to make optical biopsies under the sur- Five of these instruments are already toluene, etc.), and chlorinated face of the analyzed tissue, up to 1 mm in in use in French and American laborato- compounds,”specifiesTran-Thi.“People depth. It was co-developed by Claude ries and hospitals to build a database of willbeabletodetermineconcentrations Boccara, founder and scientific advisor of reference images. A new injection of of these chemicals in their homes by LLTech, and member of the Langevin funds will enable LLTech to commercial- comparingthecolorofeachsensorwith Institute’s scientific board. Equipped with ize these systems on a large scale. The color charts.” The team is also sophisticated microscope objectives and target market is expected to be worth investigatingfoodfreshnesssensorsthat one million-pixel resolution cameras that $800 million by 2012. workbymeasuringthegasesreleasedby can capture over 100 pictures per second, 01.InstitutLangevinondesetimages(CNRS/ESPCI deterioratingflesh.Thesecouldbeused the non-invasive instruments can elimi- ParisTech/UPMC/UniversitéParisDiderot). formeat,fish,andseafood. Saclay nate any light reflected by the tissues 01.CNRS/CEA. under observation. “The resolution contact InformatIon: obtained is 10 times higher than with Institut langevin ondes et images, Paris. Claude boccara contact InformatIon: current techniques: around a micrometer > [email protected]/[email protected] laboratoire francis-Perrin, saclay. in all three dimensions,” explains lltech, Paris. Thu-Hoa Tran-Thi bertrand Le Conte de Poly > [email protected] Boccara. “The target tissue doesn’t need > [email protected] sampling or preparation of any kind, w 32 | In Images cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

archeology In turkey, French archeologists are busy excavating the remains of the city of Xanthos and its principal sanctuary, thel etoon. the 2010 campaign has been highly productive, with a number of discoveries confirming the prosperity of this iconic site of lycian civilization. Unearthing Anatolia's Ancient Civilization n°20 I quarterly I January 2011 In Images | 33 w

BY PhIlIPPe testard-VaIllant 01 necropolises are the main visible remains of lycian civilization. shown here, the simena necropolis, which dates from the roman period and is located 70 km east of acques des Courtils, from the Ausonius Xanthos. Institute1 and director of the Xanthos- Letoon archeological mission, 02 In 2010, excavations revealed banquet halls on terraces has just re - overlooking the sanctuary of leto. Jturned from what was once ancient Lycia, on the southern coast of present-day Turkey. When asked 03 after clearing away blocks from a roman building, excavators attempt to find remains of pre-roman how long excavations there will last, his answer says architecture. it all: “there’s enough work for at least 200 years.” 04 the stone walls of rock tombs imitate wooden Though the 2010 campaign unearthed a few more of constructions. their secrets, much more needs to be learned about 2 05 06 two examples of pillars that held up the tombs of the Lycians, whose territory covered some 5000 km . sovereigns, who were buried several meters above ground. Their civilization peaked in the fifth century BC the bas-reliefs are directly inspired by greek art, which had under Persian rule, before coming under the domi- a major influence on lycia. nation of the Greeks and Romans, and finally being incorporated into the Byzantine Empire. “The oldest material traces—mostly pottery shards— of this unusual civilization of Asia Minor date back to the seventh century BC,” points out des Courtils, “though we learned of its existence from Hittite texts2 dating from the second millennium BC.” “The Lycians had federal institutions, and formed for Turkey the most part an agrarian society, though they were also good sailors. Another of their characteristics is that they became urbanized as early as the fifth Lycia century BC, well before the rest of Anatolia. There Greece were some 20 Lycian cities worthy of the name, Xanthos-Letoon including Xanthos, which was founded in the seventh century BC and destroyed by an earthquake Cyprus in the seventh century AD.” 04 05 06 34 | In Images cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

07 08

07 still under excavation, this wide road dating from the roman period was the main thoroughfare in the city of Xanthos. 08 the discovery of a Byzantine cemetery right in the middle of the main paved road that crosses Xanthos has made it possible to carry out anthropological and medical studies (life expectancy, causes of death, hygiene levels, etc.) on the population of the time. 09 this funerary pillar discovered in Xanthos Xanthos, which includes a major religious sanctuary, extremely unusual for a Hellenistic temple. Such bears the longest lycian inscription found to the Letoon, has been the subject of continuous reconstruction “is important for us, scientists, but date. lycian was an Indo-european language related to hittite, and is still poorly understood. archeological surveys since 1950. Today it is both one also for the general public—and for Turkey, since it the alphabet was borrowed from greek, and of the most remarkable archeological sites in Turkey will no doubt boost tourism in this splendid adapted by the lycians to their own language and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of the region,” points out des Courtils, who remains around 500 Bc. original centers of the city of Xanthos has been ex- fascinated by “the odd charm” that permeates every 10 In the foreground, the well-preserved haustively explored. “We have uncovered a great deal mission to Lycia. mosaic in the temple of apollo. Behind it are the ruins of the artemis temple, and in the of new information about the city as it was during 01.InstitutAusonius(CNRs/UniversitéMichel-de-Montaigne- Bordeaux-III). background, the temple of leto, in the process the Roman and Byzantine periods,” des Courtils 02.Inthe14thand13thcenturiesBC,thehittiteempireencompassed of being reconstructed. enthuses. He is also thrilled by the recent discovery alargepartofAsiaMinor. of another part of Xanthos, where remains dating contact InFormatIon: from the city’s foundation lie buried, and by the Institut ausonius, Pessac. forthcoming exploration of residential areas. Jacques des Courtils The 2010 campaign was dedicated to restoring > [email protected] painted frescoes and mosaics, initiating the excava- 10 tion of a cemetery dating from the Byzantine period, and working on making one of the city’s ancient squares accessible to tourists. As for the Letoon sanctuary, 80% of which has now been excavated, the latest campaign focused on exploring its outlying buildings. “It looks as if we’ve found one of the banquet halls where they served the meat of animals sacrificed during religious ceremonies,” des Courtils explains. In fact, researchers continue to sift through archeological remains to shed light on the Lycians’ religious practices, including the types of sacrifice, the frequency of festivals, and so on. In the city of Xanthos, the excavations include inten- sive restoration of funerary monuments. In the Letoon sanctuary, a temple from the Greek period devoted to Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis, will be reconstructed piece by piece. Indeed, 75 to 80% of its original elements were preserved, which is

09 UE hotothèq sp /CNR t RAGUE a full photo report can be . h viewed on the online : version of cnrs magazine photos

Biology Last May, the American scientist Craig Venter announced the creation of the first synthetic living cell. Geneticist Jean Weissenbach puts this scientific milestone in context. First Step Towards Artificial Life?

by PhIlIPPe testard-vaIllaNt A Ue orni hèq

This is the first self-repli- iF ToT AL C ho cating cell on the planet F S p y o nr whose parent is a SiT er V computer!” S ky/C

commented US biologist in h, Uni and entrepreneur John Craig Venter BeD . Le

Science last May, which unleashed JeAn WeIssenbAch in

“c o m m e n t a r y fromaroundtheworld. a world-renowned iMAG Yetbehindthisupheavalliesareal expert in AnD genomics, he opy scientificadvance,raisingmajorethical SC ro

received the CNrs C andphilosophicalquestions.Thisteam Gold medal in reconstitutedthe1.1millionbasepairs 2008. or Mi er F thatmakeuptheDNAsequencesofthe T Cen Mycoplasma mycoides bacterium, and AL ion

successfully transplanted this artificial nAT g e n o m e intoMycoplasma capricolum.The n/ SMA latterdividedtoreproduce,thusreaching i M. eLL thestatusoflivingorganism. T k e “Bypiecingtogetherthegenomeofa C bacteriumusingcutting-edgechemical © T. Deerin© T. technology,andthentransferringthis qMycoplasma mycoides, the bacteria whose genome was recreated by American biologists and thousand-gene molecule into another transferred into another bacteria. bacterialspecieswithverysimilargenetic traits, Venter’s team has indeed per- livingorganisms?“Averyplausiblesce- accomplishcertaintasksusefultoman,suchasCO2uptakeor formed a remarkable experimental nario,”repliesWeissenbach.“Yet‘invent- theproductionofbiofuels.“Intheory,asyntheticgenomecould achievement,” comments Jean ing’anewspeciesfromscratchwilltake be‘profiled’tocarryoutaspecificfunction,”acknowledges Weissenbach,directoroftheGenoscope,1 anenormousamountoftime,insofaras Weissenbach.“Evenso,wecannotatpresentdeterminewhich France’s genome sequencing center. the method developed by Venter can genesareusefulornotinagenome.Forme,eventheconceptof “These scientists must have benefited onlyreconstitutesmallgenomesofabout aminimalgenomecannotanswerthatquestion.Besides,one fromextremelyefficienttechnological two million base pairs. The mouse doesn’tneedtosynthesizeagenometoturnamicroorganism resources. Unfortunately, they do not g e n o m e , forexample,is1200timeslarger. intoafactoryofusefulproducts.Engineeringgeneticshasbeen provideenoughexperimentaldetailsto Aboveall,wemustbearinmindthatto- doingthisfordecades.YettheworkperformedbyVenter’steam reproducetheirexperiment.Yetstating day’sspecieshavebeenselectedthrough isaremarkabletechnicalprowessthatpavesthewayforman- they have ‘created life’ is a great evolutionovermillions—evenbillions— madedesignandsynthesisofgenomes.Testingsophisticated misconception,”saysWeissenbach.“The ofyears.Anentirely‘artificialcreature,’ genecombinationstoreplacethosethatderivedfromnatural teamreplacedthecompletegenomeofa devoid of that long genetic evolution selection is no longer science-fiction, but requires that all bacteriumwithaforeigngenomethat wouldmostprobablybeunabletoadapt necessaryexperimentalandethicalprecautionsbetaken.” tookcontroloftherecipientcell,whichis tothelivingworld,orcompeteagainst 01. www.genoscope.cns.fr alreadyamajorstepforward.” otherlifeforms.” QualifiedbyCraig Venterasa“very Forthetimebeing,Venterisconcen- CoNtaCt INformatIoN: importantphilosophicalstepinthehis- trating on the design of “minimal” Genoscope, Évry. Jean Weissenbach, toryofourspecies,”doesthismanipula- microorganisms,i.e.,thatcarrythemini- > [email protected] tionpavethewayforentirelyman-made mal amount of genes necessary to w 36 Horizons| Rubrique| CNRS Networks cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

Israel Oneofthefastest-growingeconomiesintheworldisactivelyseekingto commitbothresourcesandbrainpowertoscientificresearch. Small Country, Big Prospects

Key FIguReS patents, which can be seen as one measure of Israel has one of the most highly-educated the effectiveness of the relationship between workforces in the world. Yet if Israelis are inhabitants 7,353,985 (2010 est.) universities and industry. getting a top-grade education at home, Seven major institutions form the back- many scientists prefer to work abroad. of gDP allocated to bone of research endeavors: the Weizmann During the three decades from 1973 to 4.8% r&D (2008) Institute; the Hebrew University of 2005, the number of senior faculties in scientific Jerusalem; Tel Aviv University; the Technion Israel’s research universities increased publications (2008) 9792 (Israël Institute of Technology in Haifa); by just 12% while the population of the co-publications Ben-Gurion University; the University of country more than doubled (+109%). The with cnrs (2008) 246 Haifa; and the Bar-Ilan University. And four US, which is Israel’s main partner in terms cnrs missions to of them rank in the top 150 in the world.2 The of scientific cooperation, is the preferred 327 Israel in 2008 Weizmann Institute, which was founded in destination. 1934 in Rehovot (near Tel Aviv) and special- izes in graduate and post-graduate studies, INteRNatIoNal CommItmeNt came second in The Scientist magazine’s best Many of Israel’s research programs rely ten workplaces worldwide for scientific on international partnerships. The US by elaIne coBBe researchers in 2010. In the last decade, seven and Germany are its two main partners, graduates of the Hebrew University—Israel’s offering major financial incentives for srael may be a young country with oldest university (1925)—were awarded their bilateral programs. France is Israel’s a population of just over seven Nobel Prizes or Fields Medals. fourth-largest partner in terms of scien- million, yet its scientists are among Ithe best in the world. Israel ranks 01 fourth worldwide in terms of scientific activity as measured by the overall number of scientific publications per million active citizens.1 These publications predominantly cover engineering science, applied biology, and medical research. Israel has claimed three Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and one in Economy over the past seven years. The latest laureate,

in 2009, was Ada Yonath, from the pres- n IO tigious Weizmann Institute of Science, undat

who won the prize for her work on ribo- fO

somes, the main protein builders of cells. rate Israel invests heavily in research, PO COr spending 4.8% of its GDP on R&D, more 'Oréal than any other country in the world. The l sfOr

majority of funds dedicated to civilian BI

R&D purposes is allocated to economic /COr er development, mainly in industry and I Pellet

agriculture. The country is one of the M.

world’s five leaders in terms of registered © n°19°20 I quarterly I octoBerJanuary 20112010 CNRS NetworksRubrique |Horizons | 37 w

mediterranean lebanon sea syria Golan Haifa HeiGHts tific cooperation, behind the US, ancient and contemporary history. Today, Germany, and the UK. Yet France is CNRS is heavily involved in two success- West involved in just 11% of Israel’s interna- Tel Aviv bank ful European Associated Laboratories tional co-publications—which represents (LEAs), which bring together researchers Jerusalem half the number of co-publications with gaza and students at the cutting edge of their Germany. Israel has also been very Beer fields: the France-Israel Laboratory of successful as an associated country in the Sheva Neuroscience (FILN) and the Nano Bio European Union Framework Programmes jordan Science laboratory (LEA NaBi). since the end of the 1990s and was the fifth LEA FILN, which was created in largest grants beneficiary for young egypt 2004, was the first major cooperative scientists from the prestigious European venture between CNRS and the Research Council in 2010. Hebrew University of Jerusalem. FILN The major funding body for Franco- saudi brings together some 30 researchers Israeli cooperative projects is the High arabia and postdoctoral fellows and uses a Council for Scientific and Technological multidisciplinary approach to investigate Research (HCST), jointly financed by running joint structures built on its own the workings of the human brain. In both countries. Since its creation in 2004, expertise associated with leading Israeli 2010, FILN widened its scope by it has supported over 120 research experts. CNRS laboratories are involved extending its collaboration to the projects within the framework of separate in 52% of total Franco-Israeli co-publica- Weizmann Institute and the University of programs including sustainable tions and in most Franco-Israeli research Haifa. agriculture, astrophysics, human collaborations. Last year, CNRS was LEA NaBi was set up in 2008 with the genetics, biomedical imaging, and co-organizer of two conferences held in Weizmann Institute. It runs projects in neuroscience and robotics. The next 01 Professor ada Israel, on biodiversity and on renewable both fundamental and applied sciences, yonath, recipient of round of funding, in 2011, will be the 2009 nobel Prize energies, to encourage new developments in the multidisciplinary and rapidly- allocated to projects in renewable energy in chemistry. in these areas. expanding field of nanobioscience, at the and computational neuroscience. 02 the Koffler CNRS’s presence in Israel dates back interface between nanoscience and accelerator at the to 1963, with the creation of the French biology. Some of the projects include new Weizmann Institute. loNg-StaNdINg paRtNeRS 3 03 the french Research Center of Jerusalem (CRFJ), developments in nanoscience, biomedical CNRS plays a major role in promoting research center of the oldest CNRS body abroad, mainly imaging, and new types of biosensors. Franco-Israeli cooperation, initiating and Jerusalem. dedicated to archeology, but also to CNRS is also a partner and sponsor of the annual Award for Academic 02 Excellence of the France-Israel Foundation. The award, a cash prize, honors one French and one Israeli scientist, under 40 years of age, who have

Ce excelled in their field. Although still in its en l ooKINg to the FutuRe sCI infancy, the prize, which was set up in f O 2008, is already gathering interest. Three tute I Building on its existing projects is the new Paris- awards went to CNRS researchers Inst structured and long-term Jerusalem Doctoral College, a working in the fields of cancer, water, and ann cooperative projects with the partnership between French, IzM Hebrew University and the Israeli, and Palestinian renewable energies, respectively. We e Weizmann Institute, CNRS is institutions, expected to be 01. s ource:2008OeCdandsCI(dVded.;thomson tH

© reuters). expanding its horizons to launched in September 2011. It 02.HebrewuniversityofJerusalem,telavivuniversity, 03 reinforce links with other Israeli will draw on the resources of the technionandtheWeizmannInstitute(shanghaiJiao institutions and has a number of French Research Center of tonguniversity2010academicrankingofWorld universities). associated laboratory projects in Jerusalem, three French 03.CentrederecherchefrançaisdeJérusalem(Cnrs/ the pipeline. universities,1 the Ben-Gurion Ministèredesaffairesétrangères). CNRS is now joining forces with University, and the Al Quds Tel Aviv University to set up new University in Jerusalem. The joint projects. These will include College’s main goal is to teach an associated laboratory in mediation skills and build on

J computer science, which is intercultural exchanges rf

I,C expected to facilitate the between Israeli and Palestinian contact InformatIon: development of joint post- researchers in social sciences. DercI, Paris. Francesca grassia Barazan graduate studies. 01. u niversitésParis-V,Paris-VII, > [email protected] M.

International Affairs Last July, CNRS established its new European Research and International Cooperation Office (DERCI). Director Minh-Hà Pham Delègue explains its objectives. DERCI: CNRS’s New Office for International Cooperation

By FabrIce Demarthon

Can you outline DERCI’s mandate? DERCI’s goal is to coordinate all operations run by CNRS both in Europe, to strengthen European research, and in the rest of the world, to develop international cooperation. It combines the former Offices of European Affairs and International Relations. Indeed, CNRS President Alain Fuchs and the board of directors believe it is essential that our French and foreign contacts rely on a single point of entry. Hence the creation of DERCI, a central authority to implement the international strategy of CNRS and its ten institutes.

What are your current priorities? We first intend to strengthen our links with other CNRS departments and with our ten institutes. Our mission is to help them build international partnerships and meet their scientific objectives. We will set up new indicators to assess our activities: the number of joint publications and patents with our foreign partners, student exchanges, etc. We would like to monitor our collaborations over the long term, to be able to see how they evolve. We also wish to consolidate our network of partners—embassies, universities, or other higher education institutions —by giving them access to our infrastructures. In connection with French embassies’ scientific and technological services, our offices could become real hubs for French research abroad.

CNRS has a number of offices abroad. What is their current status? CNRS offices abroad are not intended to be perma- nent. Those in London and Bonn, for example, have been closed, as our researchers can easily collaborate with their European colleagues. Others are created E to initiate new cooperations. We have just opened an èqu office in India, and we plan to establish one in Malta. tOtH

HO As an emerging country, India is a strategic partner, but it is naturally inclined to work with English- /CNRS P

PLAS speaking countries. This is why we need to reinforce

international cooperation MoRoCCo w A framework agreement between CNRS and the Moroccan CNRST1 was signed in Paris last July to enhance cooperation between the two institutions. This agreement aims to support joint research projects, researcher exchanges, the organization of bilateral conferences and seminars, and cooperation in data it will be our bridgehead to the countries around the and information diffusion, as well as in training. Mediterranean. This region is proving to be of para- 01. centre national pour la recherche scientifique ett echnique. mount importance for many scientific fields, including environmental research and space science. ChINA w on october 22, 2010, an agreement was signed in Shanghai to create an CNRS has also established unique cooperation International Research Network (GDRI) on the Quantum Manipulation of Atoms tools to develop and run its international and Photons (QMAP). It brings together eight institutions from China and ten collaborations. What are they? from France, all specialized in quantum physics. The main objective of the GDRI International Research Networks (GDRIs), QMAP is to strengthen existing exchanges and cooperation, and enhance International Associated Laboratories (LIAs), and coordination between French and Chinese laboratories and research institutes. International Joint Research Units (UMIs) are collaborative tools created to promote exchanges SouTh KoREA between researchers from different countries. GDRIs w A joint research center between and LIAs are virtual laboratories that facilitate the IPCMS1 in Strasbourg (France) communication between researchers from CNRS and the Ewha Womans university in and from foreign institutions on a defined subject, Seoul (South Korea), was whereas UMIs bring together researchers and inaugurated last october in Seoul. technicians on projects at a specific location. Several teams from IPCMS will work

We would like to see the emergence of scientific with local researchers on CNRS INP / bA collaboration clusters by establishing links between spintronics, spin-photonics, and quantum imaging applications in the ENAL © K. P “Our offices could new “Quantum Dynamic Imaging q From left to right: marc Drillon (IPcms Director), Research Center.” bertrand girard (cnrs Institute of Physics Director), become real 01. Institut de physique et chimie des matériaux de minh-hà Pham-Delègue (DercI's Director), Jeong Weon hubs for French strasbourg (cnrs / université strasbourg-I). Wu (Professor at ewha Womans university). research abroad.” various CNRS structures located in the same country or region. In Singapore, for example, we have two G rants / Fellowships UMIs involving a dozen researchers. We would like to strengthen exchanges so that their activities are euraxess i cordis i égide i coordinated with local scientific partners. We also this portal provides information cordis is the gateway to Égide is a non-profit intend to encourage the emergence of inter-institute on grants, fellowships, or european research and organization that manages research networks on specific themes including positions available throughout development. It lists all French government Environment and Sustainable Development, europe as well as practical information on the funding international mobility especially in countries where our contingent is information (accommodation, allocated by the 7th european programs. many funding scattered, like China. childcare and schools, Framework program (FP7). opportunities are listed on healthcare...) for each country. > http://cordis.europa.eu the website, and most of the Do you plan to create new collaborative tools? > http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/ content is in english. > www.egide.asso.fr We are working on creating French extensions to the existing UMIs. Established on French university working in a french lab, practical information: campuses, they would host students and researchers The Kastler Foundation French embassies and France Contact will help sent by our partners abroad. This type of structure (FNAK): helps foreign consulates abroad: you plan and arrange your stay should encourage balanced exchanges between researchers settle in France and > www.expatries.diplomatie. in France. French researchers and their foreign counterparts. maintains contact after their gouv.fr/annuaires/annuaires. > www.francecontact.net departure. htm Edufrance: Information on > www.fnak.fr Association Bernard France’s higher education Foreign embassies and Gregory: this association programs—course enlistment, consulates in France: helps young PhDs from any grant and fellowship contact InFormatIon: > www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/ discipline find employment. applications. DERCI, Paris. > [email protected] annuaire/ > www.abg.asso.fr > www.edufrance.fr w 40 | CNRS Networks cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

Sociology Democracy in Question

By sebastIán escalón Europe” (LEA Code) is to analyze the dif- Other themes covered by this Franco- ferences and similarities that make up German laboratory include euroscepti- w Far from being a universal concept, the structure of an array of democratic cism, citizen participation at the local the word “democracy” covers multi- systems. Established in 2005 and re- level, and people’s perception of the ple realities depending on the country. newed in 2009, this LEA has enabled its concept of democracy itself. “Democracy the aim of the European Associated two partners—the bordeaux laboratory is not understood in the same way in Laboratory “Comparing Democracies in Spirit1 and the Institute of Social Sciences both countries. For example, violent of the university of Stuttgart (ISSuS)—to action is considered as a possible, even develop ambitious international research legitimate form of participation in France, programs on this theme and increase which is far from being the case in exchanges between students and Germany,” Kerrouche explains. researchers from France and Germany. the creation of this LEA has In February 2010, the LEA launched a institutionalized a 20-year-old collabora- major study entitled “Citizens and tion between the two laboratories. this Representatives in France and Germany” project will come to an end in late 2012, (Citrep). “the idea is to compare how poli- but researchers hope to keep investigat- ticians and citizens perceive the political ing and comparing the perception of process in France and Germany,” explains politics in their respective countries in the Éric Kerrouche, head of the laboratory’s future. French contingent. the study will begin 01. Science politique relations internationales with a survey to find out what the French territoire (CNRS / IEP bordeaux / université de bordeaux). and Germans know—or think they know —about the work carried out by their members of parliament (MPs). Next, RÉA /

IC researchers will follow 120 MPs for one v

DO week in both countries during their Lu contact InFormatIon: © q constituency visits. “It is virtually an sPIrIt, Pessac. the Franco-german laboratory code launched an extensive survey Éric Kerrouche aimed at comparing the work of mPs in both countries, and assessing ethnographic study on the work of parlia- > [email protected] how the general public viewed their mandates. mentarians in the field,” Kerrouche adds.

NuPNEt The Future of European Nuclear Physics

By marIe lescroart tion accelerator; and nuclear theory Commission. the program enables Eu related to structure and reactions. research financing agencies to pool w on october 15, 2010, the members “Europe needs joint initiatives, as resources for projects and installations of NuPNET, a joint European network technologies are becoming increasingly that benefit all member countries. “A call for nuclear physics coordinated by complex, and the infrastructures for tender on the selected priorities will CNRS, defined strategic goals for the necessary to expand our research now be issued to European research financing of European research in the programs and remain competitive are laboratories,” says Galès. “the first proj- discipline. ever more expensive. this prompted us ects co-financed by NuPNEt members Representatives of 18 research- to set up NuPNEt,” explains Sydney should begin in the fall of 2011.” funding institutions across 14 Eu Galès, deputy scientific director of 01. Institut national de physique nucléaire et de countries gathered at CNRS headquar- CNRS’s National Institute of Nuclear and physique des particules. 02. Grand Accélérateur National d’Ions Lourds ters in Paris to draw up a list of priority Particle Physics (IN2P3),1 director of the (CNRS / CEA). research themes in nuclear physics. National Large Heavy Ion Accelerator 2 these were divided into three major (GANIL), and NuPNEt coordinator. contact InFormatIon: areas: technological R&D for new Launched in 2008 for a three-year ganil, caen. Sydney Galès generation detectors; R&D for the infra- trial period, NuPNEt was allocated a > [email protected] structures of the “Eurisol” new genera- budget of €1.3 million by the European N°20 I quarterly I JaNuary 2011 CNRS Networks | 41

Sustainable Development Bio-Refineries of the Future

BY JeaN-PHIlIPPe Braly treatment of raw materials, improved Another advantage is flexibility: separation and transformation of the existing European infrastructures which wEuroBioRef1 is a joint four-year biomass and its by-products, enhance- can so far only transform a single type of project coordinated by CNRS. It aims to ment of final products, optimization of biomass into a single product (e.g., wheat optimize bio-refineries in order to trans- logistics, and adaptation to local condi- into bioethanol) could be adapted with form a wide variety of biomass—such as tions (e.g., climate and available land). only minor modifications. By the end of non-edible crops and residues from “In this unprecedented joint effort, the program, several pilot/plant-scale agriculture and forestry—into high value CNRS researchers are notably contribut- demonstrations will be performed. In added products, such as aviation fuel, ing their expertise in chemical catalytic Poland, for example, researchers even chemicals, polymers, and solvents. processes,” points out Franck Dumeignil, plan to produce a new kind of aviation oNliNE. EuroBioRef was launched in March project coordinator and deputy director fuel that could be used to operate >www.eurobioref.org 2010. It involves 28 partners in 14 countries, of the UCCS laboratory2 in Villeneuve airliners. including laboratories, biochemical compa- d’Ascq. “The teams involved will develop 01. European Multilevel Integrated Biorefinery Design nies, and industrial stakeholders from the catalysts to transform components that for Sustainable Biomass Processing. 02. Unité de catalyse et de chimie du solide (CNRS / agricultural and biomass production sec- are seldom used—or not used at all— Universités Lille Nord de France, Lille-I, and tors. The project has been allocated a bud- into molecules of interest, while using as d’Artois / ENSCL / ECLille). get of €37.4 million, co-funded by the EU and little energy as possible.”

the participants themselves. The project aims to reduce the ener- CoNtaCt INformatIoN: EuroBioRef focuses on every step of getic cost of bio-refineries by30 % and the uCCS, Villeneuve d’ascq. Franck Dumeignil the process: from crop cultivation to quantity of raw materials needed by at > [email protected] marketed products through pre- least 10%, with no waste output. booksi

Thermal Radiation in Disperse Systems: iRASEC Publications: An Engineering Approach. o ptical Absorption of wBasedinBangkok(Thailand)theResearch LeonidA.Dombrovskyand impurities and InstituteonContemporarySoutheastAsia DominiqueBaillis.(Redding: Defects in (IRASEC)publishesbooksandperiodicalsonits BegellHouse,2010),520p, Semiconducting activities—primarilyfocusedonthepolitical, economic,andsocialevolutionsoftheeleven $326. Crystals. countriesoftheregion. w Providing a systematic Hydrogen-like Centres. consideration of diverse Bernard Recent publications in English: problems of thermal Pajot. radiation in disperse systems, (Berlin: Sustainability of Thailand’s Water and this book can be considered Springer, Competitiveness: Sustainability in as a manual on applied 2010)470p, The Policy Challenges. Arid Regions radiative and combined heat €158.20. Patarapong Bridging the Gap Between transfer problems. It is w looking Intarakumnerdand Physical and Social written for students, back at the YvelineLecler,Eds. Sciences. engineers, and researchers knowledge (Singapore:ISEAS,2010) GracielaSchneier-Madanes in this field. accumulated 331p.$49.90. andMarie-FrancoiseCourel, in 60 years of Eds.(Berlin:Springer,2010), research on New Dynamics 349p,€158.20. impurities and dopants of between China and w Through an semiconductors and Japan in Asia. interdisciplinary approach insulators, the author How to Build the Future that combines physical and provides an update on the from the Past? social sciences, this book is a bulk optical properties of GuyFaure,Ed.(Singapore: global and comprehensive hydrogen-like centers, WorldScientific,2010).349 scientific exploration of the including specific classes of p.$108. issue of water and centers and absorption sustainability in arid lands properties under external moRE AT. across the planet. perturbations. >www.irasec.com w 42 | CNRS Facts and Figures cnrs I InternatIonal magazIne

TheCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique (NationalCenterforScientificResearch)isagovernment- fundedresearchorganizationundertheadministrative authorityofFrance’sMinistryofResearch.

Founded in 1939 by governmental CNRSresearchunitsareeitherfullyfunded DERCI, an office dedicated to decree, CNRS is the largest andmanagedbyCNRS,orruninpartnershipwith European and international fundamental research organization universities,otherresearchorganizations,or collaborations. in Europe. industry.TheyarespreadacrossFrance,andemploy CNRScarriesoutresearchactivities CNRSisinvolvedinallscientific alargenumberofpermanentresearchers, throughouttheworld,incollaboration fieldsthroughtenspecializedinstitutes engineers,technicians,andadministrativestaff. withlocalpartners,thuspursuingan dedicatedto: TheCNRSannualbudgetrepresentsone- activeinternationalpolicy. qLifesciences quarterofFrenchpublicspendingoncivilian TheEuropeanResearchand qPhysics research.Thisbudgetisco-fundedbythepublic InternationalCooperationOffice qNuclearandParticlePhysics sectorandbyCNRS,whoserevenuestreamsinclude (DirectionEuropedelarechercheet qChemistry EUresearchcontractsandroyaltiesonpatents, coopérationinternationale(DERCI)) qMathematics licenses,andservicesprovided.CNRS’s 2011 budget coordinatesandimplementsthe policies qComputerscience was €3.2 billion. ofCNRSinEuropeandworldwide,and qEarthsciencesandAstronomy CNRSemployssome34,000staff,including maintainsdirectrelationswithits qHumanitiesandSocialsciences 11,400researchersand14,200engineersand institutionalpartnersabroad. qEnvironmentalsciencesand technicians.Nearly1100researchunits(90%)are Tocarryoutitsmission,theDERCI Sustainabledevelopment jointresearchlaboratorieswithuniversities reliesonanetworkof9representative qEngineering andindustry. officesabroad,aswellasonscienceand technologyofficesinFrenchembassies aroundtheworld.

contact InformatIon: > [email protected] websIte: > www.cnrs.fr/derci

kEy FIguRES CNRS SuppoRtS 572 SCIENtIFIC CollaboRatIvE StRuCtuRED pRojECtS aCRoSS thE woRlD International Programs for 343 scientific cooperation (PIcs) International associated 114laboratories (lea + lIa)

UE International research èq 93 networks (gDre + gDrI) HOTOTH P International Joint Units (UmI) /CNRS 22 IGET T N. © q cnrs’s headquarters in Paris.

Trimestriel-Janvier2011 Editorial Offices: 1,placeAristideBriand/F-92195MeudonCedexPhone:+33(0)145075375Fax:+33(0)145075668Email: [email protected]Website: www.cnrs.fr CNRS (headquarters): 3rueMichelAnge/F-75794Pariscedex16 Publisher: AlainFuchsEditorial Director: BrigittePeruccaDeputy Editorial Director: FabriceImpérialiEditor: IsabelleTratner Production Manager: LaurenceWinterWriters: EliasAwad,EmilieBadin,Jean-PhilippeBraly,ElaineCobbe,CarolineDangléant,DenisDelbecq, FabriceDemarthon,SebastiánEscalÓn,MathieuGrousson,FuiLeeLuk,MarieLescroart,MarkReynolds,TomRidgway,VahéTerMinassian, internationalmagazine PhilippeTestard-Vaillant,ClémentineWallace. Translation Manager: ValerieHerczegCopy Editor: SamanMusacchioGraphic Design: CélineHeinIconography: ChristellePineau,DelphineMeyssard Cover Illustration: GettyImages/C.Anderson;F.Plas/CNRSPhotothèquePhotoengraving: ScoopCommunication/F-94276LeKremlin-Bicêtre Printing: ImprimerieDidierMary/6,ruedelaFerté-sous-Jouarre/F-77440Mary-sur-MarneISSN1778-1442AIP0001308 CNRS Photos are available at:[email protected] ;http://phototheque.cnrs.fr Allrightsreserved.PartialorfullreproductionofarticlesorillustrationsisstrictlyprohibitedwithoutpriorwrittenpermissionfromNRS.C N°20 I quarterly I JaNuary 2011 Snapshot | 43

Ocean Gems w No necklace or rings will ever be The Villefranche sur Mer marine station, decorated with these gems. They are created in 1885, is located on a site actually planktonic larvae and protists particularly well suited to collecting and that were collected by Christian Sardet studying plankton. Research teams on site and his team at the Villefranche sur Mer are also actively participating in the Tara marine station.1 This image is from the Oceans expedition,3 which left Lorient online video and photo series “Plankton (France) in September 2009 for a three-year Chronicles.”2 mission to survey all the oceans around the E The sample was collected in the bay of world. It is dedicated to the collection and hèqu Villefranche sur Mer using plankton nets analysis of all kinds of marine plankton, from OTOT (with a mesh size of 0.12 mm). It contains a viruses and bacteria to small fish and jellyfish. RS Ph n diverse mix of zooplankton, including jelly-

/C 01. Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche sur Mer fish, shellfish larvae, and egg cases—a few (CnRS / uPMC).

CéAnS 02. Initiated with CnRS images. O millimeters in size—but also microscopic www.planktonchronicles.com. ARA web single cell protists, a few acantharians (star- 03. http://oceans.taraexpeditions.org/ a video and a selection of pictures can be viewed shaped), dinoflagellates (with horns), and CoNtaCt INformatIoN: on the online version of CNrS magazine. Christian Sardet

iMoScoWi w Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States iWaShington dci Head: Vladimir Mayer w USA and Canada ✖ APP 98 14, Oulista Goubkina 117312 Moscow - Russia Head: Jean Favero iBruSSelSi Tel. +7 495 129 03 13 French Embassy w European Union Fax +7 495 938 22 29 iBeijingi Mission Scientifique ✖ Head: Monica Dietl ✖ [email protected] w China et Technologique 98, rue du Trône ✖ 4101 Reservoir Road RD, N.W. Head: Patrick Nédellec B - 1050 Brussels - Belgium Golden Lake Garden Washington DC 20007-2176 - USA Tel. +32 2 548 10 40 ✖ Tel. +1 202 944 62 40 ✖ Block C-Apt 25E Fax +32 2 548 10 46 23, Baijiazhuang Dongli Fax +1 202 944 62 43 [email protected] [email protected] Chaoyang District 100026 Beijing - China itokyoi ipariS - headquarterSi Tel. +86 10 65901132 w Japan, Korea, Taiwan 3, rue Michel-Ange Fax +86 10 65901127 Head: Guy Faure 75794 Paris Cedex 16 - France [email protected] ✖ CNRS Tokyo Office Tel. +33 (0)1 44 96 40 00 Maison Franco-Japonaise www.cnrs.fr 3-9-25 Ebisu Shibuya-ku 150-0013 Tokyo - Japan Tel. +81 3 3443 8551 Fax +81 3 3443 8552

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