N°17 quarterly april 2010 The War on cancer i Nterview Michel Spiro New president of the advancing the frontiers CERN Council contentscontentsCONTENTS 3 COVER STORY CNRS International Magazine FRENCH RESEARCH NEWS 4 Trimestriel - Avril 2010 New CNRS President, Recent 18 1 place Aristide Briand F-92195 Meudon Cedex awards, Mission in Haiti. Telephone: +33 (0)1 45 07 53 75 Fax: +33 (0)1 45 07 56 68 The War on Email: [email protected] LIVE FROM THE LABS Website: www.cnrs.fr CNRS (headquarters) 3 rue Michel Ange 6 F-75794 Paris cedex 16 CANCER Publisher: Alain Fuchs (CNRS) > Old Epidemic, New Analysis > 18 Editorial Director: > Understanding Cancer > 22 Marie-Hélène Beauvais (CNRS) Deputy Editorial Director: > Towards Customized Treatment > 26 Fabrice Impériali (CNRS) Managing Editor: I sabelle Tratner (CNRS) Production Manager: Laurence Winter S taff Writer: Fabrice Demarthon Freelance Writers: Emilie Badin Julien Bourdet Jean-Philippe Braly Elaine Cobbe y/CNRS Photothèque Caroline Dangléant Sébastián Escalón Marion Girault-Rime . Godefro Camille Lamotte 33 © S Séverine Lemaire-Duparcq Marie Lescroart Fui Lee Luk AROUND THE WORLD Adeline Marquis Xavier Müller ajau/CNRS Photothèque > FOREIGN PARTNER 31 autrin Saman Musacchio V ULAB Marion Papanian © B. R Mark Reynolds Franco-German cooperation Tom Ridgway > SPOTLIGHT 6 against osteoporosis. Philippe Testard-Vaillant Catching Particles Clémentine Wallace Underground > THEY CHOSE FRANCE 33 Translation Manager: Ongoing work at the Modane Rachel Sherrard Aimée Lahaussois (CNRS) Using proteins to repair brain Copy Editor: Underground Laboratory. Saman Musacchio damage. Graphic Design: > NEWS 8 Céline Hein Why birds nest farther North, > HORIZONS 34 Iconography: © M. D’Hallewin/CRAN Centre Alexis Cecilia Vignuzzi (CNRS) Fermi’s latest results, Smarter Spain Cover Illustration: A country committed to boosting Celine Hein for the CNRS magazine; carriers, The birth of galaxies, IN IMAGES 28 C. Lebedinsky/CNRS Photothèque Alien oceans, Monkey talk, Priceless Gems research and development. Photoengraving: Scoop Communication - Multiferroic materials, Exploring the UPMC’s minerals F- 94276 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre Quantifying CO absorption, collection. Printing: 2 INNOVATION 36 Imprimerie Didier Mary Organic transistors. CNRS collaborates with Airbus, 6, rue de la Ferté-sous-Jouarre F-77440 Mary-sur-Marne > ON LOCATION 16 Dendrochronology to date historic ISSN 1778-1442 Fraux Cave buildings. AIP 0001308 3D scans to record history. CNRS Photos are available at: CNRS NEWSWIRE 38 [email protected] PROFILE 17 http://phototheque.cnrs.fr > Françoise Forges New CERN Council president, All rights reserved. Partial or full reproduction Floods and water quality, of articles or illustrations is strictly prohibited 2009 CNRS Silver Medalist. without prior written permission from CNRS. The 2010 France-Russia year. CNRS Photo and Video databases now in English The CNRS photo and video libraries provide open Photos and DVDs can be ordered online. access to a wide range of scientific pictures (18,000) and films* (1400). Guests and registered users can access PHOTO LIBRARY a search engine in English, or browse through the thematic http://phototheque.cnrs.fr/indexL02.html selections on the home page. VIDEO LIBRARY *over 200 in English. http://videotheque.cnrs.fr/index.php?langue=EN CNRS International Magazine n7°1April 2010 4 FRENCHRESEARCHNEWS APPOINTMENT A New President for CNRS Launch of a On January 20th, 2010, chemist 2007, and of the physical deep-sea Hippocampe Alain Fuchs was appointed chemistry division of the French OBS (Ocean President of CNRS by the French Chemical Society (SFC) and the Bottom Council of Ministers. A professor French Physical Society (SFP) Seismometer). at Pierre and Marie Curie from 2002 to 2005. A knight of University and former CNRS the Order of Academic Palms, he © Géoazur senior researcher, he had been is also a member of the board of MISSION IN HAITI director of the National Graduate directors of the International After the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on School of Chemistry of Paris Adsorption Society, and fellow of January 12th, several French laboratories, some (ENSCP) since January 1st, 2006. the Royal Society of Chemistry. linked to CNRS, have set up the Haiti-OBS Founder of Orsay’s Laboratory of Dr. Fuchs, 57, takes over from oceanographic campaign to record the ongoing physical chemistry (LCP), which Catherine Bréchignac, who has aftershocks. Some 21 seismometers were fixed he directed until 2006, Dr. Fuchs been appointed Ambassador for on the seabed, and the seaward extension of the fault responsible for the earthquake will be has focused his research on the Science, Technology and accurately mapped. modeling and molecular Innovation. In accordance with This mission was launched in response to the simulation of confined fluids. He the organization’s new decree, specially commissioned report made by the was president of the National the new CNRS president will also intervention unit of CNRS’s National Institute of Committee for Scientific take on the role of director Earth Sciences and Astronomy. Carried out on board Ifremer’s oceanographic vessel–the Research’s Section 13 (Physical general of the organization, a Atalante–the mission should help evaluate risks in Chemistry: Molecules, position held until now by the region and improve our overall understanding Environments) from 2004 to Arnold Migus. of the mechanisms that cause earthquakes. AWARDSAWARDSAWARDSAWARDS New Earlier this year, three major distinctions were awarded European to French researchers. Alain Aspect, CNRS senior researcher and winner of the 2005 CNRS Gold Medal, Commissioner 1 shares the 2010 Wolf Prize in Physics –one of the world’s for Research © European Union most prestigious prizes–with two other scientists, John F. The Irish Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, 59, has been Chatin/CNRS Photothèque Clauser (US) and Anton Zeilinger (Austria), for their work . named new European Commissioner for Research © J in quantum physics. The prize will be formally awarded by and Innovation. After serving her country in several Israeli President Shimon Peres during a ceremony at ministerial posts, notably as Minister for European the Knesset on May 13th, 2010. Affairs, for Education, and for Justice, she had held a Bernard Derrida, also a physicist, and a professor at 2 position at the European Court of Auditors since 2000. UPMC, was the 2010 recipient of the Boltzmann She succeeds Janez Potocnik, who has taken up the Medal. Awarded every three years, this medal environment portfolio. represents the highest distinction in statistical physics. Derrida will receive the prize in Australia this July. rida Finally, CNRS Senior Researcher © B. Der Isabelle Rico-Lattès received the 9th Chéreau- CNRS Well-Funded Lavet engineer-inventor prize. A 2006 CNRS Silver by ERC Medalist, she is rewarded for her major contribution to a new generation of therapeutic Thirteen CNRS staff members were selected for the ”2009 Advanced Grants” of the European Research Council (ERC). Cheziere/CNRS Photothèque formulations with applications in cosmetics and They are among the 236 top-class European scientists A. © ophthalmology, among others. whose projects will be financed by the ERC. These grants 1. http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1695.htm wish to encourage bold new projects and interdisciplinarity 2. Laboratoire de physique statistique de l’ENS (CNRS / among experienced researchers. Universités Paris-VI and VII / ENS Paris). > http://erc.europa.eu CNRS International Magazine n7°1April 2010 editorialeditorialEDITORIAL 5 Alain Fuchs we joined forces with the French chemical company Rhodia CNRS President and the University of Pennsylvania (US) to set up an International Joint Unit (UMI) called COMPASS (Complex Assemblies of y/CNRS Photothèque y/CNRS Soft Matter). In India, in March, we founded an International Asso- ciated Laboratory (LIA) on nuclear physics, in association with . Godefro S the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and India’s © Bhabha Atomic Research Center. That same month, an LIA for fluid physics and mechanics was created CNRS’s Global Agenda in Argentina, at the school of engineering of the University of Buenos Aires. And these are just a few recent examples among the numerous structured s the new president of CNRS, I am deeply honored collaborations in which CNRS is involved around the world. to be leading a world-renowned research organiza- CNRS now has scientific agreements in place with 93 countries. tion uniting no fewer than 33,000 collaborators, Backed by its nine offices abroad, it conducts 304 International and which has counted 16 Nobel Laureates and Programs for Scientific Cooperation (PICS), has formed 87 9 Fields Medal winners in its 70-year history. In European and International Research Networks (GDRE/GDRI), Athe course of my career as a chemist, I have worked in many and supervises 20 International Joint Units (UMI) in addition different countries, and I can assert that CNRS has a strong inter- to 27 joint units in the humanities and social sciences. Our national reputation for scientific work of the highest quality. I hope researchers take part in 52,000 research trips abroad every year. to consolidate this reputation during my term of office. With these projects, many of which are at the initiative of Today I find myself at the head of a newly restructured researchers themselves, a global network of scientific organization. The reform effort has resulted in the creation of collaborations