150 years on, The World According to DARWIN - · PDF fileDARWIN According to The World 150...

advancing the frontiers

DARWINAccording to

The World150 years on,

n°13quarterly april 2009

on locationGOCE Mission

Determining the Real Shape of Earth

CNRS Photo and Video databases now in English

CONTENTS 3

CNRSInternational Magazine

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contents

CNRS International Magazine n° 13 April 2009

contents

> FOREIGN PARTNER 31First Joint Unit in AfricaTackling industrialization and itsimpact on health.

> THEY CHOSE FRANCE 32Marcello SolinasResearch into addiction.

> HORIZONS 34ArgentinaScientific revival.

INNOVATION 36Second-generation biofuels,meat-cutting technology, makingtumors fluorescent.

CNRS NEWSWIRE 38 Europe’s ambitious spaceprogram, Paris city of maths,International collaborations.

FRENCH RESEARCH NEWS 4The Abel prize and other awards.

LIVE FROM THE LABS

AROUND THE WORLD

> SPOTLIGHT 6Keeping an Eye on the SkyThe Service d’aéronomie’srelentless quest for knowledge.

> NEWS 8Neanderthal extinction, Fightingred tides, Core-multishellnanoparticles, Parkinson’s ironfactor, Cool THz lasers, Ancientforests and CO2, Mechanicalpressure as gene regulator,Mantle conductivity, GOCEreshapes Earth.

> PROFILE 16Claire Voisin2008 Clay Research award.

COVER STORY18

150 YEARS ON,

THE WORLDAccording to

DARWIN> The origins of a theory > 19

> Research in evolution > 23

> When controversy rages > 26

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IN IMAGES 28 Claude Lévi-StraussCelebrating the founding father ofstructuralism.

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The CNRS photo and video libraries provide open access to a wide range of scientific pictures (18,000) and films* (1400). Guests and registered users can accessa search engine in English, or browse through thethematic selections on the home page.*over 200 in English.

Photos and DVDs can be ordered online. PHOTO LIBRARY

Ô http://phototheque.cnrs.fr/indexL02.html

VIDEO LIBRARY

Ô http://videotheque.cnrs.fr/index.php?langue=EN

Anne Houdusse1 has been awarded the “FEBS/EMBOWomen in Science” prize, given every year to a woman whohas made an exceptional contribution to the life sciences.Gérard Férey, from the Institut Lavoisier2 has won the ENIprize for the protection of the environment, awarded by theeponymous Italian petroleum company, for his work onlarge-scale sequestration of CO2. And Michel Dyakonov fromLPTA3 received the American Physical Society’s “BellerLectureship Award.”

Sébastien Candel, from the EMC2 Laboratory,4 has beenelected as a foreign associate of the US National Academy ofEngineering, while George Calas, from IMPMC5 has beenmade a Fellow of the Geochemical Society and of theEuropean Association for Geochemistry.

Last but not least, Gérard Mourou, head of LOA6 andprofessor at the Physics Department of the EcolePolytechnique, has been elected to the physics section of theprestigious Academy of Russian Sciences. Mourou has mademajor contributions to the invention of the laseramplification technique, which has paved the way for newfields in optics and physics.1. Motilité structurale (CNRS / Institut Curie).2. CNRS / Université Pierre et Marie Curie.3. Laboratoire de physique théorique et astroparticules (CNRS / Université Montpellier-II).4. Energétique moléculaire et macroscopique, combustion (CNRS / Ecole Centrale Paris).5. Institut de minéralogie et de physique des milieux condensés (CNRS / Université deVersailles Saint-Quentin).6. Laboratoire d’optique appliquée (CNRS / Ecole polytechnique / ENSTA / UniversitéParis-XI).

Sixteen CNRS researchers were chosen as recipients of thefirst “Advanced Grant” competition put out by the EuropeanResearch Council (ERC).1 Twelve of them are hosted atCNRS and four in other institutions in France or abroad.CNRS thus takes top place among host organisations inEurope. The objective of these grants is to give backing tointernationally-recognized and experienced researchers ofall nationalities hosted in laboratories in the European Unionor associated countries. Three major fields were covered:physical sciences and engineering, life sciences, andhumanities and social sciences. Interdisciplinary projectswere also selected. The winners can be funded to the tuneof as much as €3.5 million over a period of five years.

1. http://erc.europa.eu/

Ô ERC ADVANCED GRANT

CNRS Takes First Place

FRENCHRESEARCHNEWS4


Ô AWARDS

France on the Move

A New Director for Humanities andSocial SciencesBruno Laurioux has been appointedscientific director of Humanities and SocialSciences at CNRS as of February 1st, 2009.He had been acting director since September1st, 2008. He will be entrusted with settingup CNRS’ new Institute of Humanities andSocial Sciences.

is CNRS’ global position in the Webometrics ranking of the mostvisible research and higher education institutions on the internet.Drawn up by the Cybermetrics Lab (Consejo Superior deInvestigaciones Cientificas) in Spain, the ranking is based onpopularity indicators of sites as well as on the number ofpublications available online. CNRS takes top place amongEuropean research organizations.

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Abel prizeThe French-Russian mathematician MikhailLeonidovich Gromov, aged 65, was awarded theAbel Prize 2009 for “his revolutionarycontributions to geometry.” A French citizen since1992, Gromov was born in Boksitogorsk in theSoviet Union. Since 1982, he is a permanentprofessor at the Institute of Advanced ScientificStudies (IHES), near Paris. The third Frenchmathematician to win this award since itscreation in 2003, Gromov “has produced deepand original work throughout his career andremains remarkably creative,” commented theAbel Committee.

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The year 2009 marks the bicentennial anniversary of

Charles Darwin’s birth. This great English naturalist,

the father of the theories of evolution and natural

selection, has forever changed our understanding of

how life unfolded. There can be no doubt that Darwin

lies at the origin of modern biology’s most important conceptual

framework, which is based on the incredible variety of life forms

on Earth. Evolution is key to our understanding of the world we

live in, and is indeed one of the great puzzles of modern science.

Why do so many species coexist? How are they shaped? Why do

they come in such a variety of forms, structures, patterns, and

complexity? How did they come about? All these questions are at

the heart of extensive research carried out at CNRS.

Any attempt at understanding the origin, organization, and

preservation of biodiversity necessarily means studying the

mechanisms of evolution. Ever since the 1992 Rio de Janeiro

conference, biodiversity–because it is a key component of the

stability of ecosystems–has also become a social issue and one

of the major challenges for sustainable development. This is why

the study of the history and dynamics of biodiversity is a priority

for the Institute of Ecology and Environment (INEE) at CNRS.1

In this field, CNRS has helped set up several international

research networks focused on various regions of the world,

especially French Guiana, the French Overseas Departments and

Territories, southern Africa, and Asia.

It is also towards the mechanisms of evolution that we turn

when we try to understand the adaptive responses of living

organisms affected by extreme conditions or by a rapidly

changing environment–like that resulting from global warming.

And these similar mechanisms will also help us analyze how

populations and species respond to the countless pollutants

produced by human activity.

Evolutionary processes act at every level, from genomes to

ecosystems, via individuals, populations, and species. Such

processes are varied in nature: they may

be molecular, physiological, morphological,

behavioral, etc. Furthermore, they are

usually slow, and must be studied over long

periods of time–spanning anything from a

few generations to hundreds or thousands

of years, or even on geological time scales. Attempting to under-

stand the origin of evolutionary novelties and reconstruct the tree

of life is no easy task. Meeting such challenges is a genuine

obsession for many researchers at CNRS and elsewhere. But

despite considerable progress, much remains to be done. CNRS

and its dedicated institute (INEE) are very active in the field of

paleoenvironment and paleontology. Recent findings have led to

considerable progress in the history of human origins, pushing

the dawn of human lineage much further back into the past, from

3.5 to 7 million years ago. Recently, to make further progress in

this area, CNRS initiated an international research network in

paleontology, bringing together France, Chad, and the US.

CNRS and the INEE have placed the evolutionary sciences

at the heart of much of their research. For the Institute, the study

of current and past biodiversity cannot be dissociated from

actions in the areas of conservation, environmental management,

and development. Its other priorities are human-environment

relations and ecological analysis, which take into account the

relations between life and its environment, and require detailed

knowledge of the functional aspects and dynamics of ecosystems.

In this way, CNRS is taking a firm stand against the return to

Europe and France of currents of thought that oppose evolution,

like creationism and Intelligent Design. Evolution is a scientific

theory that has been extensively supported by indisputable

evidence, and many CNRS labs are working hard to fully

understand its mechanisms and its full breadth.

1. Which evolved from the Environment and Sustainable Development (EDD)department created in 2006.


5editorialeditorialEDITORIAL

Françoise GaillScientific Director, Institute of Ecology andEnvironment (INEE).

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150 Years of Darwin’s Evolution

AERONOMY

Though its scientists are busy studying the atmospheres of celestial bodies or trackingdown extraterrestrial life, the Service d’aéronomie (SA)1 has its feet firmly on theground. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, we get an exclusive peek at whatgoes on behind the doors of this prestigious lab.

Keeping a Close Eye on the Sky

Which planet shall I take you to?” is thefirst question we’re asked by ChristianMalique, in charge of the technicaldepartment at SA’s site in Verrières-le-Buisson (Essonne), near Paris.

We’re standing at the entrance to a maze of undergroundcorridors that house experimental labs with mysterious-sounding names, like “PHEBUS,” “PAMPRE,” or“MOMA.” The site itself is surprising enough–an oldmilitary fort dating back to 1875 nested in a deepforest–but now we’re off to an even more exoticdestination: Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. Behind thedoor, the silhouettes of three young researchers–of the

140 or so people currently working at SA–can be madeout in the dim light. In the center of the lab lies amesmeric pink glow. “This color is caused by a plasma,an ionized gas.2 It simulates the physical chemistryfound on Titan,” explains Guy Cernogora, the researcherin charge of the PAMPRE project. “This reaction leadsto the formation of fine organic particles, like the onesobserved by the Huygens spacecraft. We’re studyingthem closely, since they might give us clues about theorigin of life on Earth.”

But we are already being rushed off to our nextdestination, which turns out to be Mercury. Other lab,other atmosphere: A young engineer wearing white

gloves, Pierre-Olivier Mine, is busy assembling theprototype of PHEBUS, an ultraviolet spectrometer fora spacecraft that will be launched in 2013 and reachMercury seven years later, in 2020. “This instrumentwill enable us to describe the composition and processesof Mercury’s exosphere, the outermost layer of itsatmosphere,3” Mine explains. Excited by solar radiation,the atoms in the exosphere emit photons, whosecharacteristic wavelength will be picked up by thespectrometer.

We’ve hardly left the lab when we come face toface with the nose cone of a Soviet M 100 rocket fromthe Second World War. But our real destination is theMOMA lab. Here, David Coscia and his colleagues aredeveloping a gas chromatograph. “This device will belooking for traces of life on Mars. It’ll do this by analyzingsamples of soil taken by the European Exomarsspacecraft, whose launch has just been pushed backfrom 2014 to 2016,” Coscia explains before taking usinto the clean room. The air in the room, whose wallsare entirely made of glass, is permanently filtered toprevent any contamination. On a table in the middle ofthe room are five small coils. “If needed, thesechromatographs can replace the ones we providedNASA with for the American MSL mission, a missionsimilar to Exomars which will reach Mars in 2011,”says Coscia. During these missions, the challenge willlie in the analysis of real samples, “which is trickier todo than taking measurements by remote sensing froma satellite,” adds Franck Montmessin, the youngresearcher in charge of one of the Exomars instruments.

KEEPING AN EYE ON OZONE“Remote sensing” is the term that best sums up whathas made SA’s international reputation, bolstered by itsfamous “lidars.” “A lidar is a pulsed laser,” explainsSA Director Alain Hauchecorne. “When it comes intocontact with the various atmospheric constituents, it issent back at wavelengths that are characteristic of theseconstituents. By analyzing these wavelengths, we candetermine and quantify the constituents present along

the laser’s path.” Lidars from this lab now not onlyequip observatories all over the world,4 but also anumber of planes, like the one used for the Polarcat5

mission in the Arctic in 2008. The main goal is tomonitor global stratospheric and tropospheric ozone,and the lab is coordinating the French contribution tothis mission. “By combining these results with meas-urements made by spectrometers on the ground andin various types of balloons, we measured a 3% fall inthe global quantity of ozone between 1991 and 2001,”says Philippe Keckhut, in charge of coordinating ground-based lidar measurements. “The figure even fell by asmuch as 50% at the poles during some winters!”

These data also help validate the measurementsprovided by observation satellites, such as Envisat andits GOMOS instrument. In his office, layered withstacks of files bearing evocative names like Mars Express,Venus, or NASA, Jean-Loup Bertaux tells us how itworks. “GOMOS measures the spectrum of light emit-ted by a star. By comparing it with the spectrum of thesame star as it sets behind the horizon, when its lighttravels through the Earth’s atmosphere, we can infer thelight absorption characteristic of the constituents ofthe Earth’s atmosphere, among which is ozone.” It’s aseasy as that. Using this “star occultation” technique, asit is called, GOMOS has carried out no fewer than 400profiles per day since 2002, and this work is set tocontinue until 2011. The aim is to map the concentrationof ozone and other constituents of the Earth’satmosphere at an altitude of between 15 and 100kilometers, to obtain a 10-year trend. “Another two ofour instruments are currently in orbit studying theatmospheres of Mars and Venus. We’re also making useof the second instrument by pointing it towards Earthand acquiring practice at measuring bioindicators, likeozone and chlorophyll, to search for life on exoplanets,”enthuses Éric Villard, as he shows us a spare model ofthe instrument.

MEASURING OR MODELING?The major strength of the SA obviously lies in its know-how for developing ever more sophisticated andminiaturized measuring instruments. “Whereas itsmathematical modeling will evolve, a well performedmeasurement will endure!” used to say SA founderJacques Blamont, whose photos line the walls of thebuilding. But even if measurements are the “lifebloodof science,” as Montmessin likes to put it, SlimaneBekki, one of the lab’s modelers, is more cautious:“You can’t launch a measurement campaign todaywithout knowing ahead of time how the results will beused,” he says. To avoid the accumulation of results inunder-utilized databases, his team has developed modelsthat assimilate all these data to simulate the transportand chemistry of major gases in the Earth’s stratosphere(ozone, methane, nitrogen oxides, etc.). One of thesemodels, REPROBUS, will be used by the International

Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the forthcomingpredictions in the “chemistry” section. This program haseven been adapted to the atmospheres of Mars andVenus.

EVER FURTHER OUTBut SA isn’t restricting itself to planetary atmospheres.Its research extends to the atmosphere of comets,through participation in missions onboard the EuropeanRosetta spacecraft and through experiments in the lab,and even to the Sun’s atmosphere through “on site”research.

For this, the lab has provided the InternationalSpace Station with a triple spectrometer, and is alsotaking part in the PICARD mission, which will betaken up on a satellite in 2009. Going even further, theteam has started investigating the interplanetary andinterstellar media. “Based on measurements providedby the SOHO satellite, we were the first to reveal adistortion of the heliosphere around the Sun,” explainsresearcher Rosine Lallement. “The discovery was sub-sequently validated by the American Voyager spaceprobes, which were the first to cross the frontier betweenthe heliosphere and the interstellar medium.” Thisinterstellar medium is now the subject of Lallement’sresearch, as she maps it using observations not onlyfrom ground-based telescopes, but also from satellites.

Time to bid farewell to this place full of wonders.A place that SA’s researchers will be leaving in 2010 tojoin up with some of their colleagues from CETP,6 inGuyancourt (Yvelines), forming the new LATMOS lab.7

There, they will be gathering forces to elucidate moreof our sky’s mysteries.

Jean-Philippe Braly

1. CNRS / Université Paris-VI / Université Versailles St-Quentin.The laboratory was headed by Gérard Mégie, CNRS president from2000 to 2004.2. A plasma is a fourth state of matter: an ionized gas which is inparticular a very good conductor and which emits electromagneticradiation (well-known phenomena like lighting or the auroraborealis). 3. Mercury’s atmosphere is so tenuous that it is usually referred toas an exosphere.4. Haute Provence (France), Dumont d’Urville (Antarctica), Alomar(Norway), and the Réunion island (France). 5. Polar Study using Aircraft, Remote Sensing, SurfaceMeasurements and Models, of Climate, Chemistry, Aerosols, andTransport. www.polarcat.no/polarcat6. Centre d’étude des environnements terrestres et planétaires(CNRS / Université Versailles St-Quentin / Université Paris-VI).7. Laboratoire Atmosphères, milieux, observations spatiales (CNRS/ Universités Paris-VI and Versailles-Saint-Quentin).

6 7LIVEFROMTHELABS Spotlight LIVEFROMTHELABS

CNRS International Magazine n° 13 April 2009CNRS International Magazine n° 13 April 2009

Verrières-le-BuissonV

CONTACTSService d’aéronomie.

Ô Christian [email protected]

Ô Guy Cernogora [email protected]

Ô Pierre-Olivier [email protected]

Ô David Coscia, [email protected]

Ô Franck [email protected]

Ô Alain [email protected]

Ô Philippe [email protected]

Ô Jean-Loup [email protected]

Ô Éric Villard, [email protected]

Ô Slimane Bekki, [email protected]

Ô Rosine [email protected]

Above right: assembling theprototype of PHEBUS, anultraviolet spectrometerdesigned to study Mercury’satmosphere. It will equip asatellite due to reach theplanet’s orbit in 2020.

Left: At the Haute Provenceobservatory, two lidars from thelab are used to study the ozonecontent of the atmosphere (bluebeam) and the components ofthe wind (three green beams).Right: In 2000, inflating an SAballoon equipped with aspectrometer to measure theozone and nitrogen dioxidecontent of the stratosphere.

The Venus Express probeis currently in orbit around

Venus with an SAspectrometer on board.

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Above and below: researchersreconstruct Titan’s atmospherein a plasma chamber to study thefine organic particles whichform there. These may providesome clues about the origin oflife on Earth.

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LIVEFROMTHELABS 9


NANOTECHNOLOGY

Magnetic Nanoparticle Networks

Core-multishell structures can act as build-ing blocks of high technology, wherebydesirable properties can be blended on amix-and-match basis. This innovation

stems from the pooled expertise of three CNRS-partnered laboratories.1 Previous experimenta-tions with Prussian Blue pigment and its analogs(PBAs), characterized by transition metal2 coresbridged to other atoms by cyanide ligands, hadled to the discovery that PBA-based nanoparticlescould spontaneously stabilize and regroup intocoordination networks where components weremagnetically bound into ordered arrays.Subsequent tests on PBAs spawned the firstsuccessful synthesis, in 2008, of core-multishellparticles.

The technique consists in stabilizing chargedcores in water so that particle surfaces are moreapt for coordination networking, before solutionsare added to grow shell networks around thecores.3 Its great boon is that the core of a givennetwork can be surrounded by shells of differingchemical compositions. Moreover, the stackingof shells can be monitored “at the nanometerscale,” specifies Talal Mallah from ICMMO,1

simply by adjusting the solution content addedto cores. In short, any type of shell can be graftedonto any desired core, at whatever thicknessneeded.

Most remarkably, when different shell typesare combined, the various physical propertiespresent then act in synergy. The lure of PBAs liesin their strikingly diverse physical properties,such as magnetism, photomagnetism,4 piezo-magnetism,5 electrochromism,6 and spincrossover.7 Mallah points out that assorted prop-erties can be har-nessed for theproduction ofone–or possibly several functions.

Indeed a huge step ahead for the tiny nanopar-ticle, as the accumulation of properties opensup a new world of possibilities for devices requir-ing versatile and compact components.

More specifically, the team foresees producingnanoparticles with magnetic or conductiveproperties, for example, that will respond toelectric, magnetic, temperature, light, or pressurestimuli, and can serve as models for informationstorage, signal processing, or signal transfor-mation. Electrochrome nano-objects may

further be exploitedin biological detec-tion tags or captors.When on the otherhand core-multishellnanoparticles thatunite disparatemetallic cores aredecomposed, metal-lic alloys otherwiseimpossible to syn-thesize may be iso-lated, somethinghighly valuable forthe development of

catalysts or high-density computer memories.The new technique’s potential is yet to be fullyexhausted. Mallah indicates that the team is nowlooking to create core-multishell structures fromparticles other than PBAs in the hope ofproducing “new metallic particles containingmetals which, in standard conditions, do notassociate with one another.”

Fui Lee Luk

1. Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux d’Orsay(ICCMO: CNRS / Université Paris-Sud), Laboratoire dePhysique des Solides (CNRS / Université de Strasbourg),and Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux deStrasbourg (CNRS / Université de Strasbourg).2. Metallic elements with an incomplete inner electron shell.3. L. Catala et al., “Core-multishell magnetic coordinationnanoparticles: toward multifunctionality on the nanoscale,”Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2009. 48: 183-7.4. Where magnetism is modified by light.5. Where magnetism is modified by strain.6. The capacity to change color reversibly when energy isapplied.7. Whereby light irradiation modifies a compound’selectronic spin state.

CONTACTSÔ Tallal MallahICMMO, [email protected]

8


PALEONTHOLOGY

Having inhabited Europe forover 200,000 years, Nean-derthals became extinct about

35,000 years ago, and the reasonsbehind their disappearance havebeen the source of considerable debate.

The scientific community haslong been split between thoseblaming Neanderthals’ inability tocope with dramatic climatic change–in particular a cold period about39,000 years ago called HeinrichEvent 4 (H4)–and those whoconsider competition with anatom-ically modern humans (AMH) as amore likely cause. Yet a recent study1

by a multidisciplinary Franco-American research team, featuringexperts in archeology, ecology, andpaleoclimatology should put thedebate to rest. It demonstrates thatcompetitive exclusion, not climatechange, is indeed responsible forNeanderthal extinction.

Using an algorithm calledGARP, initially developed to predict

the impact of climate change onbiodiversity, the team showed thatNeanderthals and AMH wereexploiting almost identical ecologicalniches before and during the coldperiod. “The algorithm uses a hostof data–carbon dating, geographicinformation, and climate historyacross Europe–and matches it tothe paleoenvironmental featuresshared by known archeological sites(belonging to either Neanderthalsor AMH) to predict where thesepopulations might have lived at anygiven time,” explains archeologistWilliam Banks from the PACEAlaboratory,2 who led the research.

According to GARP’s calcula-tions, Neanderthals should havecontinued to occupy the majority ofEurope during Greenland Interstadial 8(GI8), the warmer period thatfollowed H4. “But when we look atthe actual sites dated to GI8, we seethat the regions occupied by Nean-derthals had shrunk to southern

Spain,” Banks adds. The algorithmresults also showed that AMH’niche had expanded during GI8,thus making competition betweenthe two groups–and AMH’ supe-rior adaptation–the likely driversbehind Neanderthal extinction.

While several past studies haveattempted to gauge the impact ofclimate change on human popula-tions, the multidisciplinary approachmade possible by GARP constitutesa significant breakthrough. Asstressed by Francesco d’Errico,

co-author of the study, “GARPcombines archeological, chrono-logical, and climatic data in a uniquecomputational architecture.”

Fabien Bulliard1. W. E. Banks et al., “Neanderthalextinction by competitive exclusion.” PLoS ONE, 2008. 3(12): e3972.2. De la Préhistoire à l’Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (CNRS / Université Bordeaux-I).

Researchers have discovered a parasitethat can fight the toxic red tides causedby the dinoflagellate Alexandrium

minutum, a micro-alga capable of prolifer-ating uncontrollably, to the point where it cantaint coastal seawater to a characteristicmurky-red. These algae produce toxins thataccumulate in shellfish, making the latterhazardous for human consumption.

By the late 1980s, the emergence of redtides in the coastal waters of France’sBritanny region led to the frequent closureof aquacultural farms. Yet, without apparentreason, no single “bloom” has been observed since 2003. The subject of herdoctoral thesis at the SBR,1 AurélieChambouvet, under the supervision of Dr.Laure Guillou has demonstrated theregulating action of a marine parasite thatspecifically infected Alexandrium minutum,but not only. In fact, each species ofdinoflagellate observed in this ecosystem

had a parasite that was genetically very specific.The use of new molecular tracing

methods has shed light on how this type ofinfection occurs. These new generation trac-ers are strings of DNA coupled to fluorescentmarkers. When they latch onto the targetcell’s ribosomic RNA, they turn its wholecytoplasm fluorescent. “We found that eachmicro-alga host has a corresponding strainof parasite that can infect, proliferate, anddestroy its host in just a few days,” saysGuillou, adding that this rapid decline thenbenefits another species of dinoflagellateswhich can proliferate until attacked in turnby its own specific parasite.

Red tides seem to result from an imbal-ance between the host alga and its naturalparasite. This balance can be upset by humanactivity like ships carrying a strain of dinofla-gellate to a new environment, or environ-mental factors such as global warming, sinceabnormal temperatures may lower the

virulence of a parasite. “Host and parasiteconstantly try to outdo each other, and whenparasites lag behind, biocontrols are absentwhich results in an unabated proliferationof host algae,” Guillou explains.

So far, the human introduction ofparasites in bloom situations is not on theagenda. “We need to learn much more aboutupstream processes, and whether or notother host algae could be impacted. We willrather focus on studying the parasites’molecular mechanisms, know more aboutthem and their capacity to act as biocon-trols against red tides,” concludes Guillou.

Stéphane Malhomme

1. Station biologique de Roscoff. Adaptation etdiversité en milieu marin. (CNRS / Université Paris-VI).

LIVEFROMTHELABS news

CONTACTÔ Laure GuillouSBR, [email protected]

Electronics, computers, communications, optical and biomedical engineering... these crucial areasof research and many more stand to gain from core-multishell structures for nanoparticles. CNRShas actively been exploring this novel avenue of research.

The distribution of Neanderthals (A,C)and anatomically modern humans (B, D) before (A, B) and after (C, D)Heinrich event 4 (approx. 39,000 yearsago), during the last glacial period.

How NeanderthalsBecame Extinct

MICROBIOLOGY

Curbing Red Tides, Naturally

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Non-toxic red tidein Elorn Bay in

Brittany (France,2004).

A dinoflagellate(blue) infected byits specificparasite (nucleusin red, andcytoplasm ingreen).

CONTACTSPACEA, Bordeaux.

Ô William [email protected]

Ô Federico d’[email protected]

Bordeaux

ParisV

MarseilleV

also transform into neurons.As described in their study,2 the researchers

spent two years creating a fluorescent viral-vectoraimed at the neuron-producing cells–a particulartype of glial cells called “astrocytes” (star-shapedcells that make up the “cement” between theneurons). The vector enabled them to locateastrocytes on mouse olfactory bulb slices. Usingelectrophysiology, they observed that fluorescentastrocytes developed the hallmarks of neurons.When the scientists damaged parts of the tissue,they witnessed a six or seven-fold increase inneuron production from astrocytes in that region,demonstrating that a lesion triggers neurogen-

esis. “It’s interesting tonote that the two brainregions where this phe-nomenon takes placeare involved in memoryformation,” says Lledo.“We are now trying to

Glial cells play crucial roles in the centralnervous system, where they outnumberneurons 10 to 1. In mature organisms,they provide physical support and

transfer energy from the blood circulation to thenerves. They are also known to have a protectiverole by enabling the clearance of leftover ionsand neurotransmitters from the synaptic cleft.More surprisingly, glial cells have also beenshown to actively participate in synaptictransmission.

As if this wasn’t enough, another major rolehas emerged in the last decade: Glial cells insidea specific brain region–the subventricularzone–have the ability to transform into neurons.This finding contradicted a long-establisheddogma, which stipulated that the adult braincould not produce new neurons.

Now, a team led by CNRS researcher Pierre-Marie Lledo1 has demonstrated that glial cellsinside another area–the olfactory bulb–could

discover if this inherent self-repair mechanismcould be extended to other parts of the brain,when subject to lesions, trauma, or strokes.”

At a more fundamental level, another inter-esting finding concerns the mechanism by whichastrocytes communicate among themselves andwith neurons. According to CNRS researcherChristian Giaume,3 when neurons are active,their need for energy is passed on to neighbor-ing astrocytes, which stimulate an entire networkof astrocytes to route nutrients from the bloodcirculation towards these nerves. In a recentstudy,4 Giaume and colleagues demonstrate thatthe network organization is key to an interac-tive loop between neurons and astrocytes.

Working on mouse hippocampus slices, thescientists injected fluorescent glucose inside anastrocyte, and visualized its transmission toneighboring astrocytes. When the junctionslinking astrocytes were pharmacologicallyblocked, nutrients could no longer travel to thenerves, whose activity weakened, according toelectrophysiology recordings. Vice versa, the sizeof the astrocyte network decreased whenresearchers blocked neuronal activity; whenneurons were over-stimulated, the size of thenetwork increased. “When studying interactionsbetween astrocytes and neurons, whether it be ina metabolic context or in a context of synapticcommunication, researchers should realize thatit is probably not just a single astrocyte that isinvolved, but an entire network, just likeneurons,” concludes Giaume.

Clémentine Wallace

1. Perception et mémoire (CNRS / Institut Pasteur).2. M. Alonso et al., “Turning astrocytes from the rostralmigratory stream into neurons: a role for the olfactorysensory organ,” J. Neurosci., 2008. 28: 11089-102.3. CNRS / Inserm / Collège de France.4. N. Rouach et al., “Astroglial metabolic networks sustainhippocampal synaptic transmission,” Science, 2008. 322:1551-5.

For a long time, glial cells were overshadowed byneurons. Originally viewed as ordinary caretakers,their importance is now slowly emerging. In thiscontext, two recent studies show how theyparticipate in the brain’s self-repair andcommunication systems.

After a chemical lesion of theolfactory epithelium in mice, stemcells from the subventricular zone(left, red) migrate through therostral migratory stream (right) toreach the olfactive bulb.

LIVEFROMTHELABS 11


PARTICLE PHYSICS

Calculating the Mass of a Proton

Scientists have known howmuch a proton weighs for thebetter part of a century. But it

took a pan-European team of theo-retical physicists, building upondecades of research by scientistsfrom around the world, to work outprecisely how its mass comes about.1

Led by Zoltan Fodor from the Uni-versity of Wuppertal and LaurentLellouch from the CPT in Marseille,2

the team’s results confirm thatQuantum Chromodynamics (QCD),the fundamental theory of quarksand gluons, correctly describes theinteractions which bind these ele-mentary particles together to formhadrons. As Lellouch explains, aproton’s main components are two“up” quarks and one “down” quark,which are held together through the

exchange of gluons. Yet the massesof the individual constituents donot add up to the mass of a proton,a disparity which had been knownfor a long time. A full quantitativeunderstanding of this disparity hadto wait until last year. “We realizedthat the different techniques neededwere coming together, and that thenecessary computing power wasnow available,” explains Lellouch.The researchers used IBM BlueGene supercomputers from theForschungszentrum Jülich in Ger-many and CNRS’ IDRIS,3 applyingtheir ability to perform over 100trillion calculations/sec.

Though the only parameters ofthe calculation are the quark massesand the overall strength of the inter-action, describing quark and gluon

behavior in four-dimensional space-time requires an infinite numberof variables. This is where a tech-nique known as lattice QCD comesin. It allows a numerical simulationin which continuous space-time isviewed as a succession of increas-ingly finer four-dimensional lattices,each composed of sites spaced alongrows and columns. After roughly1020 computer operations, the the-orists determined the mass of theproton and of other light hadronswith a precision of a few percent,finding excellent agreement withlaboratory measurements and thusconfirming that most of it comesnot from the masses of the hadron’squark and gluon constituents, butrather from the energy generatedby the interactions between them.

These results also helped estab-lish techniques that can be used inother important endeavors, such asthe search for new fundamentalphenomena surrounding the weakinteractions of quarks.

Mark Reynolds

1. S. Dürr et al., “Ab-initio determination oflight hadron masses,” Science, 2008. 322:1224-7.2. Centre de physique théorique (CNRS /Universités d’Aix-Marseille-I and -II /Université du Sud Toulon-Var). 3. Institut du Développement et desRessources en Informatique Scientifique.

NEUROBIOLOGY

Iron and its Transporter inParkinson’s Disease

Limiting the level of iron indopaminergic neurons couldhelp fight Parkinson’s disease

(PD). This is what CNRS researcherEtienne Hirsch1 together with a team at INSERM-UPMC2 haverecently demonstrated.3 Iron playsan integral role inside neurons as aco-factor for enzymes that producedopamine–the neurotransmitterfound lacking in a specific region ofthe brain in PD patients. But whilesome iron is needed for dopamineproduction, too much results inoxidative stress and cell death. Toelucidate the role of the irontransporter DMT1 in the develop-ment and evolution of Parkinson’sdisease, and to see whether themechanism may represent a

therapeutic target for neuroprotec-tion, Hirsch and his co-workers usedrodent animal models.

First, they observed that theinduction of the disease in mice wascorrelated with a doubling of thelevel of expression of DMT1, leadingto an increase of iron withindopaminergic neurons, and theexpected ensuing oxidative stressand cell death.

Then, they used a mice straincalled “microcytic” where the DMT1iron transporter was impaired, theresult of a spontaneous mutation.When injected with a toxic chemi-cal specific to dopaminergic cells,these mice showed a 20% neuronalcell death rate compared to the 40%in wild-type animals. A functionalDMT1, with the resulting ironincrease inside cells, thus seems tocontribute to neuronal cell death,whereas a dysfunctional iron trans-porter confers protection fromdegeneration.

“While there is now relativelygood symptomatic treatment for

Parkinson’s disease, that consistsin restoring the missing dopamine,we have no treatment to slow downthe progression of neurodegenera-tion which evolves over decades,”says Hirsch. “We found that wecould protect half of the dopamin-ergic neurons from degenerationby decreasing iron in the cells.”

His main concern with targetingthis transporter therapeutically isthat it could prevent required levelsof iron from entering the cells. “It is therefore important to achievethe right balance and preventdysregulation,” he concludes.

Karen Dente

1. Unité 975 (Inserm / CNRS / UPMC).2. Université Pierre et Marie Curie.3. E. Hirsch et al., “Divalent metaltransporter 1 (DMT1) contributes toneurodegeneration in animal models ofParkinson’s disease,” PNAS, 2008. 105, 47:18578-83.

CONTACTÔ Laurent Lellouch CPT, [email protected]

CONTACTÔ Etienne HirschUPMC, [email protected]

10


NEUROBIOLOGY


CONTACTSÔ Pierre-Marie LledoInstitut Pasteur, [email protected]

Ô Christian GiaumeCollège de France, [email protected]

ASTROCYTE

RECEPTOR

PRE-SYNAPTICNEURON

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Microglial cells, labelled for aspecific marker (green) and DNA

(blue), show an increased expressionof the metal transporter DMT1 (red) inthe brain of a patient with Parkinson’s

disease.

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12


PHYSICS

THz Lasers Are Cool

THz quantum cascade lasersare a relatively new family ofsemiconductor lasers which

emit in the terahertz frequencyrange (1012 Hertz). Because of thelack of compact radiation sourcesbetween 1 and 10 THz, scientistscall it the “THz gap.” Since the firstdevelopment of the quantumcascade laser family–in 1994 at theUS’ Bell Labs–physicists andengineers have been trying tonarrow this gap.

If they succeed, THz laserspromise distinct advantages. SinceTHz waves can penetrate throughskin (but are non-ionizing, unlike x-rays), clothing, paper, wood, card-board and plastic, they offer wide

potential applications, from envi-ronmental detection of pollutantsto medical imaging, as well as usesfor security, given that THz radiationcould detect hidden drugs orweapons at airports.

Before 2002, lasers in the THzgap were big, bulky, gas-based (CO2

and methanol), and inefficient. Butin 2002, an Italian-British collabo-ration began shrinking their size,and with it, the THz gap. And iftoday’s lasers are as small as a tieclip, or a typical silicon chip (200microns x 2 mm), they have twomain weaknesses: the relative diver-gence of their beam, and the diffi-culty of extracting radiation fromthe chip’s surface. Following up

on the 2002 discoveries, IEF1

researcher Raffaele Colombelli andPhD student Yannick Chassagneuxhave combined small photoniccrystal structures with the lasercreating a system that not only emitsTHz waves, but also enables con-trol of the output beam.2 “It nowdiverges very little,” Colombelli says.

The researchers are still tryingto boost the lasers’ temperature andpower. One obstacle is that THzquantum cascade lasers operate ata maximum temperature of 178K(-95°C). The researchers believe theycan reach 240K (-33°C) by redesign-ing the laser’s active regions. Thiswill make it viable for a range ofapplications, since this warmer tem-

perature is compatible with today’scommercially available coolers. Any-thing cooler than 240K demands acryogenic system. “Today, whenindustrialists call and ask ‘what tem-perature are you at?’ and I say ‘still178K,’ they just answer ‘we’ll callback later.’ We still have 62K to go.”

Joshua Jampol

1. Institut d’Electronique Fondamentale(CNRS / Université Paris-XI). 2. Y. Chassagneux et al., “Electricallypumped photonic-crystal terahertz laserscontrolled by boundary conditions.” Nature,2009. 457: 174-8.

ENVIRONMENT

Ancient Forests Do Trap Carbon

Old-growth forest–with itsmultiple layers of vegetationand great biodiversity–traps

between 0.8 and 1.8 billion tons ofcarbon a year. This is the surprisingresult of a study dispelling the beliefthat old-growth, pristine forestscould not store carbon after a certainage. The discovery makes for moreaccurate “full carbon accounting”and smarter incentive programs tocurb carbon emissions.

Ecologist Eugene Odum hypoth-esized in the 1960s that forests over150 years old reached a neutralbalance between storage andemissions of CO2. A majority ofscientists initially accepted thisparadigm, even though it had notbeen backed by scientific evidence.“Odum’s rationale was that forestscould not grow eternally, and hadto reach an equilibrium betweenstorage and emissions,” saysPhilippe Ciais, senior researcher atLSCE1 who contributed to this recentstudy published in Nature.2 Becauseof this, old-growth forests have so farbeen ignored by the Kyoto protocol.A team of international researchers,with the participation of LSCE, have

made, compiled, and analyzed meas-urements in old forests throughoutthe world, from the Siberian taiga allthe way to the Amazon rainforests.Their results countered Odum’stheory: Ancient forests do continueto store carbon. This entails that thepreviously ignored 15% of total forestarea is in fact responsible fortrapping 10% of overall carbon sink.

“In theory, Odum’s hypothesismade sense. After a while, a treehad grown so much that it simplycould not add biomass. From10,000 saplings of the young forest,mortality over 150 years had left300-400 huge trees that harvestedmost sunlight, but could not carrywater up their branches–limitingtheir maximum size. Yet on closerinspection, our biometric meas-urements of roots, trunks, branches,and leaves showed that theycontinued to add biomass, andtherefore, store carbon,” says Ciais.One possible explanation is thatrising CO2 levels or global warminginduce longer growing seasons andfoster carbon uptake beyondOdum’s expectations.

“One perverse effect of Kyoto 1

is that a country can clear-cut anancient forest with no penalty, sellthe wood, then re-plant and cash inthe carbon credits for a youngerforest which does not contain asmuch carbon because it is regularlymanaged by foresters,” says Ciais.“We should therefore also give abonus to countries that protect theirancient forests,” he concludes.

Stéphane Malhomme

1. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et del’Environnement (CNRS / CEA / Universitéde Versaille). 2. S. Luyssaert et al., “Old-growth forests asglobal carbon sink,” Nature, 2008. 455: 213-5.


CONTACTÔ Raffaele ColombelliIEF, [email protected]

CONTACTÔ Philippe CiaisLSCE, [email protected]

Inside a primary forest in Gabon.

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MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

For almost half a century, scientists believedthat all the events that occured during thedevelopment of anorganism were the sole

product of what was writtenin its genes. The postulatebegan loosening up only adecade ago, as biologistsstarted demonstrating thatnon-genetic phenomena alsoaffected development.

In this context, researchersled by Emmanuel Farge1 atthe Curie Institute in Parishave been studying the influence of mechanicalpressure on genetic expression and cell prolif-eration during embryonic development, andmore recently during tumor formation.

Working on embryos of fruit flies, the teamfirst demonstrated that the forces generated bymigrating cells during early embryonic devel-opment influence the expression of genes inneighboring cells. “The growing tissues and thegenes responsible for the body’s architecture arein close communication,” says Farge. “It’s a sortof feedback loop indicating where genetic acti-vation should be launched.” At the molecularlevel, they discovered that such mechanicalpressure triggers the relocation, inside cells, ofa protein called ß-catenin (involved in both celladhesion and gene activation) from the externalmembrane to the nucleus, where it activates thetranscription of developmental genes. Thisprotein thus acts as a messenger transferringmechanical information to the genes.

In humans, it is only during tumor formationthat ß-catenin can be found inside the nucleusof adult cells. This phenomenon can occur whencells lack one or two copies of a gene calledadenomatous polyposis coli (APC), whose phys-iological role includes clearing the excess of intra-cellular ß-catenin. APC mutations are known topre-dispose to certain cancers such as coloncancer. When ß-catenin enters the nucleus, it

activates the transcriptionof oncogenes–which areoften identical to the devel-opmental genes involvedin embryogenesis. “Thissimilarity is what led us to investigate whethermechanical forces mightalso come into play in the

development of some cancers,” says Farge.In recent experiments,2 the team applied

controlled mechanical pressure on tissues ofhealthy mice colon cells, and on tissues of micecolon lacking one copy of the APC gene. Usingfluorescence, they observed that pressure onhealthy tissues did not induce the relocation ofß-catenin. However, in APC-deficient tissues, this protein did travel to the nucleus. “Mechan-ical pressure can thus contribute to the activationof oncogenes in cells genetically pre-disposed tocancer,” says Farge. “In these cells, one copy ofthe APC gene is not sufficient to counter themechanically-induced ß-catenin relocalization.”

The team also noticed that the relocationoccurred when the pressure applied equaled atleast that of bowel movements inside the colon.“We still have to elucidate whether the pressuregenerated by bowel movements can initiate tumorgenesis in APC deficient cells, or if pressure is onlyinvolved in the amplification process–cells of agrowing tumor pressuring a pre-disposed neigh-boring cell, thereby feeding a chain reaction.”

On the other side of the realm of develop-mental biology, researchers have discovered therole of mechanical forces in plant development.An international team of researchers includingCNRS scientists3 showed that the mechanicalconstraints generated by growing tissues deter-mine the orientation of growth in neighboring

cells.4 “Before that, we knew growing cells exertpressure on their neighbors, but we didn’t knowhow this pressure was integrated as a message,”says lead author Olivier Hamant.

Working on tissues of plant meristem–a poolof undifferentiated cells found in zones wheregrowth takes place–the team showed that intra-cellular components called microtubules react toexternal forces. Microtubules are known to controlthe direction of cell expansion. Using fluorescentlive imaging, the team followed the organiza-tion of microtubules inside these tissues. Insome cells, the microtubules appeared orientedin one direction. In other cells, they were disor-ganized. When the researchers applied differ-ent pressures on the tissue, they observed that themicrotubules oriented themselves parallel tothese forces, reorganizing themselves accord-ing to the maximum constraint. “This provesthat mechanical constraints contribute to deter-mining the direction of growth,” says Hamant.

The team now hopes to study the interac-tions between mechanical forces influencingdirection and other parameters such as growthspeed and genetic pre-disposition.

Clémentine Wallace

1. Inserm UMR 168 (CNRS / Institut Curie / Inserm).2. J. Whitehead et al., “Mechanical factors activate ß-catenin-dependent oncogene expression in APC1638N/+ mousecolon,” HFSP J., 2008. 2: 286. 3. Reproduction et développement des plantes (Universitéde Lyon / CNRS / ENS / INRA).4. O. Hamant et al., “Developmental patterning by mechanicalsignals in arabidopsis,” Science, 2008. 322: 1650-5.

CONTACTSÔ Emmanuel FargeInstitut Curie, [email protected]

Ô Olivier HamantENS, [email protected]

A central question indevelopmental biology is hownon-genetic phenomena such asmechanical forces regulategrowth. Here are the most recentfindings on the role of such forcesin the development ofdiametrically different tissues:human tumors, and plants.

Myc oncogene expression (greenfluorescence) is induced in colon cellssubmitted to mechanical pressure (right) inan APC mutated background.

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mechanicalstress (whitelines) induced bycell ablation inthe epiderm of aplant meristem.

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LIVEFROMTHELABS 15


CANCER

Fighting Leukemia at the Root

Acute promyelocytic leukemia(APL) is a rare disease thataffects 100 people each year in

France. Concerned patients have achromosomal translocation giving riseto a fusion between the promyelocyticleukemia (PML) gene, normally encod-ing a transcription factor and tumorsuppressor, and the retinoic acid recep-tor α gene. The resulting proteinknown as PML-RARA blocks differ-entiation of blood precursor cells, lead-ing to the accumulation of malignantcells in the bone marrow and blood ofaffected patients.

For the past decade, ProfessorHugues de Thé and his team1 havebeen searching for drugs that wouldinteract with the PML-RARA proteinand destroy patients’ cancer cells. Twodrugs, retinoic acid and arsenic triox-ide, have been shown to be clinicallyeffective, sometimes sending APL incomplete remission. So far, it wasbelieved that the eradication of thedisease was mainly due to the“renewed” differentiation of leukemiacells. Now, working on a mouse modelof the disease,2 de Thé’s team hasshown for the first time that retinoicacid and arsenic trioxide also inducecomplete disappearance of the smallsubpopulation of stem cells respon-sible for the permanent production ofleukemia cells. The completeeradication of leukemia stem cells isdue to the degradation of PML-RARAin these cells. De Thé’s team was able

to uncouple the effects of the twodrugs. Retinoic acid alone brings aboutdifferentiation of APL cells but notstem cells clearance or disease remis-sion, which requires the synergicaction of both drugs.

These findings have “very excitingimplications for cancer therapy,” deThé explains, not only for improvingAPL treatment, but also because “theconcept of destroying a disease-causingprotein in cells that have acquiredstem-cell characteristics might helptreat other cancers in the future.”

The efficiency of the combineduse of these drugs in humans has nowbeen demonstrated through a clinicaltrial led by the group of Zhu Chen atthe Rui Jin Hospital in China. De Thénow wants to investigate the pathwaysinvolved in the loss of the leukemiastem cells in greater detail. Suchadvances in the field of cancer researchhold great promise for the develop-ment of improved and more specifictreatments.

Juliette Gray

1. Pathologie et virologie moléculaire (CNRS / Université Paris-VII).2. R. Nasr et al., “Eradication of acutepromyelocytic leukemia-initiating cellsthrough PML-RARA degradation,” NatureMedicine, 2008. 14: 1333-42.

CONTACTÔ Hughes de ThéUniversité Paris-VII, [email protected]

14



GEOLOGY

Molten Carbonates Fill the Gap

Lodged between the Earth’s crust and coreis the mantle, where solid nether regionsare topped by molten magma- and lava-producing areas. For the past 30 years, we

have known that natural electrical currents occurin the Earth’s upper mantle at depths of 70 to 350km–this despite the fact that olivine, the iron- andmagnesium-rich mineral silicate that makes upmost of the layer, is nonconductive. So what is itthat causes the mantle’s conductivity? Andfurthermore, why does this conductivity varyfrom one part of the mantle to another?

Led by Fabrice Gaillard from the ISTO,1 anOrléans-based research team–also representingthe CEMHTI laboratory2–has succeeded in iden-tifying the source of the mantle’s conductivity:small quantities of molten carbonates–also calledcarbonatites–that are found between loose rocks.3

The researchers link the conductivity of theoceanic asthenosphere, or upper ductile mantle,to the presence of an average volume of 0.1% ofcarbonatite melts, confirmed by the CO2 contentof mid-ocean ridge basalts.

Using laboratory measurements conductedon mantle components, the team demonstratedthe high conductivity of these carbonates, ascompared with other substances to which

conductivity had formerly been attributed: threeand five orders of magnitude higher than moltensilicate and hydrated olivine, respectively. Thisexplains why varying concentration of carbonatesthroughout the mantle can cause divergencesin conductivity.

While geologists have lacked proof for theirlongtime suspicions on the mantle’s significantcarbon content due to its scarcity in samples,the team’s findings have allowed an initialestimate on this figure: an average of 0.03% CO2

by weight–a seemingly small proportion, yetenough to account for 80% of the CO2 emittedby volcanoes. Figures are to be confirmed in anupcoming project, Electrolith, also led by FabriceGaillard, in which measurements will be takenat Ol Doinyo Lengai, in Tanzania, the only volcanoin the world to produce lava containing liquidcarbonates. Elsewhere, the mantle also holdscarbonates, but they are dissolved in basalt lavaand released as CO2 gas when the lava reachesthe Earth’s surface.

Various research areas have opened up inresponse to the findings, some offering sub-stantial environmental prospects. The discoveryadvances clean energy by aiding the develop-ment of carbonates like lithium carbonate to be

used as electrolytes in high-temperature fuelcells. “Having found the correlation betweenconductivity and carbonatites, we can now also‘map out’ carbon levels in magma source regionsto quantify the carbon footprint of terrestrialvolcanism,” says Gaillard. In other words, bydetecting conductivity in the mantle roots ofvolcanic areas, carbon content can be ascertainedand the contribution made by volcanoes to thegreenhouse effect pinpointed at various locations.

Lastly, these carbonatites are not only a sourceof conductivity, but also believed to play a role inthe asthenosphere’s viscosity, enabling the shiftingof tectonic plates. This hypothesis paves the wayfor studies on the behavior of liquid carbonatesin solids, and possible effects on viscosity.

Fui Lee Luk

1. Institut des Sciences de la Terre d’Orléans (CNRS /Université d’Orléans / Université François-Rabelais).2. Conditions Extrêmes et Matériaux: Haute Température etIrradiation (CNRS).3. F. Gaillard et al., “Carbonatite melts and electricalconductivity of the asthenosphere,” Science, 2008. 322: 1363-5.

CONTACTÔ Fabrice Gaillard ISTO, Orlé[email protected]

Nitric Arctic One third of all nitrates present in the Arcticatmosphere in spring come from the melting of thesnow cover. This worrying news was published by ateam led by Samuel Morin,1 after quantification of aprocess already known, the “travelling” of nitratearound the planet. Nitrogen oxides produced bynatural phenomena like lightning and forest fires,but also by human activity, such as combustion andindustrial activity, are rapidly oxidized to nitrate.Incorporated into atmospheric particulate matter,nitrate is transported by air currents towards distantecosystems, like the Arctic, where it is depositedonto the snow cover during autumn, winter, andearly spring. When the snow is exposed to solarradiation, the nitrate turns into nitrogen oxides that

are emitted into the atmosphere. By measuring theisotopic composition of the atmospheric nitratecollected in the Canadian Arctic, researchers haveshown that it comes in a large proportion from the“recycling” of nitrate from the Arctic pack ice. Thisstudy once more demonstrates the need for a globalapproach when it comes to environmentalproblems, due to the close links between theclimate system (ice and snow-covered surfaces,temperatures, and solar radiation) and the presenceof highly-reactive pollutants in the atmosphere(nitrogen oxides, ozone, and particulate matter). 1. S. Morin, et al., Science, 2008. 322: 730-2.

> Contact: Samuel Morin, [email protected]

Scientists have discovered that carbonatite melts are responsible for the mantle’sconductive properties. And this research has far-reaching implications in environmentalsciences, from mapping out volcano carbon emissions to developing clean energy.

Ol Doinyo Lengai (Mali) isthe only volcano in theworld to produce lavacontaining liquidcarbonates.

At the summit of Ol Doinyo Lengai,small explosions produce carbonatite-rich lava characterized by a very lowviscosity.

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IN BRIEF

All Roads Lead to BRCA1BRCA1, one of the proteins whose mutation is responsiblefor hereditary breast cancer, might also be involved in theother type of breast cancers, non-hereditary, calledsporadic. These represent 85 to 90% of all cases of breastcancers and are actually less understood than theirhereditary counterpart. Because the protein kinase AKT1 isoverexpressed in half of sporadic breast cancers, a team ofresearchers1 investigated whether AKT1 might act throughregulation of BRCA1 activity. Their results2 indeed show thatthis is the case. In tumor cells, overexpression of AKT1results in BRCA1 retention in the cell cytoplasm. Thisprotein, normally involved in DNA repair and in regulation ofgene expression in the cell nucleus, is thus unable toperform its functions. In particular, BRCA1 can no longer playits role in homologous recombination, a mechanism thathelps maintain DNA stability. This same function is the onethat is impaired in hereditary breast cancer, through BRCA1mutations. These results show that both hereditary and non-hereditary cancers result from the impairment of the samemolecular mechanism, homologous recombination, essentialto maintain DNA integrity.1. From CNRS, CEA, and Hôpital Saint-Louis.2. I. Plo et al., Cancer Res, 2008. 68: 9404-12.

> Contact: Bernard Lopez, [email protected]

In a non-pathological situation,BRCA1 (red) is located in thecell nucleus.

Instruments for chemical andmeteorological measurements onArctic pack ice covered by snow(Alert, Canada, Spring 2004).

In the presence of AKT1 (green),BRCA1 (orange) is kept out ofthe nucleus (blue).

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CLAIRE VOISIN

Making algebraic geometry speak “volumes,” Claire Voisin has become a reference for specialists of theHodge theory. But it is her work on Kodaira’s conjecture that won her the Clay Research award in 2008.

Artist of the Abstract

Very quickly, words no longer suffice.Claire Voisin goes to the board, eraser inone hand, chalk in the other, and drawsgeometrical figures side by side with

complicated calculations. Voisin, a seniorresearcher at the Institut de mathématiques deJussieu1 in Paris is a specialist in alge-braic geometry. More specifically, sheworks on the study of the “topology ofcomplex algebraic varieties.”

To introduce her field, she sketchesa sphere that she cuts up in three-dimensional triangles with curvededges, as if they had been shaped by therounded surface. The result is that youcan cover a sphere with triangles, whichare themselves the “faces” of a pyra-mid, for example. “Topologically speak-ing,” Voisin explains, “a sphere andthe surface of a pyramid are thereforeidentical–though saying somethinglike that is an absurdity from the pointof view of algebraic geometry,” sheimmediately points out. According toher, “this is also possible with an innertube that has one or more holes.” If“triangulated,” the result is a skeletonmade up of triangles stuck togetheralong their sides. A metric induced bythe ambient space then gives rise to acomplex structure, hence to a Riemannsurface, which turns out to be a purelyalgebraic object, a projective curve. Andin higher dimensions, the problembecomes even more complex. To getfrom one figure to the other thereforeinvolves a mathematical trick, the pre-cise details of which are very difficultto grasp for a non-specialist, involvingsuch words as homeomorphism,simplex, Riemann surface, transcen-dental functions, etc. But the generalidea is clear: moving between the “topo-logical,” the “algebraic,” and “complexgeometry,” the result is a”multiplicity of per-spectives of one and the same object” usingdifferent mathematical approaches. “What’sexciting about my work is this constant movingback and forth several geometries and severaltypes of tools to prove results in one field oranother,” Voisin continues.

She resembles the typical mathematician aswe often imagine them, with a particular abilityfor abstract thinking. In fact, though mathe-

matics came easy to Voisin both at school whereshe was already boning up on final year courses,then at the École normale supérieure and whiledoing her PhD, she knows that for all intentsand purposes, she speaks a language that isforeign to most ordinary people. It’s not easy to

follow what she says. That’s true even for thestudents studying for their Masters in mathe-matics, to whom she teaches a few courses ayear, attempting to “explain these superb ideas.”Yet they often drop out, discouraged by the com-plexity of the field. “It’s very frustrating not to beable to get across all the things that mean somuch to me in my work and research,” saysVoisin regretfully. She remembers the six monthsduring which she was an assistant professor,

before she got a CNRS position, as being “hellish.”“Joining CNRS saved my life!” she jokes.

Becoming a full time researcher at the age of24, she could at last devote herself entirely toalgebraic geometry, the study of the properties of sets defined by algebraic equation systems,

which is at the heart of the most abstractmathematics. “There is creative drive inmathematics, it’s all about movementtrying to express itself,” Voisin con-fides. Nothing to do with the “boring,dead, and dry” mathematics taught insecondary school, where the coursesgo through an endless series of “defi-nitions, properties, and theorems” usinga method that is “always under con-trol, as if on tracks,” and which isapplied to “simple exercises in logic.”

After her doctoral thesis, shebecame fascinated by a tool that is wellknown to topology specialists, Hodgetheory, which can also be used to tacklecomplex algebraic geometry. Publishedin 2003, her book on the subject hasrapidly become a reference. She won anumber of prizes and awards, such asthe CNRS bronze (1988) and silver(2006) medals, and the Clay ResearchAward (2008) from the Clay Mathe-matics Institute,2 for her work onKodaira’s conjecture, another problemin complex algebraic geometry. As aneditor of several mathematical jour-nals, she always keeps an eye on thedevelopment of her discipline. In herprivate life, she is also a mother of five,and her eldest daughter started studyingmathematics. “But her field is farremoved from mine and that of myhusband–also a mathematician–so asto avoid any family ‘pressure,’” sheexplains. “In any case,” she adds, “wenever talk maths at home!”

Charline Zeitoun

1. CNRS / Université Paris-VII. Voisin is currently secondedto the Institut des hautes études scientifiques, in Bures-sur-Yvette.2. An American private foundation set up in 1999 whoseaim is to promote mathematics.

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CONTACTÔ Claire Voisin,IHES, [email protected]

exactly the same value all over the surface ofEarth: Mass is not equally distributed inside theplanet, and every point on its surface is notsubjected to the same attractive force.

To get a better picture of the variations of gat the Earth’s surface, scientists use an imaginaryEarth called the “geoid.” It is important to notethat this lumpy image of our planet corresponds

to the mean level the ocean wouldhave at rest. “If the whole of the Earthwere covered with water, its surfacewould be the same as that of thegeoid,” explains Michel Diament, ofIPGP.4 “This means ocean levelextends beneath the continents andis used as a reference for altitudes.For instance, the Mont Blanc summitis 4807 meters above the geoid.” Sowhy do the world’s oceans at restshow such hollows and bumps? Theanswer lies in the entrails of theplanet. “If the Earth was immobileand made of just one material–i.e., ifit was homogeneous–the geoidwould be a sphere,” Diament says.“But our planet rotates, which givesit a flattened shape, and it is made of

If Man first believed the Earth wasflat, then round–we might be infor yet another surprise: its shapeis actually that of a lumpy potato.2

There’s a hollow off South America, abump to the north of Australia, andvarious lumpy bits here and there. Thisdistorted shape is invisible both to the Earth-bound traveler and to the astronaut observingthe blue planet in its atmosphere–yet it playshavoc with a host of measurements, for instancethose of ocean currents or the movement of theEarth’s crust. It is what makes the GOCE missionso important. This satellite will remain in orbitfor 20 months. It will measure the gravity field,the cause of deformities, with the same precision(one part in a million) all over the surface ofEarth, at a resolution of about a 100 km.Researchers from several CNRS labs3 are getting ready to process the data and includethem in their models.

The quantity known as g (the accelerationdue to gravity) is what relates mass to weight, andgives the Earth its shape. And if our planet isn’ta smooth sphere, it is because g doesn’t have

The job of the GOCE mission,1 just launched by the European Space Agency (ESA), is to measure the Earth’s gravity field at every point and withunrivalled accuracy. Thisfundamental yet poorlyknown data will helpdetermine the true shapeof Earth.

GOCE MISSION

materials of different densities. The presence inone place of a magma reservoir at a depth of a few

hundred meters, and in another of a sinkingoceanic plate means that the density of

the material beneath our feet varies,and with it the value of g.

Determining these hollowsand bumps–with differences

of up to a 100 meters–withthe same precision all overthe planet is no easy task.Indeed, local groundmeasurement can give thevalue of the gravity fieldwith accuracy of one part

in a billion, but for a largestructure such as the

Himalayas, it is necessary tohave this type of high precision

on a very large scale. “The aim isalso to unify international reference

systems so that, for example, themeasurement of the altitude of a point

means the same thing in Paris orBeijing,” adds Diament. To meet this

challenge, GOCE is well equipped: on board,it carries a gradiometer, an instrument made up

of six ultra-precise accelerometers built by theFrench Aerospace Lab Onera,5 completed by aGPS receiver. To preserve high resolution, GOCEwas placed in a low orbit, at an altitude of 265kilometers. At this distance, friction with theresidual atmosphere makes it constantly losealtitude. The satellite therefore has to compensatefor this by firing small ion thrusters. “This is atop notch Earth observation satellite,” says Dia-ment admiringly. In fact, it was thought up nearly30 years ago–in particular by Georges Balmino,today a researcher at CNES who has at last seenthe fruits of his labor.

Azar Khalatbari

1. Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer.www.esa.int/SPECIALS/GOCE/2. http://ganymede.ipgp.jussieu.fr/frog/objectifs.htm3. IPGP (CNRS / Universités Paris-VI and VII / Universitéde la Réunion); Locean (CNRS / Université Paris-VI /MNHN / IRD); Observatoire de la côte d’Azur; ObservatoireMidi-Pyrénées. 4.Institut de physique du globe de Paris (CNRS /Universités Paris-VI and VII / Université de la Réunion).5. Office national d’études et de recherches aérospatiales.

CONTACTSInstitut de physique du globe de Paris (IPGP).

Ô Michel Diament,[email protected]

Ô Sébastien Deroussi,[email protected]

The Real Shape of Earth

The GOCE satellite (artist’s rendition), should be able to measurethe gravity field with unprecedented precision and resolution on a global scale.

On this virtual Earth, the regions where thegravity field is weakest are shown in blue, andthe regions where it is strongest in red.

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As the surrealist Belgian writerLouis Scutenaire humorouslynoted, “the death of celebrities isalways commemorated, but nevertheir birth.” Yet at least 2009 will

be an opportunity to celebrate in truly worthyfashion the bicentennial of the birth of this giantof modern science, Charles Robert Darwin. Bya fortunate coincidence, it will also be the 150thanniversary of the first edition of his seminalwork, On the Origin of Species by Means of NaturalSelection.

It is hardly surprising that there is so muchenthusiasm about Darwin today. His theory ofthe evolution of species has been constantlyenriched, perfected, and fleshed out bygenerations of researchers on the basis of a hugeamount of experimental work carried out bothin the field and in the lab. What’s more, it nowappears to have no serious rivals. So just whatdid Darwin state back in the mid-19th century?Basically, that living organisms were constantlyevolving, due in particular to the phenomenonof natural selection, which meant that withinone species, the individuals that were bestadapted to their environment reproduced ingreater numbers than the others. But Darwinwent further, inferring that all species (includinghumans) descended from one or more commonancestors. This was in complete contradictionwith the traditional Christian view that prevailedat the time, namely that all the different kindsof creatures that inhabited the planet were thework of divine creation, and were foreverunchanging and unrelated to each other.

For Hervé Le Guyader, director of the SAE1

laboratory, “the theory of evolution in the

Darwinian meaning of the term is currently thebest conceptual framework that we have for arational understanding of the instability of livingorganisms and for thinking about an essentiallydynamic natural world.”

THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLESOF EVOLUTIONThe explanation of the mechanisms of biologicalevolution formulated by Darwin and hissuccessors is based on four fundamentalprinciples. The first, as Guillaume Lecointre, ateam leader at SAE explains, is that “amongindividuals that recognize each other as potentialsexual partners, there exist variations (physical,genetic, in ability, etc.). Consequently, whateverthe cause of such variation, living species havea natural ability to vary.” The second is that everyspecies can be selected for. Horticulturists, whofor instance create new varieties of roses bycrossing older varieties, or dog breeders, who ina mere 11,000 years have produced dachsundsfrom wolves, know this only too well. “Thesimple fact that humans can change themorphology of a species at will shows that itcan be ‘molded,’ as it were, and that it has theability to be altered,” Lecointre points out.

The third principle is that all species repro-duce as long as they can find food resourcesand optimum habitat conditions. They keep onreproducing so as to always reach the limits ofthese resources, or until they come up againstother limits, like predation by other species.“There is therefore a natural capacity for over-population that can be observed, for instance,when non-native species suddenly invade aclosed environment such as an island,”

CNRS International Magazine n° 13 April 2009 CNRS International Magazine n° 13 April 2009

18 COVERSTORY 19COVERSTORY

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The year 2009 marks both the bicentennial of Darwin’s birthday and the 150-year anniversaryof the first publication of his famous work On the Origin of Species. Throughout the year, the world will celebrate the English naturalist who revolutionized the story of life with his theories of evolution and natural selection. And this is a well-deserved tribute.Indeed, his work laid the foundations for all the fundamental research carried out since then,to establish the relationships between species and understand their evolution over millions of years. But this celebration also responds to a need to reassert a number of scientific facts, at a time when Darwin’s critics, led by the creationists, seem to be making up lost ground. So just how did Darwin construct his theories? And how have theydeveloped since then? Which new avenues are his followers exploring in their labs? CNRS International Magazine has been finding out.

150 YEARS ON,

THE WORLD

DARWIN

THE ORIGINS OF A THEORY > 19 RESEARCH IN EVOLUTION > 23

WHEN CONTROVERSY RAGES > 26

according to

The Origins of a Theory

George Richmond’s 1840 portraitof Charles Darwin, seen here notas the bearded patriarchimmortalized for posterity, but asa young and slim man.

Darwin only published his theory ofnatural selection relatively late in life–when he was 50 and already aninternationally renowned naturalist.

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One of Darwin’s manycollections of insects, which

gave him the opportunity tocarry out extremely detailed

real-life observations.

Galápagos Islands(Sept. 16th-Oct. 20th, 1835)

Tahiti Callao

Valparaíso(July 23rd, 1834)

Falkland Islands

MontevideoMontevideo

Puerto DeseadoPuerto Deseado

Rio de Janeiro(April 4th-July 5th 1832)

Bahia

Cape Verde Islands

The Azores

Cape of Good Hope

Mauritius islandRéunion Island(April 29th - May 9th 1836)

Cocos Islands

Hobart

Sydney(Jan. 1836) Bay of Islands

King George Sound

PlymouthDeparture: Dec. 27th, 1831

Return: Oct. 2nd, 1836

Falkland Islands (March 1833-March 1834)

continues Lecointre. The best example ofthis occurred in Australia when rabbits werefirst introduced. They went on to overrun thecountry destroying plants and crops. Yet theplanet is not dominated by a single hegemonicspecies, but, as Lecointre explains, “it is on thecontrary populated by millions of species livingin coexistence, despite the natural capacity foroverpopulation that each of them has. So eachspecies acts as a limit for the others, by occupyingtheir space, by exploiting them (predation andparasitism), or by sharing the same resources.In short, the other species all act as constraintsthat play a role as selective agents.”

The fourth and last principle is that thesuccess of a species’ growth and reproductiondepends on optimum conditions, both physical(temperature, humidity, sunshine, etc.) and chem-ical (pH, odor molecules, toxins, etc.). “These factorsall act as constraining factors,” says Lecointre. “Ifthey change, the genetic variants2 that carry aselective advantage won’t be the same.”

So there are a host of factors, within thephysical, chemical, and biological environmenta species inhabits, that lead to natural selectionin each generation, resulting in “differentialreproductive success.” Put into plain language,this means that within the same species,individuals that carry a heritable variation thatis temporarily advantageous in the conditions ofthe environment at that time will produce moreoffspring. “If those conditions are maintained forlong enough,” Lecointre adds, “the variant witha selective advantage will end up having afrequency of 100% in the population. The specieswill then have changed.” The outcome is that nospecies is stable over time.

DARWIN’S FORERUNNERSAlthough it fell to Darwin to put forward twobig ideas–descent with modification and the keyrole of natural selection in the adaptation of livingorganisms, and therefore in evolution–they werenot purely incidental. The ground had been pre-pared by, among others, the French naturalistJean-Baptiste de Monet, better known as Chevalierde Lamarck, and the Scottish geologist CharlesLyell. Indeed, the first volume of Lyell’s Principlesof Geology traveled with the young Darwin whenhe set sail from Plymouth in late 1831 on a voy-age round the world on board the famous Bea-gle. This was to be a very long voyage of explo-ration of natural history, during which Darwinlanded on the Galápagos Islands, home to gianttortoises, iguanas, fur seals, and above all, the well-known finches. Although their morphologiesshowed striking similarities, they differed in var-ious details, such as the shape and size of theirbeaks, from island to island. Darwin realizedthat the isolation of the finches on the differentislands had caused the single species that had


causes and laws of heredity, as well as the truenature of its material basis, were still unknown.Although his theory maintained that naturalselection was the main mechanism of evolu-tion, Darwin also believed that charactersacquired during an organism’s existence couldbe handed down to its offspring.

“Darwin’s theory of natural selection plungedinto obscurity after his death in 1882,” saysVeuille. After the rediscovery of Mendel’s lawson hereditary transmission6 in 1900, a newscience, “population genetics,” was to rediscoverthe importance of the notion of natural selection.The mathematical models7 proposed by Fisher,Haldane, and Wright were accepted by thescientific community in 1932. It was only thenthat researchers were able to turn populationgenetics into a practical discipline.

The years 1940-70 saw the merging of pop-ulation genetics with zoology, botany, and pale-ontology, which had hitherto ignored each other,giving rise to the “synthetic theory of evolution.”As Lecointre explains, “its instigators attemptedto unravel the mechanisms that gave rise to bio-diversity, using the mechanismsdescribed by populationgenetics enriched by whatnaturalists had discoveredabout natural geographical

variations within species and about speciation.8”

DARWIN’S DESCENDANTSAnother modification of the theory of evolutionwas provided by the so-called “neutral” model ofthe Japanese geneticist Motoo Kimura. “Kimurabelieves that most changes observed betweenthe genomes of various species are due to chance,which imperceptibly alters the frequency of vari-ations from one generation to the next, ratherthan to natural selection, whose existence henonetheless recognizes,” Veuille explains. Overthe last few decades, many other researchershave added weight to the synthetic theory ofevolution and helped refine it, starting with thepaleontologists Stephen Jay Gould and NilesEldredge. Their new model, the “punctuatedequilibrium,” explained why in the fossil record,species seem to happen in spurts interspersedwith long periods of stagnation. During an eventof population separation, a small group of“marginal” organisms becomes cut off from itsoriginal population when it occupies a new envi-ronment. The original population is stable in

morphology while the marginal one changes ata faster rate. As time passes, the marginal pop-ulation accumulates divergence. If it is successful,it extends its territory and may replace the orig-inal population through interspecific competi-tion, as happened with the trilobites (marinearthropods) during the Paleozoic era. “Thiswould explain why, in an unbroken sedimentarysequence, a species that has been stable forseveral million years is suddenly replaced byanother species related to it,” Lecointre explains.

Working with Richard Lewontin, Gould sub-sequently corrected the overly optimistic view ofthe synthetic theory. Gould and Lewontin pointedout that variants with a selective disadvantagecontinue to appear all the time, which ledevolutionary scientists to put into perspectivetheir impression that nature was a perfect con-struct,” Lecointre explains. “Furthermore, theyshow that certain structures that could be deemedas a handicap (like the fact that spotted hyenasgive birth through the clitoris, which results indeath for some of the newborns) are in factbiologically connected to other structures which

provide decisive advantages (in this case, theaggressiveness of females), which is why thesestructures are maintained.”

Another key stage in the ever-increasingsophistication of the synthetictheory was the method developedin the 1950s by the German ento-mologist Willi Hennig for recon-structing the evolutionary his-tory of species–i.e., identifyingtheir degree of kinship andconstructing the tree of life–andits associated classifications–aswell as its computerized appli-cations from the 1970s onwards.This total shake up of taxonomy(the science of the classificationof organisms), later coupled withthe large-scale sequencing of

genomes, made it possible to “place on the same‘tree of life’ and at the same time fungi, bacte-ria, animals, etc., whereas until then we were onlyable to classify vertebrates and plants relativeto one another,” says Le Guyader.


arrived from the mainland to diverge and showvariations that were probably connected to dif-ferences in their ways of life and feeding habits.Over 20 years of work were to follow before thepublication of On the Origin of Species. Thesewere two decades during which, according toMichel Veuille, from EPHE,3 Darwin “wrote tocorrespondents from all over the world, ques-tioned them, asked them for statistics, found outabout the taxonomy of the species he observed,and took this into account in his analysis. It is asif he already realized that the study of adaptationsneeded to rely on the principle that speciesdescend from common ancestors.”

While many Darwinists consider the 1859publication of On the Origin of Species the key scientific event that raised biology to the statusof a historical science, the epistemologist AndréPichot, from LPHS,4 minimizes the importanceof Darwin in the history of science. For him,“Darwinism in 1859 scarcely consisted ofanything more than natural selection. But thatwasn’t really a novel idea in the mid-19th century.The concept can be found, for instance, in 1813in the work of WilliamCharles Wells, and thenin 1831 in that of PatrickMatthew, who accusedDarwin of plagiarism. Wealso know that AlfredRussel Wallace had devel-oped a similar version atthe same time as Darwin.And we shouldn’t forgetthe minister, geologist andpolitical scientist Joseph

Townsend, whose ideas in the matter were almostentirely copied by Darwin.” Pichot points outthat the idea of selection was already around atthat time, and if it made Darwin so successful,it was because the timing was right: “The secondhalf of the 19th century saw the triumph of eco-nomic liberalism,5 and Darwin’s ideas lent greatweight to this notion by giving it a natural basis.”

Pichot’s interpretation makes Darwinistssee red. “Darwin’s innovative idea wasn’t somuch natural selection as descent with modif-ication, in other words the fact that species havea history and are related,” Le Guyader pointsout. The now famous meeting organized in June1860 in Oxford by Bishop Samuel Wilberforceconcerned this point. Wilberforce, attacking theDarwinist Thomas Huxley, asked him if it was“on his grandfather’s or grandmother’s side that[he] claimed descent from an ape,” and receivedthe no less famous reply: “Better to descendfrom an ape than from a man who uses hisgreat gifts to obscure the truth.”

GENETICS TO THE RESCUEDarwin’s theory, whileupsetting the traditionalChristian view of theworld, suffered from amajor handicap: the

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Darwin’s voyage round the worldon board the Beagle lasted fiveyears, from December 1831 toOctober 1836.

Jean-Baptiste de Monet,Chevalier de Lamarck,helped introduce theidea of evolution into thescientific thinking of theearly 19th century. Thereappears to be an obviousconnection between hisideas and those ofDarwin.

In September 1835,Darwin was able toobserve giant tortoisesand turtles in thevolcanic GalápagosIslands on the equator.

>

DARWIN’S JOURNEY During his stay in the Galápagos, Darwin set out tostudy a dozen separate species of Passerine birdswhich were to become famous under the name“Darwin’s finches.”

Fish, lizards, iguanas, etc.: Darwindescribed the “eminently curious”natural history of the fauna thatinhabited the Galápagos Islands.

Source : Darwin et la science de l’évolution, P. Tort, Découvertes Gallimard, 2000

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THE CONTRIBUTION OFEMBRYOLOGYThe latest boost to the theory of evolution hasbeen provided by the rapid development ofevolutionary developmental biology–informallyknown as “evo-devo”–a discipline focused onthe identification of the genes behind embryonic

Lepidosaurians

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It is no surprise that scientists from every dis-cipline are still unable to explain all thefacts of evolution. How could it beotherwise, given that only a few decadeshave gone by since the discovery of DNA

and the fundamental molecular mechanismsof life. Yet facing the complexity of the task,researchers are using all the means at their dis-posal to unravel the events set off 2.5 billionyears ago. “Such questions form one of the mostfar-reaching and exciting scientific fields.Moreover, beyond its academic and practicalinterest, studying evolution provides us withthe keys we need to forecast the impact of currentglobal change on organisms and ecosystems,”says Jean-Christophe Auffray, director of ISEM1

in Montpellier.

ON THE TRAIL OF BIODIVERSITYTrying to understand how biodiversity emergesand maintains itself is Nicolas Galtier’s specialty

at ISEM. “Evolution can be studied at differentlevels of organization,” he explains. “It can bestudied on the scale of ecosystems, of species, oforganisms, or of genomes, which is what I do.I ‘watch sequences of DNA evolve,’ both withincurrent populations and between species that arevery far apart, such as bacteria and mammals,knowing that certain genes–like those that reg-ulate the transcription of DNA into RNA and thetranslation of RNA into proteins–are commonto all living organisms.” This is the art of makinggenes “talk,” to decipher the relationships thatunite all living things and to reconstruct theevolutionary history of species.

However, why is it that the genomes of somespecies (human, for instance) evolve at a slowerpace than others (like the fruit fly)? Nobodyknows. Such a differential evolution rate betweenspecies remains largely unexplained. “Severalpossibilities are beginning to emerge,” Galtierexplains, “involving various parameters such asthe spontaneous appearance of genetic changesfrom one generation to another, the efficiency ofrepair of damaged DNA, the average life span ofa generation of organisms, or even the ability ofdifferent species to eliminate deleterious–disadvantageous–mutations.”

Working on the methods and mechanismsof evolution can also entail studying mimicry, asdoes Mathieu Joron, fromthe OSEB laboratory.2 Thisadaptive phenomenoncauses species that aregenetically very far apart toresemble each othermorphologically. “I haveshown that, for the tropi-cal butterfly Heliconiusnumata, variation in wingcolor is controlled by a sin-gle locus (a precise spot ona chromosome),” he says,“whereas for other closelyrelated species, variation inthe same trait is controlledby four or five loci locatedon different chromosomes,and involves more genes. I am attempting tounderstand the evolutionary aspects of thesedifferences in ‘genetic architecture.’”

NEW DISCOVERIES IN THE LABS...Uncovering the secrets of the evolution of livingorganisms also means finding out its impacton biodiversity. To tackle this issue, the ecologistNicolas Mouquet, who works at ISEM, has beenworking with the bacterium Pseudomonas flu-orescens. The experiment he carried out



development, the study of their distributionwithin the animal world, and their comparison.This should help to better interpret organsimilarities between large groups of animals.As Le Guyader points out, “Darwin would havebeen delighted with this encounter betweenembryology (in which he was very interested) and genetics, which thrusts development and its associated genes into an evolutionaryframework.”

All these areas of research show that thepioneering ideas of the great English naturalistwere greatly enriched throughout the 20thcentury. “Today, evolutionary specialists can playwith a wide range of models and mechanismsto explain evolutionary phenomena,” says MichelMorange.9 “Their objective isn’t to prove Darwin’stheory wrong,” but rather to test the differentmodels derived from his theory.

Philippe Testard-Vaillant

1. Laboratoire Systématique, adaptation, évolution (CNRS /Université Paris-VI / MNHN / IRD / École normalesupérieure Paris). 2. Variants are individuals that carry a different genotype

from other individuals in a population.3. Ecole pratique des hautes études. Research NetworkGénomique des populations et génomique évolutive. 4. Laboratoire de philosophie et d’histoire dessciences–Archives Henri Poincaré (CNRS / UniversitéNancy-II).5. The economic liberalism that established itself in 19thcentury Victorian England lent weight to the idea that freecompetition between companies and freedom of work andtrade should not be hindered.6. Formulated by Johann Mendel, who as a monk wasknown as Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), these laws statedthat genes (whose existence Mendel knew nothing about)from each parent contribute in equal share to the offspring.7. These models showed that genes with a small selectiveadvantage could reach a frequency of 100% in thepopulation. 8. Differentiation of species during the course of evolution.9. Professor of biology at the University of Paris-VI andEcole Normale Supérieure. Laboratoire Régulation del’expression génétique (CNRS / École normale supérieureParis).

Research in Evolution

CONTACTSÔ Hervé Le Guyader, [email protected]

Ô Guillaume Lecointre, [email protected]

Ô Michel Veuille, [email protected]

Ô André Pichot, [email protected]

Ô Michel Morange, [email protected]

“I’m not a knight in shining armor fighting creationism,although the subject does need to be addressed,”answers Pascal Picq, paleoanthropologist at theCollège de France, slightly irritated that he has oncemore been asked to comment on the harm caused bythe crusade currently waged by fundamentalistevangelical circles in the US.“These Churches, which teach that the Universe andthe Earth were created by a god around 6000 years ago,are constantly gaining ground, and their goal is nothingless than to establish a theocracy,” he explains.“Europe is vulnerable. The revival of creationism thatwe’re seeing today is a real threat to secularism anddemocracy.” Another current of thought which has a knack formaking evolutionary scientists angry is that of“Intelligent Design,” a neo-creationist belief that claimsto be a science and states that certain evolutionaryfacts (such as the formation of complex structural andfunctional features like the eye) can never be explainedby science, and that we should therefore seek non-natural causes for their appearance. “Intelligent Designinvokes the existence of a ‘superior intelligence’ toexplain the incredible diversity of life,” Picq explains.So, what can be done to fight off the onslaught ofcreationism and Intelligent Design? Most suggest thereestablishment of the fundamental concepts ofevolution in school curriculums as a starting point.

P.T.-V.CONTACT: Pascal Picq, [email protected]

A DANGEROUS CRUSADEAGAINST DARWIN

THE PLACE OFHUMANS IN THETREE OF LIFE

Phylogenetecists usuallyclassify living organisms into“trees,” whose branches revealthe relationships betweengroups of species. They divideinto more and more branches asorganisms evolve and newspecies appear. The part of the tree of lifeshown here contains thesarcopterygians, which include

mammals and thereforehumans. It was Darwin whofirst suggested classifyingliving organismsgenealogically. However, thereare as many different trees asthere are ways of analyzingcharacters that are common tospecies.

Comparing the nervous system ofjellyfish with the more complexsystems of other animals helps usunderstand how this cellular networkdeveloped during evolution.

These images show mimicrybetween different species ofbutterfly that are geneticallyrelatively far apart.

The insectarium atISEM, wherethousands ofmosquitoes are bredand available atdifferent stages intheir life cycle. Thisis a valuable tool,especially for studying themechanisms that enable commonmosquitoes to acquire resistanceto insecticides.

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the mother? Does this process play a role in thedynamics of emerging diseases? We arecombining various approaches to tackle thesequestions, from modeling to experiments in thefield and in the lab.”

100% VIRTUAL ORGANISMSBut why not create entirely virtual organismsfrom scratch using computer programs, andobserve “live” all the events that take place duringtheir evolution? This is the exciting idea thatGuillaume Beslon is trying out at LIRIS5 andIXXI.6 Whereas phylogeny reconstructs“retroactively” the stages of evolution of realspecies that have survived until today or thathave left fossil remains, “we do just the opposite,”Beslon explains. “Instead of looking back to thepast, we follow over thousands of generations theevolution of artificial organisms, each onepossessing simplified virtual DNA based onbacteria, which we bring together as populations.By introducing biologically plausible mutationand selection mechanisms, we can observe the‘real’ evolution of artificial organisms!”

evolve, sometimes on just one single substrate,sometimes on one substrate and then on another,and sometimes in an environment containinga combination of these substrates,” explainsIsabelle Olivieri, who leads the experiment. Theaim is to test the predictions of the mathemat-ical models that describe the processes of adap-tation and specialization according to theheterogeneity of the environment. They will beable to tweak the parameters of these models tobetter understand the mechanisms of what isknown as “adaptive speciation,” especially in acontext of increasingly fragmented habitats.“The results obtained until now show that, evenafter 400 generations on one single host plant,the populations still exhibit a very large geneticdiversity, enabling them to adapt to newenvironments,” Olivieri says. “This evolutionarypotential enables them to live on new host plants.Eventually, we would like to discover the genesinvolved in this process. In particular, we wishto determine to what extent adaptive mechanismsare repeated. Is a given specialization processalways genetically performed in the same way,or do the genes recruited differ from onepopulation to another for the same selectiveenvironment?”

... AND IN THE FIELDTo study the evolutionary mechanisms that ledto current biodiversity, Hervé Le Guyader, backat SAE, is scouring the sea floor. It providesfood and shelter for an extraordinary fauna thatlive around hydrothermal vents or get theirenergy supply from organic matter that tricklesdown from the surface (the dead bodies of largecetaceans, for example). “We have discoveredthat the organisms found in these deep

mites (which feed on plants). Populations ofTetranychus urticae mites are placed inenvironments containing different host plants(cucumber, tomato). “We let each population

together with Patrick Venail, Thierry Bouvier,and Michael Hochberg “consisted in creatingin the laboratory, using plastic micro-cultureplates, various environments made up of severalsources of carbon3–based on glucose, fructose,amino acids, etc. We put bacteria that werestrictly genetically identical into each of the 96wells of the micro plates, and we left them evolvefreely for over 500 generations (i.e., around 50days), at the same time moving a small fractionof them from one well to another.” And whatwere the results? The effect of this cocktail,which combined spatial heterogeneity of avail-able resources and dispersion, accelerated thediversification of the genotypes of thePseudomonas fluorescens communities andboosted their ability to create biomass. “Thiswork shows that there exists a positive relation-ship between the complexity of the environmentand the biological diversity that can emergefrom it through evolution,” explains Mouquet.It also indirectly shows that the increasinglyuniform terrestrial ecosystems resulting fromhuman activity could eventually reduce life’sability to diversify.

Another “experimental evolution” assay isbeing carried out at ISEM on phytophagous



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What is the impact of air pollutants fromroad traffic on female fertility and, thereforeeventually, on the evolution of the humanspecies? A study, dubbed Atmos-Fer(Atmospheric Pollution and HumanFertility), in which CNRS researcher LylianeRosetta is taking part,1should help shedmore light on the question. A thousandFrench women aged 18-44 not usingcontraception and attempting to becomepregnant took part in the survey. “We askedthe women to send us urine samplescollected every other day during acomplete menstrual cycle,” Rosettaexplains. “We are currently determiningthe hormonal profiles of estradiol (ahormone secreted in large amounts justbefore ovulation) and progesterone(secreted after ovulation) in the biologicalsamples.” The same women were alsoasked to provide a sample of hair todetermine the quantity of pollutants itcontained. The aim is to find out whetherthe cycles of these women were disturbed,and if so, to what extent this anomaly couldbe linked to air pollution in their immediateenvironment. In terms of evolution, Rosetta says, there isevery reason to think that “if air pollutiondoes affect, and actually decreases theoverall pregnancy rate, more fertile womenwill have a distinct advantage over lessfertile ones, for whom it will be harder toreproduce.” The definitive results areexpected to be available in 2010.

P.T.-V.

1. Laboratoire Dynamique de l’évolution humaine:individus, populations, espèces (CNRS).

Contact: Lyliane Rosetta, [email protected]

POLLUTION’S IMPACTON EVOLUTION

If there’s one example that shows that cultural differences can lead to biological alterations and affectthe genetic diversity of Homo sapiens, it is that of lactase, an intestinal enzyme that makes it possibleto digest the lactose (a sugar needed for children’s growth) present in milk. “This enzyme,” explainsÉvelyne Heyer, from MNHN,1 “is generally inactivated in mammals after weaning, which makes themunable to digest milk when they become adults. “However, in certain human populations, especially inNorthern Europe (Sweden) and in East Africa (the Tutsis), a high proportion of adults (as many as 90%)have active lactase.” So what do these groups have in common? All of them are made up of herdsmenor descendants of herdsmen, and milk has played a major role in their diet for several thousand years.Heyer explains that “when these populations began to drink large quantities of fresh milk, individualswho were able to digest it possessed a selective advantage (better absorption of calcium, betterresistance to dehydration, etc.). The tools of population genetics even enable us to date the momentwhen this mutation began to increase in frequency.” The European mutation’s age is estimated to beapproximately 8000-9000 years old, dates which are consistent with what archeology tells us about thedomestication of livestock.

P.T.-V.

1. Groupe Eco-Anthropologie et Ethnobiologie (MNHN / CNRS / Université Paris-VII).

CONTACT: Évelyne Heyer, [email protected]

LACTASE EVOLUTION

The effect of airquality on humanreproduction is ofincreasing interestto scientists.

By following the diversification of thebacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens forover 500 generations, researchers haverevealed a connection between thecomplexity of the environment and thebiological diversity that can take placethere through evolution.

Around hydrothermalvents, organisms livein symbiosis withbacteria, forming acompletely novelecosystem.

Above, bottom: gill filaments of a hydrothermalvent mussel, where it is possible to make outthe cells containing its symbiotic bacteria. Top:3D view of a detail of this image.

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ecosystems live in symbiosis with bacteria, whichmeans that the animal-microbial pair makes upthe key component on which selection acts. Inother words, selection acts on the pair, and notjust on one of the two members of the couple,”Le Guyader explains. “In addition, we realizedthat the mussels in these environments arerelated to coastal mussels. Our hypothesis isthat ‘sunken wood’ (torn out trees sent down tothe ocean floor during hurricanes) could havebeen a colonization vector for surface organ-isms which over thousands of years adapted,some of them to whale carcasses, others tohydrothermal vents.” Le Guyader also works inthe field of “evo-devo,”–i.e., connected to thegenetics of development. He is comparingsponges, which lack a nervous system, with bothjellyfish, which have a simple nervous system,and mammals, which possess a complex nervoussystem, to try to understand the evolutionaryorigin and the function of the genes specializedin the organization of neurons.

Meanwhile, over at CEFE,4 scientists areworking on evolutionary ecology, focusing on theinteractions between genes, individuals,populations, and variations in their environment.Thierry Boulinier is endeavoring to understanda peculiar adaptive process observed on an arcticbird, the black-legged kittiwakes. The females ofthese birds pass on to their chicks, via the yolkof their eggs, antibodies against a bacteriumtransmitted by a tick to which the chicks arelikely to be exposed. “This adaptive process raisesa lot of questions,” explains Boulinier. “Doesthe ability to transmit antibodies vary amongfemales? Are the chicks effectively protectedagainst the parasites? Is the investment costly for

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This makes it possible to monitor allthe events the organisms undergo during anexperiment, including those that phylogenywould have lost track of. “In fact, althoughwe produce all the mutation algorithms, theyoccur at random. We don’t decide ourselves inwhich part of the genome they will occur, norwhen,” points out Carole Knibbe, a bioinfor-matics scientist working on this project.Researchers have already obtained unexpectedresults. For instance, they were surprised toobserve that the frequency of spontaneousmutations has a strong influence on the sizeof the evolved genomes.” In particular, wehave discovered a connection between theproportion of non-coding sequences7 in agenome and the mutation rate it undergoes,”the scientists explain. A result that could helpus better understand the role of such non-coding DNA in in vivo evolutionaryphenomena.

This is only some of the research currentlycarried out to shed some light on thedevelopment of evolutionary mechanisms.Research that agrees with the words of theRussian-American geneticist TheodosiusDobzhansky (1900-1975): “Nothing in biologymakes sense except in the light of evolution.”


1. Institut des sciences de l’évolution de Montpellier(CNRS / Université de Montpellier-II).2. Origine, structure et évolution de la biodiversité(CNRS / MNHN).3. Carbon is at the root of metabolism in bacteria.4. Centre d’écologie fonctionnelle et évolutive (CNRS /Universités Montpellier-I, II, and III / Ensa Montpellier/Cirad / École pratique des hautes études).5. Laboratoire d’informatique en images et systèmesd’information (CNRS / Insa Lyon / Universités Lyon-Iand II / École centrale de Lyon).6. Institut Rhône-Alpin des systèmes complexes. Itspartners include CNRS, INRIA, IRD, ENS Lyon, InsaLyon, Université Joseph Fourier, and many others.7. DNA sequences that do not code for proteins.

Anumber of evolutionary theo-ries have attempted to applyDarwinism to human societies.Born in the ferment of debatebetween the life sciences and

the social sciences in the second half of the 19thcentury, the proponents of “social Darwinism”–which sees human society as an animal specieswhose “health” requires the elimination of themost unproductive individuals, such ascriminals, alcoholics, the disabled, etc.–are asource of endless controversy. At issue is theexact role played by Darwin’s ideas in the emer-gence of detestable ideologies like eugenics,which calls for “artificial selection” of humanbeings. The philosopher Patrick Tort, thefounder and director of the internationalCharles Darwin Institute1 and a tirelessdefender of Darwin, categorically denies thatthe British naturalist had anything to do withthe emergence of such ideas (see box below).

André Pichot, however, is far less charitableto Darwin and begs to disagree. “Darwin wasneither more nor less racist, sexist, or asupporter of slavery than his contemporaries,”Pichot claims. “But Darwinism gave rise to allsorts of sociological and political theories thatmade competition, war, and mass slaughter theexplanatory principles of societies and theirevolution. You only have to read what wasbeing written before and during the First WorldWar, right up to the 1930s! Darwin neverprotested against the eugenic and racist ideasof his cousin Galton. And his own son, MajorLeonard Darwin, was for years the chairmanof the International Federation of EugenicsOrganizations.” The issue looks set to remaincontroversial.

Nonetheless, according toDominique Guillo, fromGEMAS,2 whatever the truth ofthe matter, the social sciences,after having been initially closelyconnected to biology and its off-shoots, progressively severed theirlinks with the life sciences andbecame an independent disci-pline at the beginning of the 20thcentury. Admittedly, social,eugenic, racist, and imperialistideas derived from Darwinismcontinued to proliferate, actingfor example as a source of inspi-ration for the horrors of Nazism.But for many decades, “on thewhole, academic sociology andanthropology kept their distancefrom biology, hiding behind theprinciple of an insurmountable barrier betweennature and culture,” Guillo explains.

FROM NATURE TO CULTUREThis separation was questioned in the mid-1970s by neo-Darwinian theories of culture,especially as propounded by the Americanentomologist Edward O. Wilson, whose Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, triggeredtremendous controversy in western intellectualcircles. In its most radical version,sociobiology’s reasoning can be boiled downto one simple and very succinct proposition:Much social behavior is governed by geneticmechanisms and by the principle of naturalselection, not only in animals, but also inhumans. “Wilson sought to adapt the foun-dations of Darwinian logic to a whole series of

to sit on the fence by seeking to estimate therespective influence of biological and culturalfactors in human evolution. “This tendencyreviews the various scenarios,” says Guillo, “fromthe recognition that genetic factors are involvedin some human practices, to situations in which

cultural evolution is totally inde-pendent of genes.” For the Americananthropologist William H. Durham,cannibalism, which is given great cul-tural value by the Fore people of NewGuinea for the warlike virtues thatcan be obtained from an enemy killedin combat, illustrates this latter point,since such practices probably endedup triggering the appearance of a lethalneurophysiological disease calledkuru, which is a variant of mad cowdisease.


1. www.darwinisme.org 2. Groupe d’étude des méthodes de l’analysesociologique (CNRS / Université Paris-IV).

“behavior in animal and human societiesis in the final analysis governed, moreor less directly, by specific genes retainedby natural selection.”

Another even more distant cousin ofsociobiology, to which it is even totallyopposed on certain points, is memet-ics, which emerged from the work ofthe English ethologist Richard Dawkins.This line of thinking, which has manyfollowers in the US, applies the evolu-tionary mechanisms modeled by Dar-winism to human societies, but solely asan analogy. For Dawkins, Guillo explains,“there exist basic ideas–he calls themmemes–that are specific to each cul-ture: the idea of God, a song, a certainway of cooking, etc. These memes worklike genes. They jump from one brainto another, spreading out through pop-ulations and multiplying, competingwith each other to ‘colonize’ the maxi-mum number of brains. They mutatewhen someone introduces a technicalinnovation in an industrial process, orinvents a new style of clothing, etc. Such

mutations can either disappear rapidly (as inthe case of fashions), or establish themselveslong-lastingly (such as the meme of the idea ofGod).” In other words, memes, like genes,undergo a process of selection. In memetics,Guillo points out, “human culture thereforeappears to be disconnected from biologicalevolution, the evolution of genes.”

At the junction between the two aforemen-tioned theories, another neo-Darwinian modelof culture, “gene-culture co-evolution,” attempts

human social and cultural phenomena: moralcodes, religion, the division of labor betweenmen and women, etc.,” says Guillo. For Wilson,social norms, such as the avoidance of incest, arethe biological tendencies rooted in genes thatwere probably selected for in our ancestors,throughout prehistory, for the advantages theyconferred.

The reductionist determinism formulatedby human sociobiology gave rise to another,apparently “softer” version: evolutionarypsychology. The instigators of this ideology admitthat things do get a bit complicated with regardto the human species, where it isn’t possible todisregard the complexity of cerebral mechanismsand the importance of cultural and socialtransmission. But the basic principle remains thesame. “For these theoreticians,” Guillo insists,



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CONTACTÔ Dominique Guillo, [email protected]

Was Darwin a racist? Can histheory of evolution be accused ofbolstering the racistundercurrents that would lead tothe horrors witnessed during the20th century? For the philosopherPatrick Tort, the answer iscertainly no. “Racism glorifies theinherent qualities of the ‘race’ andcondemns mixed marriages,which is totally opposed toDarwin’s ideas,” he says. Darwin

fought racism as a result of familytradition, personal outrage aftervisiting Brazil, and because of hisown theoretical convictions.” Was the British naturalist such aconvinced opponent of slavery?Yes, he was, “absolutely andconstantly,” says Tort. To all thosewho maintain that Darwin was atthe root of the obnoxiousdistortions of his theory, Tortreminds us that The Origin of

Species was first published in1859. So as not to damage thechances of his ideas beingaccepted, “Darwin refused tomake any public statements onthe subject of humans for over adecade. And yet it was preciselyduring those ten years that theEnglish philosopher HerbertSpencer developed his ‘system ofsynthetic philosophy,’ which ledto a social theory that celebrated

the triumph of the ‘deserving,’ aswell as the refusal to help the poor.”During the same period, Darwin’syoung cousin, Francis Galton,invented eugenics. Referring to Darwin, both Spencer’sand Galton’s theories “converged”towards the principle of thenecessary elimination of the weak.“Yet Darwin saw the protection ofthe poor as an indication of thedegree of ‘civilization,’ and

irrevocably dismissed Galton’seugenics in Chapter 5 of ‘TheDescent of Man,’” says Tort. “Which is why it is necessary,” Tortconcludes, “to finalize theunexpurgated French translation ofthis work. This is currently beingundertaken by the Slatkinepublishing house.”

P.T.-V.

CONTACT: Patrick Tort, [email protected]

RACISM: DARWIN CLEAREDCONTACTSÔ Jean-Christophe Auffray [email protected]

Ô Nicolas Galtier, [email protected]

Ô Matthieu Joron, [email protected]

Ô Nicolas [email protected]

Ô Isabelle [email protected]

Ô Thierry Boulinier, [email protected]

Ô Guillaume [email protected]

Ô Carole [email protected]

At the end of the 19th century, for thesupporters of social Darwinism, “human zoos”justified thedistinctionbetween“primitive”and“civilized”races.

When ControversyRages

A picture thatpokes fun atthe theory ofevolution, bythe cartoonistBenjaminRabier at thebeginning ofthe 20thcentury: Apesdescend fromhumans!

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BOOKS > The Origin of Individuals, Jean-JacquesKupiec (Hackensack: World ScientificPublishing, 2009).

> Ecology and Evolution ofParasitism, Frédéric Thomas, Jean-François Guégan and FrançoisRenaud (Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 2009).

> The Pure Society: from Darwin to Hitler,André Pichot (London / New York: VersoBooks, 2009).

> Behavioural Ecology, AnEvolutionary Perspective onBehaviour, Etienne Danchin,Luc-Alain Giraldeau, and FrankCézilly (Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 2008).

> The Tree of Life,Guillaume Lecointre andHervé Le Guyader(Cambridge: BelknapHarvard University Press,2006).

> Charles Darwin. The Scholar whochanged Human History, Patrick Tort(London: Thames & Hudson, 2001). Americanedition: Darwin and the Science of Evolution,Patrick Tort (New York: Abrams, 2001).

FOR FURTHERINFORMATION

1 Claude Lévi-Strausswas born in Brussels in1908. After studying inParis, he was successivelya professor of philosophy,sociology, and finallyanthropology.

2 Lévi-Strauss, shownhere with his second wife,Monique, was elected to the Académie françaisein May 1972.

Those who have crossed his path have neverrun out of praise: “a man with an excep-tional flair for ethnology,” “a lively, modestpersonality, with a great sense of humor,”

“the author of one of the greatest contributions to20th century French thought.” Winner of the CNRSgold medal in 1967, he has made throughout hiscareer an indelible mark on ethnology andanthropology. “His body of work has fertilizedmajor studies in the humansciences–those of Foucault,Deleuze, and Bourdieu,” notesFrédéric Keck of the InstituteMarcel Mauss in Paris,1 who was involved in the publication ofhis major works in the “Biblio-thèque de la Pléiade” edition, acollection of great works ofliterature and philosophy. “Hiswork has had a spectacularinfluence internationally.”

Lévi-Strauss, a professor at the Collège de France, the author of more than 20 books,including the famous Tristes tropiques (1955), Lapensée sauvage (1962, The Savage Mind, 1966), and Mythologiques I-IV (from 1964 to 1971), andfounder in 1960 of the Laboratory for SocialAnthropology2 is best known for having introducedstructuralism, a method borrowed from linguistics,into the field of anthropology. Social phenomena

such as kinship systems or mythsare no longer to be studied asindependent entities each withtheir own significance, but ratheras part of an organized systemwhere connections are revealedby differences, not commonalities,exposing at the same time thestructures of unconscious thoughtthat are common to all humanbeings. “Structuralism provided away out of a kind of determin- >

ETHNOLOGY

The Century of

LÉVI-STRAUSSCLAUDE

Claude Lévi-Strauss celebrated hiscentennial on November 28, 2008. Thisrenowned anthropologist, a tireless socialtheorist and founding father ofstructuralism, has had considerableinfluence on contemporary thought.

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3 He studied several Amazontribes, including the Nambikwara.Unusually for South AmericanIndians–who invented thehammock–members of this tribesleep on the ground.

4 Among the Nambikwara, themen take care of their bodies justas much as the women.

5 The “mariddo,” a BororoIndian dance, was performedduring a complex funeral rite thatalso included a ritual hunt.

6 The village of Nalike in theSerra Bodequana was the capitalof the region of the CaduveoIndians. Claude Lévi-Strauss madetwo documentaries about it, filmedin 1935.

7 Lévi-Strauss and Dina, his firstwife, in their camp in Amazonia.They had both graduated inphilosophy and she actively

participated in the ethnographicresearch trips.

8 For Lévi-Strauss, theBororo Indians formed a“knowledge-based” andextremely hierarchicalsociety. It was divided intotwo rival “moieties,” the Cera

and the Tugare, each of whichwas subdivided into fourhierarchical clans. Here, a Cerawears a ceremonial dress.

9 This hairpin, 62 centimeters inlength, made from a twig to whichlarge red and blue ara feathers areattached, was brought back fromAmazonia by Lévi-Strauss. It ispart of the Lévi-Strauss collectionat the Paris Quai Branly museum,which includes 1478 items.

10 While in exile in New Yorkduring the Second World War,Lévi-Strauss, along with AndréBreton and his Surrealist friends,bought several items made by theIndians of the American northwestand by the Inuit, including thisdecorative item made of carvedwood and green mother-of-pearl.

ism that saw societies’ traditional practices andbodies of knowledge as simply responses to thenatural or social environment,” explains PierreDeléage of LAS. “Levi-Strauss was able to showthat universal structures of thought were at least ofequal importance in the formation of these practicesand bodies of knowledge.” He pulled together thesestructures into the concept of “the savage mind,” analternative to the “primitive mindset” that prevailedat the time, as a symptom of thesupposed superiority of colonialistscholars over the practices andmentalities of societies different fromtheir own.

How did Claude Lévi-Strauss develophis theories? “Oddly enough for anethnologist, he did relatively little field-work,” acknowledges Michel Izard, aformer member of LAS. In fact, Lévi-Strauss’ theories originated in the seriesof ethnographic research trips he madebetween 1935 and 1938 to study theAmazon Indians of Mato Grosso, whilehe was a professor at the University ofSão Paulo in Brazil. It was not until hisreturn to France in 1948, after having spentthe war years in the United States as anacademic refugee, that he published hisdoctoral thesis on “the elementary struc-tures of kinship,” along with acomplementary thesis on thefamily and social life of theNambikwara Indians. He was not to

return to Brazil until many years later, in 1985,after his retirement.

Lévi-Strauss, then, is not a fieldwork specialist.He admits that he does not have “the meticulousnessand patience” for it.3 Yet as a theoretician, he is agenius. “All his articles, all his books have consis-tently inspired true anthropological thinking,” Izardobserves. “When I was just a student, I attended his

seminars at the Sorbonne University in Paris.His theories filled us with excitement.” He

nonetheless kept a critical eye on his con-temporaries, and still does today. In Tristestropiques, published in 1955, he wrote:“Mankind has opted for monoculture; itis in the process of creating a mass civi-lization, as beetroot is grown in the mass.

Henceforth, man’s daily bill of farewill consist only of this one item.”

Words which, in the new age ofglobalization, ring terribly true.

Fabrice Demarthon

1. CNRS / EHESS.2. Laboratoire d’anthropologie sociale (LAS)(CNRS / Collège de France / EHESS).

3. Quoted from De près et de loin, byClaude Lévi-Strauss and Didier Eribon

(Paris: Odile Jacob, 1988).

CONTACTSInstitut Marcel Mauss, Paris.

Ô Frédéric Keck, [email protected]

Ô Pierre Deléage, [email protected]

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11 Lévi-Strauss during hisresearch visit to Brazil. Heexplains that Lucinda, the littlemonkey that lived with him, hadmade a habit of clinging to one ofhis legs.

12 13 14 15 Claude Lévi-Strauss and his wife Dinatook many portraits of indians,such as the Caduveo (12) and (13),the Nambikwara (14) or theGuaranì (15). These photographsshow how diverse their arrays andjewels can be: body paint, lip andnose ornaments, headdresses...

16 On bended knee, thisTsimshian shaman statue isadorned with a garment made ofpainted skins. On its head sits aleather diadem with upward bearclaws. It was part of Lévi-Strauss’North American collection, and isnow displayed at the Quai Branlymuseum.

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Foreign partners AROUNDTHEWORLD 31

On January 16th, the first ever interna-tional joint unit (UMI) between CNRSand Africa was signed into existence.This UMI, which goes by the name

“Environnement, santé, sociétés,”1 brings togetherresearchers from France, Burkina Faso, Mali,and Senegal to work in a high-priority field:environmental change and its impact on health.“Through this first major initiative for CNRS inAfrica, our goal is to set up a strong, balanced part-nership between researchers from the Northand South,” stated CNRS president CatherineBréchignac during the ceremony. Joining herwere the heads of the three other foundingorganizations: Senegal’s Université Cheikh AntaDiop in Dakar (UCAD), Mali’s University ofBamako, and Burkina Faso’s National center forscientific and technological research (CNRST).

The researchers have their work cut out forthem. Their primary goal is to investigate therelationship between environmental changesand health. For example, the way that pollutionbrings about new respiratory illnesses, or theprecise role that global warming plays in the dif-fusion of epidemics, or in food crises. But theywill also look at the sanitary problems raised bymigrations, and at demographic evolutions,including aging. Finally, they will evaluate howhospitals and health centers function, to improvemedical care. All these topics will be studied atthe local level in Africa, but also on a world scale.

“With global warming, for instance, diseasescurrently present in southern countries may verywell spread to northern countries,” says GillesBoetsch, UMI director and president of CNRS’sscientific board. “The issues that this group willtackle are therefore global and relevant toresearchers all over the world.” And these issuesinvolve many scientific fields: the five mainresearch topics (see box) will rely on 40 or sospecialists in environmental science (climatolo-gists, ecologists), health sciences, as well as in thehumanities and social sciences (anthropologists,sociologists...). This type of interdisciplinaryresearch is essential, according to Yannick Jaffré,from CNRS,2 who will be one of the five deputydirectors of the UMI.3 “Everyone knows howimportant the life sciences are to studying malariain Africa. But it is very difficult to tackle thesubject seriously without looking into localsanitation systems, seeing how patients aretreated in health clinics, investigating the use of

mosquito nets, or even taking into account citypolitics–known to contribute to the spread ofmalaria. In other words, the social sciences arecrucial to these issues.”

Apart from their recognized scientificexpertise, the UMI’s researchers have anotherasset: almost all of them know each other, somequite well. “Most of the teams making up this

UMI have already worked together for severalyears,” says Abdou Salam Sall, president ofUCAD. This is because a number of Africanresearchers and UMI team leaders first pursuedresearch in CNRS labs, and, once back in theirhome countries, continued to work together.Their collaboration needed to be formalized, andthis took some work. “It’s tricky enough forminga lab involving just two countries, so imagineone involving four...,” adds Boetsch. But the workhas paid off, and the UMI has been created for

four years (renewable) at four geographical sites:Marseille (France), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso),Bamako (Mali), and Dakar (Senegal). “This islike the embryo of a global lab,” says BasileGuissou, delegate general of CNRST. “It willenable us to share infrastructures, but also tobe everywhere at once, so to speak.” Anotherundeniable advantage of the lab is its visibility,useful for responding to important internationalcalls for proposals. The rector of Bamako’s uni-versity, Ginette Siby Bellegarde, has an optimisticoutlook: “Each partner brings his own skills to themix, his desire to work with others on unifyingtopics. I have no doubt that the results of our workwill be up to our expectations,” she enthuses,confiding that she hopes that the project will beextended to neighboring countries.

Matthieu Ravaud

1. Environment, Health, Society.2. Laboratoire “Anthropologie bioculturelle” (CNRS /Université Aix Marseille-II / EFS Alpes Méditerranée).3. With Lamine Gueye and Nicole Chapuis for Senegal,Ogobara Doumbo for Mali, and Blaise Sondo for BurkinaFaso.

Pollution, global warming, urbanization... the world is facing major environmental challenges.An ambitious French-African research group has just been formed to study these phenomenaand their consequences on health.

First Joint Unit in Africa HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT

CONTACTSAnthropologie biologique, Marseille.

Ô Gilles Boetsch, [email protected]

Ô Yannick Jaffré, [email protected]

Traffic jam inDakar (Senegal). Researcherswill study theeffects ofpollution onhealth.

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Ô Pollution, health and society Ô Environment, cognition and societyÔ Pathocenosis, social dynamics, prevention

and society Ô Technical care spaces and society Ô Ways of life and health, influence of migration

and demographic transition

FIVE TOPICS OF RESEARCH


AROUNDTHEWORLD They chose France32

How can two apparently solitaryneighboring molecules be made tocommunicate together? This was thechallenging idea raised by young chemist

Nathan McClenaghan, a recent recipient of theCNRS Bronze Medal. With his “COMMOTION”project, for which he has been awarded aEuropean grant, he is indeed trying to establishcommunication links between certain molecules,simply by using light.

Just 35, he understands the full scope of thisparticularly innovative type of research, and takesit in stride. In fact, Brussels has just grantedhim a total of €1.25 million over a five-year period,to build his team and develop his project in thecontext of the ERC young researchers program.1

CNRS, the Aquitaine Region, and the Universityof Bordeaux-I are also providing strong supportfor the project.

And this son of a Northern Irish engineer isconfident, having nurtured the idea for a longtime. During his thesis work in Belfast, where heworked on developing light-sensitive (photo-sensitive) molecules, he already had his eye onmainland Europe, and particularly the work byFrench teams based in Bordeaux.

Following an initial postdoctoral stay in Italy,he moved to France, the country where he wouldlater meet his wife. He rapidly mastered theFrench language and pursued his research in aBordeaux chemistry laboratory where he focusednot only on isolated molecules, but also onsupramolecular architectures based on self-assemblies of fullerenes (comprising carbonatoms ordered in the shape of a football). Then,in 2003, this young scientist decided to settle atthe ISM2 in Bordeaux in the NanostructuresOrganiques (NEO) group, and started his initialresearch on molecular language. To establishinter-molecular communication, his currentmethodology involves pointing a light sourcedirectly at the molecules, forcing them to modifytheir molecular and electronic structure. Thisaction can release ions, which act as messen-gers that are then caught and gradually releasedby other molecules. “This process is inspiredfrom living organisms,” explains McClenaghan.“Vision is a good example: When your eye isexposed to light, photons are absorbed by retinalpigments which change their shape and triggerthe gradual release of ions to the brain, which inturn records the message. This is a simple but effi-cient form of communication. I am now tryingto determine the extent to which this can bereproduced and used, at the nanometer scale,in the laboratory.” And this time, using light-

driven ions and small designer molecules. Thisis molecular communication that can be followedin real-time using photosensitive moleculeswhose properties adapt during the “conversation,”thus enabling small-scale computation or eventhe instantaneous diagnosis of certain diseasesthat are mainly based on defective com-munication. This could be accomplished, forexample, by investigating the transport of calciumor potassium ions, or other types of ions thatare responsible for certain serious disorders likeosteoporosis, tetanus, and various nervous dis-eases. In the long run, one possibility might beto treat certain diseases by photo-activatingdefective channels. The COMMOTION team isnow being formed, and should bring togetherabout a dozen students and CNRS researchers,specialists in the fields of chemistry, biology, and physics. We shall certainly be hearing a lotmore about this very ambitious project in thenear future.

Séverine Duparcq

1. European Research Council. http://erc.europa.eu/2. Institut des sciences moléculaires (CNRS / UniversitésBordeaux-I and IV / ENSCP Bordeaux).

Nathan McClenaghan Molecular Language

Iam interested in everything, as long assomething is at stake behind the work,”enthuses Marcello Solinas. His aim is tounderstand drug addiction, its patho-

physiology and the influence that the environ-ment plays on it. It’s an ambitious challenge butthe results are already coming in. With hiscolleague Mohamed Jaber, Solinas has recentlyshown1 that a positive and stimulating environ-ment helps defeating cocaine addiction. And the34-year-old Italian scientist, who arrived 5 yearsago at the IPBC2 in Poitiers, has absolutely nointention of stopping such promising research.

Interestingly, his encounter with both neu-roscience and France was totally unpredictable.Attracted to languages and history, the youngSardinian chose classical studies, “ideal for devel-oping a sound reasoning mental structure.” Butat 18, he changed course. His family owned apharmacy so he opted for a doctorate in the fieldat the University of Cagliari. This gave him theopportunity to meet Professor Gaetano Di Chiara,a world-renowned specialist in drug addictionand dopamine. “I only discovered how famoushe was later on. But he impressed me with hislectures on the cerebral circuitry common tonatural rewards and drugs, and on how the brainsuffered from addiction.” This rapidly evolvingsector of neuroscience gave Solinas ampleavenues for exploration. He subsequently wrotea dissertation on the changes in dopamine3 neu-rotransmission in the brain areas linked to addic-tion. In 2000, with his doctorate in hand, hehad one goal: to cross the Atlantic. He landed inBaltimore at the National Institute on DrugAbuse (NIDA). It is there that he embarked onfour years of research on subjects ranging fromthe mechanisms of action of caffeine to the roleof the human brain’s “endogenous cannabinoidsystem.” Counting several molecular entities,this system is involved in pain inhibition, coor-dination, and even appetite control. Cannabis

acts on the same system, excessively mimickingthe effect of the molecules secreted by the brain.“Like cannabis, this system can regulate theactivity of the brain’s dopaminergic systems butwithout producing the sensation of pleasure,therefore without risks of addiction.” This explainsthe growing interest in therapeutic use of newlydeveloped cannabinoid tools, capable of providingonly the positive effects without abuse liability.The goals are to treat eating disorders anddepression–characterized by low motivation–orfacilitate weaning someone off cannabis as shownby the scientist’s results published in May 2007.4

Meanwhile, Solinas and his French wifedecided to move back to the “old continent,”though career opportunities were rather uncertainthere. Yet he was soon recruited as a guestresearcher in Poitiers in 2004. One year later, hejoined CNRS in his newly adopted city. Differentlab, different challenge: While pursuing his workon cannabinoids, Marcello started using rodentsto investigate “the influence of living conditionson the effect of drugs.” He built this activity fromscratch, including finding available financingand buying the latest equipment. This strategyis paying off, “we are finally starting to becompetitive and our work is now accepted forpublication in prestigious journals.” “France hasoffered me great professional opportunitiesdespite my handicap with the language,” he addswith a smile. The next step will be to consolidatethe neurosciences in his region and make hislaboratory world-class.

Patricia Chairopoulos1. M. Solinas et al., “Reversal of cocaine addiction byenvironmental enrichment.” Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2008.105: 17145-50.2. Institut de physiologie et biologie cellulaires (CNRS/Université de Poitiers).3. Our endogenous molecule linked to reward.4. M. Solinas et al., “Nicotinic alpha 7 receptors as a newtarget for treatment of cannabis abuse.” J Neurosci., 2007.27: 5615-20.

AROUNDTHEWORLD 33

CONTACTÔ Nathan McClenaghanISM, [email protected]

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4TH STIC-AMSUD PROGRAMMECalls for submission of research-development projects in all topicsrelated to Information andCommunication Sciences andTechnologies were just issued.Projects must include at least twoparticipating South Americancountries, and one team of Frenchscientists. Ô Deadline: May 15th, 2009Ô www.sticamsud.org

CNRS-DENMARK AGREEMENT CNRS and the Danish NationalResearch Foundation (DNRF) haveconcluded an agreement tostrengthen scientific cooperationbetween France and Denmark. Itincludes a mobility program thatprovides support for travelexpenses, accommodation, andrunning costs. Applications can besubmitted throughout the yearthree months prior to the intendeddate of travel.Ô www.dg.dk

EURAXESS This portal provides information ongrants, fellowships, or positionsavailable throughout Europe as wellas practical information (accom-modation, childcare and schools,healthcare...) for each country. Ô http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/

index_en.cfm?l1=0&l2=0&l3=0

ÉGIDE Égide is a non-profit organizationthat manages French governmentinternational mobility programs.Many funding opportunities arelisted. Most content is in English.Ô www.egide.asso.fr

MARIE CURIE ACTIONSThis EU program providesnumerous fellowships and grantsfacilitating research mobility inEurope. Ô http://europa.eu.int/comm/

research/fp6/mariecurie-actions/indexhtm_en.html

> GRANTS/FELLOWSHIPS

Marcello SolinasResearch Addict

CONTACTÔ Marcello SolinasIPBC, [email protected]

Fondation nationale Alfred Kastler (FNAK):Helps foreign researchers settle in France andmaintains contact after their departure. Ô www.fnak.fr

Foreign embassies and consulates in France: Ô www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/annuaire/

Association Bernard Gregory: This association helps young PhDs from anydiscipline make the transition into business. Ô www.abg.asso.fr

France Contact will help you plan and arrange yourstay in France: Ô www.francecontact.net

French embassies and consulates abroad: Ô www.expatries.diplomatie.gouv.fr/

annuaires/annuaires.htm

Edufrance: Information on France's higher education programs–course enlistment, grant and fellowship applications.Ô www.edufrance.fr

WORKING IN A FRENCH LAB, PRACTICAL INFORMATION:

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CONTACTSÔ Claire GiraudDRI, [email protected]

Ô Jean-François MariniCNRS Office, Santiago de [email protected]

Argentina, whichproduced two Nobelscience prize-winners in the 20thCentury, is a country

with huge potential: It is thesecond biggest country in SouthAmerica and one of thecontinent’s largest economies,with an educated workforce andconsiderable natural resources.Yet its troubled past, includingseveral military dictatorshipsand public finance bankruptcies,prompted a significant braindrain among the neglectedscientific community. Thegovernment now wants toencourage their return. It hasplaced R&D at the heart of thecurrent program for nationaldevelopment, together withimproving the resources and pay ofresearchers.

This budding renaissance alsocenters around a strong developmentof international scientific cooperationin which France is a major partner.“There is a long tradition of Frenchpresence in Argentina,” commentsClaire Giraud, deputy director ofInternational Relations at CNRS.“Argentines represent the majority ofCNRS researchers of Latin Americanorigin, and they now lead many ofour joint projects.” The currentrevival followed one of the country’sworst crises; in December 2001, theeconomy collapsed due to record debtdefaults and currency devaluation,leading to violent social unrest. Butfollowing the election of presidentNestor Kirchner in 2003, the countrywitnessed a remarkable turnaround,due to a combination of audaciousinternal economic policies and afavorable international economicclimate. The recovery has largelycontinued under the currentpresident, Cristina Fernández deKirchner, who succeeded herhusband in 2007.

Many problems remain, but thebaseline figures are impressive:Argentina has enjoyed relativepolitical stability and greatlyimproved finances with its debt

restructured and partly repaid. By2008, the Argentine economy wasthe third fastest-growing in SouthAmerica, with a public debt levelbrought down to 51% of its GDP andunemployment reduced to 7.8%–down from 20% in 2002.

In 2006, the Argentinegovernment announced the launch ofa 10-year plan to double theproportion of GDP spent on scientificand technological R&D, from 0.5% to1%. One of Mrs Kirchner’s firstmoves was the creation of theMinistry of Science, Technology andProductive Innovation (MINCyT),which devises and leads nationalresearch policies. Significantly, sheappointed a scientist, Dr. José LinoBarañao, to run it. Mrs Kirchner, whodescribed science as “key to thenation’s economic future,” also setaside funds to increase researchersalaries by 30%, and boost publicfunding of competitive researchgrants by 40% in 2009.

At a national level, the NationalCouncil of Scientific and TechnicalResearch (CONICET), headed by theMINCyT, manages the financial

organization of specific researchactivities. Created in 1958 and basedon the same organizational structureas CNRS, it currently has a yearlybudget of about €110 million andemploys researchers in both its ownand associated research centers–many of whom conjointly holduniversity posts.

Research is centered around fivemajor fields: agronomy; engineeringand materials; biology and health;natural and exact sciences; andhuman and social sciences. Under theterms of a development plan launchedin 2005, the CONICET annuallyprovides 500 permanent positions(300 newly-created and 200replacements). It also manages 1300grants for doctorate and post-doctorate research studies.

Academic research isseated among the country’s79 universities, of which 41are privately-funded, andwhich total some 1.54 millionstudents. The leadingresearch universities arethose of Buenos Aires, LaPlata, Cordoba, and Rosario.

Finally, separate to the MINCyTstructure is the National AtomicEnergy Commission (CNEA), agovernment-run body responsible formanagement, research, anddevelopment of all the country’s civilnuclear activities. Placed under theauthority of the Energy Secretariatand the Ministry for Federal

Development,PublicInvestment andServices, theCNEA has severalresearch centersat its disposal.These include theCentro AtomicoConstituyentesnear the capitalBuenos Aires,involved infundamental and

applied technology, and the CentroAtomico at Bariloche, in Patagonia,which enjoys a longstanding historyof cooperation with the CRTBT,1 aCNRS lab based in the French city ofGrenoble.

The CNEA provides Argentina’s

contribution to the country’s largestsingle international research coopera-tion project: the Pierre AugerObservatory (named after Frenchphysicist Pierre Victor Auger). Basedin the Mendoza Province of westernArgentina, this unique internationalobservatory of ultra-high energy cosmic rays brings together 253researchers and engineers from 17different countries. This includes aFrench team of 32, which is princi-pally represented in the project byCNRS. In 2008, France contributed12% (€3 million) of the Observatory’sbudget.

The National Agency forScientific and TechnologicalPromotion (ANPCT), placed underthe MINCyT, encourages both national and international researchcooperation agreements. On thebasis of research papers published inArgentina in 2007, France wasArgentina’s fourth-placed interna-tional partner (behind the US, Spain,and Brazil), accounting for 260 co-publications (of which 160 involvedCNRS).

“Joint scientific activities withFrance and other major Europeanpartners offer Argentina better accessto research in Europe-wide struc-tures, like the EU FrameworkProgram for Research andTechnological Development, whichthe EURALINET program aims tostimulate,” explains Jean-FrançoisMarini, who represents CNRS andthe French IRD2 in Argentina.

In 2007, CNRS researchers carried out 250 mission visits toArgentina, mainly involving sciencesof the universe (almost 30%),engineering sciences and technolo-gies (19%), physics (15%), and socialand human sciences (12%). Several

CNRS researchers were also involvedin year-round projects in the country.

Across all its joint projects basedin Argentina, CNRS counts fiveInternational Program for ScientificCooperation (PICS), involvingbiology, mathematics, genetics, andsocial and human sciences; twoInternational Research Networks(GDRIs), one involving extreme energy observation at the AugerObservatory, and another focused onwater governance and access in theAmericas; as well as an InternationalAssociated Laboratory (LIA) in nanotechnology.

CNRS is currently involved innegotiations with the MINCyT toestablish two Joint InternationalUnits (UMIs), one focused on tech-nologies, astro-particles and sciencesof the universe based at the AugerObservatory, the other involving cli-mate studies, which would be locatedat the University of Buenos Aires.

Rooted in an agreement signed in1985, CNRS and the CONICETtogether fund a yearly average of 15cooperation projects, mainly in thefields of physics, mathematics,materials, information and commu-nication technologies, and history,centered at the universities of BuenosAires, La Plata, and Rosario.

Finally, this year marks the 10thanniversary of the ECOS program(orientation and evaluation ofscientific cooperation) under whichFrance’s Ministry of Foreign andEuropean Affairs and Ministry ofHigher Education and Research fundsome 15 joint lab projects inArgentina, of which about 60%involve CNRS teams. These currentlyinclude research in bioinformatics,architecture, and mathematics.

Jason Brown

1. Center for Research into Very LowTemperatures.2. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement.

IN FIGURES> 39.9 million inhabitants

(source: UN 2008)> 6 636 US$ GDP per

capita (source: UN2007)

> 0.5% R&D spending asa percentage of GDP, in2006

> 32,000 researchers in2006

> 3.8% state funding ineducation, as apercentage of GDP(source: UNESCO 2004)

> 1.54 million students inhigher education in2006


AROUNDTHEWORLD Horizons34 Argentina AROUNDTHEWORLD 35

Scientific Revival

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Above: The fly larvaethat infect domesticbees are the subjectof one of thecooperative researchprograms. Left: Researcherscollect bees’ larvaefor their work.

Pine trees in a Patagonian plantation, infectedby the woodwasp Sirex noctilio. Researchersstudy the parasitoids used in the biologicalcontrol of this major pest.

Monte Fitz Roy, located in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.

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After being incubated at theGrenoble Alpes Incubation structurein summer 2007, and then at EM-Lyon from April 2008, Fluopticswas created at the beginning of2009. The next stage, according toAllard, is “to manufacture andindustrialize this technology.”

Aude Olivier

1. CNRS, CEA-Léti, and Université JosephFourier.2. Commissariat à l’énergieatomique.

VMontpellier

ALCI

Meat Cutting-EdgeTechnology

Somewhere, at a supermar-ket’s fresh food counter, acustomer is picking up atray of vacuum-packed beef.

He’s not thinking too much aboutthe weight because after all, thepieces have been graded, and they allweigh roughly the same. Butalthough we take this for granted, itwouldn’t be at all possible withoutthe hard–sometimes deemed unre-warding–work of butchers workingin a chilly 5°C and 80% humidityenvironment, and striving to cut

meat into pieces with identicalweights. Yet in the near future, thisjob could be handled by robots. Allthanks to the pioneering workachieved by Alci, a new companyset up in 2007 in Montpellier byHervé Turchi and David Barra (twoPhD students at LIRMM1).

A meat-cutting robot is a prettyunusual idea–and a world first–admits Turchi as he remembers theday when this idea first came tohim: “Someone I know actuallypointed out to me how little

automation there was in the foodprocessing industry.” Little by little,a business plan took shape, and theproject got off the ground with thearrival of the third team member,Mickaël Sauvée, an engineer inmachine vision. They weren’t longin producing a prototype robot atLIRMM, which continued to hosttheir experiments, resulting in twotechnological patents. In 2005 and2007, their initiative won awardsin the innovation competitionorganized by the French Ministryof Research. In short, Alci has beensomething of a success story. “Wedid benefit from a very favorablecontext, especially through businessdevelopment grants,” the two Alcifounders admit.

Their goal was to have theirrobot cut uniform slices from piecesof meat of varying shape and size.To design it, the team made themost of what they had learnt atLIRMM. A profilometer, consistingof a laser and a camera, is used toobtain an image of the muscle thatis to be cut. Then, artificial intelli-gence software developed by theteam calculates the optimum cuttingangles required to obtain pieces with

identical weights. Finally, a robotarm slices the piece of meat at theangles indicated by the software.The prototype is able to cut 250 kgof meat per hour, with a 5% marginof error, compared to the currentrates of butchers–100 kg/hour witha 10% margin of error. Despite itshigh cost, the improved quality and productivity provided by thisrobot has already won over onecustomer, who will have operationalmachines in early 2009. But theteam doesn’t intend to stop there.The researchers are already talkingto the vegetable and fish industries,and other projects to develop newrobots are already under study. Bythe end of the year, they’re hopingto hire three people and obtain ISO9001 certification, which definesthe requirements for qualitymanagement systems.

Caroline Dangléant1. Laboratoire d’informatique, de robotiqueet de microélectronique de Montpellier(CNRS / Université Montpellier-II).

CONTACTSÔ Hervé Turchi and David BarralAlci, [email protected]

Ô www.alci.fr

Artificialintelligencesoftwarecomputes andoptimizes cuttingplanes so as toobtain pieces withthe same weight.

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INNOVATION36 37Start-up INNOVATION

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AGROCHEMISTRY

The Strength Lies in the Plant

Toxicity, water table pollution,soil degradation... The listof harmful effects of chem-ical treatments used by

farmers still sends shivers down thespine. Although for many years,numerous research groups havebeen focusing on the developmentof clean alternatives, they have neverbeen able to achieve the combina-tion of sustainable development andintensive agriculture. This problemis nonetheless crucial, especially inviticulture where the use of planthealth treatments can harm theimage of renowned vineyards. Anovel plant health protection strat-egy has now been developed on thelab benches of IBMM1 in Montpel-lier: Rather than combating thepathogen, as do pesticides, newbiodegradable and non-toxic com-pounds can preventively stimulatethe natural defenses of plantsagainst bacteria, viruses, and fungi.The new patented product was pre-sented last June at the EuropeanResearch and Innovation Exhibi-tion, and in 2007 the team hadreceived the INPI trophy for inno-vation in the Languedoc-Roussillonregion.

How exactly does this newtreatment work? “The aim is tosupply the plant with a substancethat acts as a signal to stimulate itsnatural defense mechanisms, inother words, an ‘elicitor’peptide,”explains Florine Cavelier, researcherat IBMM. As initiators of the project,Cavelier, together with JeanMartinez, also from IBMM, had firstof all observed this effect in a familyof peptides synthesized byTrichoderma fungi. But they weredifficult to produce and thus toocostly to use as an agrochemical.“We then looked at this compoundas an object rather than a complexchemical structure. We sought toproduce a simplified peptide with astructure as close as possible to thatof natural peptides, so that theywould nonetheless keep the abilityto stimulate the plant’s defenses,”explains Cavelier.

As a result, the team produceda compound they called “Lapp 6,”which was first tested in the labo-ratory at low doses on melon andcucumber plants and young vines.These trials showed that Lapp 6 wasable to stimulate the naturaldefenses of the plants tested, as

shown by the detection of two earlymarkers of the natural defensepathway. The substance was thenimproved to enhance the control ofspecific attacks from powdery anddowny mildew, that mainly affectvines. Finally, in 2005, open-fieldtrials were authorized on sections ofthree vineyards in the Burgundy,Loire-Atlantique, and Languedocregions. The treatment, applied byspraying the leaves, enabled asignificant protection of grapes,despite less marked efficacy onleaves.

The IBMM team had decidedto patent this process as early as2001, and the patent was extendedworldwide in 2003. Today, thisinnovation belongs to both CNRSand the company De Sangosse inAgen (France), specialized in planthealth solutions. But the work isnot complete yet: “we need to ana-lyze the stability of this product overtime, its interaction with thesurrounding environment, and itsprecise formulation,” adds Cavelier.In any case, some of Lapp 6’sproperties have already ensured thatit will be able to enter the integratedfarming market: it is easy to

synthesize, active at very low doses,non-toxic, and biodegradable.

Aude Olivier

1. Institut des biomolécules Max Mousseron(CNRS / Universités de Montpellier-I andII).


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CONTACTSIBMM, Montpellier.

Ô Jean Martinez, [email protected]

Ô Florine Cavelier [email protected]

DEINOVE

Second Generation Biofuels

Producing second generationbiofuels from residual agri-cultural and forest biomass is

now seen by many as an environ-mental priority. That is because firstgeneration biofuels–such as bioeth-anol obtained by fermenting cornwith brewer’s yeast (Saccharomycescerevisiae)–stress food resources. Butto be successful, second generationbiofuel production needs to breakdown polymers, namely cellulose,hemicellulose, and lignin, morecomplex than glucose and saccha-rose, which Saccharomyces feedson. This may soon be possible,thanks to the biotechnologycompany Deinove, specialized inresearch into a family of superbac-teria, namely Deinococcales.Deinococcus radiodurans for exam-ple, first identified bacteria of the

genus, can resist ionizing rays, UVs,solvents, and drought, among otherthings. “It is very efficient at repair-ing its DNA after radiation damage.This property makes it easier toinsert genes into its genome, suchas enzyme genes which are of inter-est for sugar degradation or fer-mentation. Some of these bacteriacan also withstand high tempera-tures, which results in less waterconsumption when cooling the vatsduring fermentation under indus-trial conditions,” says Jean-PaulLéonetti, of CPBS1 in Montpellier.

The team of Miroslav Radman,2

a member of the French Academyof Sciences, had for a long timebeen carrying out cutting-edgeresearch on DNA repair inDeinococcus. It was after a meetingwith Truffle, a venture capital firm,

that Deinove was created two yearsago, also involving CNRS and theToulouse branch of the engineerschool Insa.

“Three patents have been filed,”says Jacques Biton, Deinove’s CEO.“The first patent protects a smartresearch tool, the second one isprotecting applications for theproduction of biofuels, and our lastpatent protects other potentialindustrial applications. Within twoand a half years, we hope to set upa large scale pilot fermentor, with thehelp of an industrial partner.” Thelatest move was the May 2008creation of Deinolab, a cooperativelab between Deinove and CNRS inMontpellier. Thousands ofDeinococcus strains have beencollected since then all over thecountry–mostly in the hotsprings

the bacteria are fond of. “We arenow screening these strains onparameters such as sugar assimila-tion or solvent resistance, in orderto identify one or several candidates.We will soon start their fermentationprofile to generate a hyper-producingstrain within 18 to 24 months,”explains Léonetti.

Jean-François Haït

1. Centre d’études d’agents pathogènes etbiotechnologies pour la santé (CNRS /Universités de Montpellier-I and II).2. Université Paris-V / Hôpital Necker.

CONTACTSÔ Jacques BitonDeinove, [email protected]

Ô Jean-Paul LéonettiCPBS, [email protected]

FLUOPTICS

Making Tumors Fluorescent

Coloring malignant cells couldbe of great help to surgeonswhen removing tumors. And

this is exactly what Fluoptics is work-ing at. The product of a close-knittedcollaboration between researchers atdifferent French organizations,1

Fluoptics is set to offer a completeimaging solution to surgeons.

Whereas current methods ofcancer detection require the injec-tion of radioactive molecules intothe organism, Fluoptics usespatented fluorescent markers whichare capable of targeting cancerouscells responsible for the vascular-ization of tumors (angiogenic). Andthese markers are cheaper, have

fewer constraints, and no sideeffects.

“We have brought together twoindependently developed innova-tions: biomarkers, and a portableoptical device designed by CEA,2 tovisualize pathogenic zones,” explainsOdile Allard, one of the projectleaders. The principle behind thetwo prototypes used in laboratory-based preclinical tests is simple:The fluorescent tracer is injectedintravenously the night before theoperation. During the surgicalprocedure, a camera lights up theoperation site by infrared, andcaptures the fluorescent lightemitted in response by the markers

affixed to the tumors. This meansthe surgeon is able to visualize theextent of the tumor from thebeginning of the procedure, andcan ensure that the ablation iscomplete.

Conscious of the great publichealth interest in this technology,the French Ministry for Researchand Industry selected last June theFluoptics project leaders as winnersof a national competition for inno-vative business creation assistance(€450,000 to launch a start-up).Fluoptics’ technology had alsoreceived recognition at the Europeanlevel with a first prize at theEuropean Innovation Hopes.

Top: Grape attacked by downy mildew.Bottom: Grapes treated with Lapp 6, ata rate of 1.5 g per hectare, remainhealthy.

Bacterial membranes (red) andDNA (green) labelling of a small

colony of Deinococcusradiodurans (8 bacterias).

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CONTACTÔ Odile Allard Fluoptics, [email protected]

CNRSNEWSWIRE38 CNRSNEWSWIRE 39

ASTRONET

Europe’s Space Bound Program

Is there life elsewhere? How did thegalaxies, stars, and planets form? Whatis the nature of dark matter? Just someof the fascinating questions

astronomers worldwide are trying to findanswers to. To consolidate and reinforceEurope’s leading position in astronomy,the Astronet program was created in Sep-tember 2005. Supported by 28 countries,the Astronet consortium is coordinatedby CNRS’ French National Institute forSciences of the Universe (INSU). “Theaim was to establish a long-term plan forthe development of European astron-omy, including every observationapproach, from space or from Earth, andcovering radiation studies on all wave-lengths,” explains CNRS researcherJean-Marie Hameury, coordinator of Astronet.The strategic plan, which puts forth a detailedAstronet roadmap, was released in November2008 to funding agencies. This roadmap waswritten by 60 European experts regrouped infive panels. They reviewed over 100 tools andinfrastrucutures, examined computing facilitiesand data archiving, and analyzed humanresources including education, recruitment,public outreach and industrial involvement.

Astronet’s major role is to define prioritiesensuring that the goals of the scientists meetthose of the funding agencies. Two ground-basedinfrastructure projects emerge as top priorities:the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT)and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The first,a very ambitious project driven by ESO (EuropeanSpace Observatory), is already in an advancedstage of study, whereas the SKA–comprisingthousands of antennas making the total collect-

ing area close to a million square meters–is stillin early stages of development. Other projects,which operate on smaller budgets, were alsoclassified top priority, such as the European SolarTelescope (EST), the Cherenkov Telescope Array(CTA), and the underwater neutrino detectorKM3NeT.

Future space missions are obviously on theagenda with large-scale missions like the gravi-tational-wave observatory LISA and the X-rayobservatory XEUS/IXO first on the list, followedby the search for giant planets with TandEM orLAPLACE, and ExoMars. The highest priority

medium-scale projects includeGaia data analysis and processing(Milky way mapping), EUCLID(Dark Energy), or the Solar Orbiter,a mission devoted to studying theSun. All these space missions aredriven by the European SpaceAgency (ESA).

The role of existing observa-tional facilities, in space or fromthe ground, is also considered in

the roadmap, recommending the prolongationof the most successful space missions, and thereview of all ground-based telescopes. A scien-tific group has already begun assessing theexisting small to medium-size optical telescopesthroughout Europe, with the objective of overallcoordination and ensuring all these facilities(approximately 30) are useful.

“The roadmap also focuses on training andeducation,” adds Jean-Marie Hameury. But itwill also deal with public communication and willestablish greater ties with European industry.Indeed, technological readiness is a limiting factor for many of these projects and a vigorousR&D program is needed, in concert with indus-try, to ensure technology transfer. This coher-ent plan should also be a strong asset innegotiating international partnerships for thelargest projects. “To define a roadmap is the firststep, but putting it into action is what really matters,” concludes Hameury. European astron-omy now has a clearer view of where it’s going.

Samantha Maguire


Building on significantadvances in the past 50years, Europe looks set tokeep its lead in spacescience with the Astronetprogram, a roadmap forthe next two decades.

CONTACTÔ Jean-Marie HameuryCoordinator of Astronet INSU/CNRS, [email protected]

UK

Focus on theThalamus

Akey component of the brain, thethalamus plays a role in manyphysiological functions (sensory

information processing, sleep, etc.) aswell as in various pathologies. To betterunderstand how it works, CNRS, thePierre et Marie Curie University, andCardiff University (UK) have set up theEuropean Associated Laboratory (LEA)“Thalamic function in health and diseasestates-THD.” It brings together theNeurobiology of Adaptive Processeslaboratory (CNRS / Université Paris-VI)and the Cardiff School of Biosciences.

Ô Contact: Anne-Marie Brass, [email protected]

POLAND

Joining Forces onExotic Nuclei

The France-Poland EuropeanAssociated Laboratory (LEA)COPIGAL (COPIN-GANIL

cooperation on the physics of exoticnuclei) was launched November 26th,

2008. It brings together CNRS’ NationalInstitute of Nuclear and Particle Physics(IN2P3), the French large heavy-ionaccelerator (GANIL), the French AtomicEnergy Agency (CEA), and theConsortium of Polish Institutions forresearch in the field of nuclear physics(COPIN). Although the teams involvedhave long worked together on exoticnuclei–those of chemical elements that donot exist in a natural state on ourplanet–COPIGAL will encourage the jointuse of infrastructures and the promotionof long-term strategies.

Ô Contact: Francesca Grassia, [email protected]

IRELAND

Biological Imaging

Acooperation agreement onbiological imaging and“translational research,” a link

between fundamental research andclinical research, was signed in Paris onJanuary 26th. It brings together theInstitute of Functional genomics1 and theRoyal College of Surgeons.

1. CNRS / Inserm / Universités Montpellier-I and II.

Ô Contact : Anne-Marie Brass, [email protected]

ISRAEL

Strengthening Scientific Cooperation On March 18th, in Jerusalem, CNRS President Catherine Bréchignac and MenahemMegidor, the president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, signed an agreement forthe creation of a European associated laboratory (LEA), the France-Israel Laboratory ofNeuroscience (FILN). It brings together CNRS, the Victor Segalen University inBordeaux, the Descartes University in Paris, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Ittakes over, in renewed form, from the first France-Israel laboratory set up in 2005, theFrance-Israel Laboratory for Neurophysiology and Neurophysics of Systems. The FILN isdedicated to fundamental and clinical studies of the brain. Just beforehand, March 16th,the LEA NanoBio Science (NaBi) was inaugurated in Rehovot in the presence ofCatherine Bréchignac and Daniel Zajfman, president of the Weizmann Institute. This LEAbrings together for a duration of four years seven CNRS-affiliated laboratories and thedepartments of chemistry and physics of the Weizmann Institute. Research will focus onnanotechnology, photonics, and biological imaging.

> Contacts:FILN: David Hansel, [email protected], Thomas Boraud, [email protected], Francesca Grassia, [email protected]: Joseph Zyss, [email protected], Francesca Grassia, [email protected]

A black hole is a region of space in which thegravitational field is so powerful that nothing (noteven light) can escape it once inside. Black holesare therefore “invisible” by nature–but not toastronomers, who detect events happening closeby. “For instance, they eject powerful jets ofplasma,” explains Stéphane Corbel, from the AIMlaboratory.1 He is also the French coordinator of anew “Marie Curie training network,” the BlackHole Universe Consortium–part of the 7thFramework Programme (FP7). For four years, itwill associate leading astronomy institutionsacross Europe in order to train a new generation

of space scientists. “We will train students, whoare usually specialized in one or the otherwavelength (X, Gamma, radio...), to be multi-scaleoriented,” says Stéphane Corbel. A necessaryskill when working on the two types of blackholes: the stellar ones, produced in massive starexplosions, and their heavy counterparts, a billiontimes more massive, found at the center ofgalaxies.

1. Astrophysique interactions multi-échelles (CNRS /Université Paris-VII / CEA Saclay).

Contact: Stéphane Corbel, AIM, [email protected]

EUROPEAN TRAINING ON BLACK HOLES

The E-ELT will be mounted on acentral concrete pier thatensures a minimum clearance of10 m above the ground.

The SKA’s collecting area (around a million squaremeters) will be distributed over a number of groupsof antennas, or “stations”–perhaps as many as a fewhundred.

The KM3NeT neutrino telescope,immersed in the Mediterranean sea,will be unique in sensitivity andresolution.

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CNRSNEWSWIRE 41


MATHEMATICS

With approximately 1000 researchers, the Fondation Sciences Mathématiques de Paris (FSMP) is one ofthe world’s largest breeding grounds for mathematicians. And it’s not only the numbers that areimpressive. The prestigious medals and prizes that the Foundation has chalked up over a few yearstestify to its level of excellence.

Paris, City of Maths

With four Fields medals, two Abelprizes, three of the eleven prizesawarded at the most recent Euro-pean congress, fourteen members

of the French Academy of Sciences and 120 win-ners of both French and international awards, theFondation Sciences Mathématiques de Paris(FSMP) backs up its success with numbers.Launched at the end of 2006, it ismade up of six teaching and researchorganizations1 and brings togethernine labs in Paris with no fewer than1000 researchers, making it thelargest group of mathematicians inthe world. CNRS is one of the found-ing members and accounts for aquarter of its staff. The Foundationwas set up to federate Paris’s math-ematicians and to improve the visi-bility and attractiveness of their labsin France and abroad. Another ofits distinctive features is that it cov-ers the entire range of pure andapplied mathematics, as well as fun-damental computer science. Achoice justified by a fact that is borneout again and again: There is nosuch thing as an insurmountablebarrier between theory and its appli-cations. As FSMP Director Jean-YvesChemin likes to point out, “mathe-matics first emerged 5000 years agoto manage the production and dis-tribution of goods. It doesn’t getmuch more applied than that!”

THE APPLICATION FACTORAnd the scope is far-reaching:climatology, seismology, and a hostof other disciplines all need mathe-matics. One example is cryptography, which hasbecome essential for secure online bankingtransactions. “The number theory that it relieson is an edifying example of how abstract math-ematics can be used for a practical application.There can be no doubt that mathematics play avital role in our everyday life. This is why theFSMP encourages collaborations betweenresearchers and business and industry. Its goalis to play a key role in helping companies iden-tify their medium and long-term needs, and

then recruit the mathematicians most qualifiedto answer them.

ATTRACTING THE VERY BESTThough the French capital already enjoys greatcredibility when it comes to mathematics,maintaining it will require a major effort. “Thereare other cities in the world lying in wait, like

Beijing and Mumbai, where the number of math-ematicians is constantly growing,” Cheminwarns. Therefore, the Foundation is investingconsiderable means to attract the world’s topmathematicians. For instance, it recently created a chair of excellence intended for world-class researchers, the only individual chair inFrance entirely dedicated to mathematics. Fifteenpostdoctoral researchers from other countriescan also be hosted every year, which makes thisthe only post-doc program for mathematics and

fundamental computer science on this scale inthe country. “To recruit them, we advertise thepositions in 2000 institutions around the world,”Chemin explains.

And there are other ways to attract talent.The Foundation Prize can sponsor for up to oneyear a promising young mathematician–whocould one day become a leader in the field–and

the world’s greatest mathematicianscan also be invited for two to three-month stays in Paris. “Funds canalso be rapidly made available to hostan exceptionally talented PhD stu-dent from abroad,” adds Chemin,citing the example of a young Aus-tralian prodigy who recently pickedthe FSMP over other tempting offers.

A TASTE FOR MATHSFostering general interest in math-ematics is also one of the Founda-tion’s objectives–though its mainrole lies in research. While Paris uni-versities are not as affected, the over-all shortage of math students hasbecome a worrying trend. This hasencouraged the FSMP to launch a“Paris Graduate School of Mathe-matical Sciences,” with grants forboth Masters and PhDs. “Our goal isto host 20 foreign students at ‘Master 1’ level at the beginning ofthe 2010 academic year, and thenincrease this to 50 students,”Chemin explains. Similarly, theFoundation is also committed tomaking science more accessible tothe general public, through its web-site and various public lectures, likethose that were held during its

launch in 2007–hoping that a growing numberof students also add up.

Jean-Philippe Braly

1. CNRS / Ecole Normale Supérieure / Université Paris-Diderot / Université Pierre et Marie Curie / UniversitéParis-Dauphine / Collège de France.


CNRSNEWSWIRE40

CZECH REPUBLIC

CEFRES in Prague

The Czech Republic took over thepresidency of the European Unionin January. How has this affectedthe activities of a research centerlike CEFRES? Marie-Claude Maurel: CEFRES isextremely active. On top of ourresearch work, this year we’re takingpart in publishing a journal whichwill present the Czech Republic inall its different aspects (historical,social, sociological, cultural, etc).We’re also organizing two confer-ences so that the scientific, eco-nomic, and political players in therest of Europe learn more about thiscountry.

What is CEFRES’ overall mission?M.-C.M: To take part in the develop-ment of scientific networks inEastern Europe. Although we workin Prague, we maintain very closelinks with our neighboring coun-tries–especially Slovakia, Hungary,and Poland. These countries have ajoint heritage in the cultural, polit-ical, and administrative fields, whichjustifies the presence of a centerlike ours. This unit, which is a true research and service platform,is constantly tied to local Frenchembassies, universities, andresearch institutions. We hostapproximately 20 fellowship

students, researchers,and assistant professors.Every year we organizeconferences, talks, andtraining workshopsopen to French-speaking researchers.

What research are you carrying outand with what means?M.-C.M: We are involved in an Inter-national program for scientific coop-eration (PICS) entitled ‘Local play-ers faced with the European model.’Another of our projects, funded bythe French National ResearchAgency (ANR), is concerned withthe sound archives of the SovietGulag. Lastly, we are initiating astudy–also funded by the ANR–on ‘Local action and territorial devel-

opment in Central Europe.’ For thefirst time, it brings togetherapproximately 20 French, Polish,Czech, Hungarian, Slovakian, andLithuanian researchers.

Séverine Lemaire-Duparcq

At the forefront of French research and with directties to the world’s major cultural areas, theUMIFREs (French Research Institutes Abroad) actas both vehicles for knowledge and springboardsfor scientific collaboration. We interviewed Marie-Claude Maurel, director of the French Center forResearch in Social Sciences (CEFRES) in Prague.

CONTACTÔ Jean-Yves Chemin,FSMP, [email protected]

Ô www.sciencesmaths-paris.fr

The Cefres inPrague is housedin a gothiccloister.

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CONTACTÔ Marie-Claude MaurelCEFRES, [email protected]

Ô www.cefres.cz

ASIA

Closer Ties

New international associated laboratories (LIAs) have been set up in the last fewmonths with China and Hong Kong. The Functional Organophosphorus Materials(MOF) laboratory, bringing together the University of Rennes-I and the University of

Zhengzhou, will be dedicated to the synthesis of new phosphorus compounds for plasticelectronics. The France-China Catalysis laboratory, with Claude-Bernard University in Lyon,the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), and a Chinese industrial group–theResearch Institute of Petroleum Processing (RIPP)–will focus on catalysis for energy andwater treatment.Lastly, the first LIA with Hong Kong is now underway. Called “Role of calcium in cellulardetermination and differentiation,” it brings together, for a period of four years, CNRS, theHong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and Toulouse-III University. ThisLIA is the fruit of more than 10 years of collaboration between researchers from the Centerfor Developmental Biology in Toulouse, and a Hong Kong team that specializes in calcium’srole in gene expression during development.

Ô Contact: Luc Le CALVEZ, [email protected]

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On January 29, CNRS reasserted its backing tothe directors of the 26 French centers abroadgathered together at the organization’sheadquarters in Paris. CNRS PresidentCatherine Bréchignac announced that thisspring, special funding would be madeavailable, aimed in particular at improving “thedissemination of information between thevarious areas of culture” and at encouraging theemergence of thematic networks. In addition, anagreement should be signed this year betweenthe centers’ two supervisory authorities, CNRSand the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tomore clearly define the missions of thesecenters, the duties of their directors and theirresponsibilities. With clear objectives, this“road map” should help instigate a strict andconstructive evaluation policy by 2010.Contact: Claudio Galderisi, Adviser for UMIFREs to the CNRS [email protected]

NEW IMPETUS FORFRENCH CENTERS ABROAD


CNRSNEWSWIRE42

Facts…Founded in 1939 bygovernmental decree, CNRShas the following missions: Ô To evalulate and carry out all

research capable ofadvancing knowledge andbringing social, cultural, andeconomic benefits to society

Ô To contribute to theapplication and promotion ofresearch results

Ô To develop scientificcommunication

Ô To support research training Ô To participate in the analysis

of the national andinternational scientificclimate and its potential forevolution in order to developa national policy

CNRS research units arespread throughout France, andemploy a large body ofpermanent researchers,engineers, technicians, andadministrative staff.Laboratories are all on four-year, renewablecontracts, with bi-annual

evaluations. There are twotypes of labs:Ô CNRS labs: fully funded and

managed by CNRS Ô Joint labs: partnered with

universities, other researchorganizations, or industry

As the largest fundamentalresearch organization inEurope, CNRS is involved in allscientific fields, organized intothe following areas ofresearch: Ô Life sciencesÔ PhysicsÔ Chemistry Ô Mathematics Ô Computer scienceÔ Earth sciences and

AstronomyÔ Humanities and Social

sciencesÔ Environmental sciences and

Sustainable developmentÔ Engineering

CNRS conducts some twentyinterdisciplinary programs inorder to promote exchange

between fields, ensureeconomic and technologicaldevelopment, and solvecomplex societal problems. Ôwww.cnrs.fr/prg/PIR/liste.htm

The CNRS annual budgetrepresents one-quarter of French public spending on

civilian research. This fundingcomes from various sources:Ô Government and public

fundingÔ CNRS funds, primarily from

industrial and EU researchcontracts and royalties onpatents, licenses, andservices provided

The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (National Center for ScientificResearch) is a government-funded research organization under the administrative authorityof France’s Ministry of Research.

… And FiguresBudget for 2009€3.36 billion of which€607 million comes from revenuesgenerated by CNRScontracts

Personnel32,000 employees:11,600 researchers, 14,400 engineers andtechnical staff, and 6000non-permanentemployees

Organization> 9 thematic institutes> 19 regional offices,

ensuring decentralizeddirect management oflaboratories

> 1100 researchunits–90% are jointresearch laboratorieswith universities andindustry

Industrial Relations(2007)> 1680 contracts signed

by CNRS with industryin 2007

> 30 current agreementswith major internat-ional industrial groups

> 3103 patent families> 729 licenses and other

financially remune-rating active acts

> €58.2 million in royalties > 394 companies

created between 1999and 2008

CNRS carries out researchactivities throughout theworld, in collaboration withlocal partners, thus pursuingan active international policy.

The Office of EuropeanAffairs (DAE) and the Officeof International Relations(DRI) coordinate andimplement the policies ofCNRS in Europe and the restof the world, and maintain

direct relations with itsinstitutional partners abroad.The DAE and the DRIpromote cooperationbetween CNRS laboratoriesand foreign research teamsthrough a set of structuredcollaborative instrumentsdeveloped for this purpose.At the same time, theycoordinate CNRS actionswith those of other Frenchand international research

organizations as well as theactivities of the Ministries ofResearch and ForeignAffairs.To carry out their mission,the DAE and the DRI–withhead offices in Paris–rely ona network of eightrepresentative officesabroad, as well as on thescience and technologyoffices in French embassiesaround the world.

IN NUMBERS: Exchange agreements:85 (with 60 countries)

Foreign visitingscientists: 5000 (PhDstudents, post-docs, andvisiting researchers)

Permanent foreign staffmembers: > About 1700 researchers ofwhom more than 1200 comefrom Europe

> International Programs forScientific Cooperation (PICS): 363 > International AssociatedLaboratories (LEA + LIA): 89> International ResearchGroups (GDRE + GDRI): 90> International Joint Units(UMI): 18

Contact: Isabelle Chauvel, [email protected]

DAE AND DRI, TWO OFFICES DEVOTED TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

CNRS in BriefTentacles of Thought Electric seaweed? A mysterious creature of the underworld? Not quite. What you are lookingat is a rat’s neuron at the moment neuronal communication occurs. In this picture, a researchteam from the PCS1 lab in Bordeaux used fluorescence microscopy (a labeling method usingcolored antibodies) to highlight the terminals of the pre-synaptic neuron (blue), and the post-synaptic neuron (red for a post-synaptic marker, green for glutamate receptors, and yellow forthe nucleus). They observed an accumulation of neurotransmitter receptors at the tip of thedendritic spines–visible as white labeled dots, the result of colocalization of blue, red, andgreen fluorescence. The team believes these receptors’ mobility plays a vital role in thepassage of nerve impulses from one neuron to another, and thus controls the reliability of datatransfer. Their results2 pave the way for new therapeutic targets for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s,OCD, and other disorders that are caused by poor neuronal communication.

Lucille Hagège

1. Physiologie cellulaire de la synapse (CNRS / Université Bordeaux-II).2. M. Heine et al., “Surface Mobility of Post-synaptic AMPARs Tunes Synaptic Transmission,” Science, 2008. 320: 201-5.

Contact: Daniel Choquet, PCS, Bordeaux. [email protected]

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