France

Astronomy

France's VORTEX spaceplane to land like a jet, operate like a shuttle

What will the orbital spacecraft of tomorrow look like? If Dassault Aviation has its way, it could be similar to its Véhicule Orbital Réutilisable de Transport et d’Exploration (VORTEX) reusable spaceplane unveiled at the recent Paris Air Show.

An image of a human brain captured with the new Iseult MRI machine at a power of 11.7 Teslas, showing the level of detail possible

Alzheimer's & Dementia

World's most powerful MRI machine captures first stunning brain scans

The world’s most powerful MRI machine has scanned its first living human brains. The resulting images give an ultra high resolution glimpse into the brain, to help us better understand the nature of consciousness and treat neurodegenerative diseases.

Scientists have traced an ancient family tree back seven generations within one Stone Age burial site in France

Science

7-generation Stone Age family tree suggests complex social structure

Anthropologists have assembled the most complete Stone Age family tree, spanning 7 generations. Genetic studies of the remains of dozens of people in a burial site in France reveal some surprising insights into family and social dynamics of the time.

Big John is the largest Triceratops specimen ever discovered

Science

World's biggest Triceratops skeleton goes up for auction

Your chance to own one of the most iconic dinosaurs is about to come up – provided you have a spare few million and an empty ballroom on hand. The largest known specimen of Triceratops, nicknamed “Big John,” will go up for auction in October.

French researchers have found that caloric restriction increased the lifespan of mouse lemurs by 50 percent

Biology

Caloric restriction increased lemur lifespan by 50% in long-term study

Studies have shown that caloric restriction can drastically increase the lifespan of a range of animals. On the path to determining whether humans could benefit from the same lifestyle, a 10-year study on lemurs has now found that animals on the diet lived almost 50 percent longer than usual.

A new study has found that all iron tools from the Bronze Age, including King Tutankhamun's dagger, were made from meteoric metal

Science

Iron tools from the Bronze Age found to have otherworldly origins

A weapon as legendary as the dagger of King Tutankhamun needs an epic backstory, and last year X-ray analysis showed that the iron in the blade came from meteorites. Now a study has found that the artifact was far from alone as all iron tools dating back to the Bronze Age have otherworldly origins.

The Wattway panels running through Tourouvre are expected to produce somewhere in the region of 280 MWh of electricity per annum

Environment

PV power hits the road in Normandy village

French Minister Ségolène Royal has today officially launched a kilometer long solar road project in Normandy. Nearly 3,000 Wattway panels are expected to produce an average of 767 kWh of electricity per day, peaking in summer months to as much as 1,500 kWh.

Scientists have run simulations that support the theory that Mars' two moons, Phobos and Deimos, were formed as the result of a massive collision between the Red Planet and a protoplanet about 4.5 billion years ago

Astronomy

The explosive origin story of Mars' two moons

The mystery of the origins of the moons may have been solved by a new study that gives weight to the theory a huge collision between Mars and an ancient protoplanet resulted in the creation of Phobos and Deimos, as well as several other now-missing moons.