Press release


Tree fecundity and biological aging

Published on September 06, 2021
Press release INRAE

Researchers from INRAE and Duke University have concluded that tree fecundity peaks or plateaus when trees reach adult size, and then begins to decline. Published on 17 August 2021 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study examines 597 species from more than 500 sites in North America, South America, Asia, Europe and Africa. Their work has led to the development of a calibrated model to accurately calculate long-term tree fecundity.

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Astronomers make first clear detection of a moon-forming disc around an exoplanet

Published on July 22, 2021
Press release published by ESO

Using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, astronomers leads by Myriam Benisty at The Observatoire des Sciences de l’Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), have unambiguously detected the presence of a disc around a planet outside our Solar System for the first time. The observations will shed new light on how moons and planets form in young stellar systems.
“Our work presents a clear detection of a disc in which (…)

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ALPALGA: the search for mountain snow microalgae

Published on June 08, 2021
Press release CNRS / UGA / Météo-France / INRAE / CEA

The life of the microscopic algae that inhabit snow at high elevations is still relatively unknown. Researchers from the CNRS, CEA, Météo-France, INRAE and the l’Université Grenoble Alpes have therefore created the ALPALGA consortium to study this little-known world, threatened by global warming. Scientists will publish their initial results in Frontiers in Plant Science on 7 June 2021, describing for the first time the distribution of dozens of mountain microalgae species according to elevation.

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Double jeopardy for ecologically rare birds and terrestrial mammals

Published on November 12, 2020
Press release CNRS / FRB / CESAB / Université Grenoble Alpes / Université de Montpellier

Common assumptions notwithstanding, rare species can play unique and essential ecological roles. After studying two databases that together cover all known terrestrial mammals and birds worldwide, scientists from the CNRS, the Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB), Université Grenoble Alpes, and the University of Montpellier have demonstrated that, though these species are found on all continents, they are more threatened by human pressures than ecologically common species and will (…)

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How much will polar ice sheets add to sea level rise?

Published on September 17, 2020
Press release CNRS

Over 99% of terrestrial ice is bound up in the ice sheets covering Antarctic and Greenland. Even partial melting of this ice due to climate change will significantly contribute to sea level rise. But how much exactly? For the first time ever, glaciologists, oceanographers, and climatologists from 13 countries have teamed up to make new projections.

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Rainbow comet with a heart of sponge

Published on September 07, 2020
Press release published by ESA

A permeable heart with a hardened facade –the resting place of Rosetta’s lander on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is revealing more about the interior of the ’rubber duck’ shaped-body looping around the Sun. A recent study suggests that the comet’s interior is more porous than the material near the surface. The results confirm that solar radiation has significantly modified the comet’s surface as it travels through space between the orbits of Jupiter and Earth. Heat from the Sun triggers (…)

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How to feed a baby star

Published on August 27, 2020
Gas reaches young stars along magnetic field lines

Astronomers have used the GRAVITY instrument to study the immediate vicinity of a young star in more detail than ever before. Their observations confirm a thirty-year-old theory about the growth of young stars: the magnetic field produced by the star itself directs material from a surrounding accretion disk of gas and dust onto its surface. The results, published today in the journal Nature, help astronomers to better understand how stars like our Sun are formed and how Earth-like planets (…)

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Discovery of the first animal fossil in a gem opal

Published on June 30, 2020
Press release published by UGA & CNRS

An international team led by scientists from the [Isterre->https://www.isterre.fr laboratory / OSUG (UGA-CNRS-USMB-IRD-Université Gustave Eiffel) studied the first animal fossil contained in a gem opal from Indonesia. Published in Scientific Report on June 29, 2020, this publication reveals that these opals may contain very well preserved fossils, a larva of the cicada family in this first case. This discovery provides a new avenue to explore the evolution of life on Earth or the possible (…)

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