7/30/2019 CIM28

1/40

international magazine

n 28QuarterlyJanuary 2013

advancing the frontiers

SpotligtElyse Treaty

50th Anniersary

wIn the NewsSerge Haroche

2012 Nobel Laureate

w

BIG DATAREvLTN

Te

7/30/2019 CIM28

2/40

7/30/2019 CIM28

3/40

N28 I quarterly I JaNuary 2013 3Contents |

Editorial

By Mark asc, MateMatIcs & Pc scIeNtIfIc

OffIcer at te freNc MINIstry Of Iger

educatION aNd researc

Big Data is a new scientifc discipline

with enormous societal challenges(including genomics, health, globalwarming, smart cities) that acts as adriving force for research. In this sense,data can be considered to be a sharedinfrastructure facilitating research atnational, European, and internationallevels. Te European Commission hasrecently funded four pilot projectswithin the framework of the EuropeanStrategy Forum on ResearchInfrastructures (ESFRI) to form dataclusters in the life sciences, environmen-tal sciences, and particle physics. TeResearch Data Alliance is an attempt tofederate these eorts around digital in-formation at the international level. Teaim is to set up working groups and a

plenary that will advise on certication,standards, and best practice.

CNRS plays an active role in the BigData revolution. In May 2012, it laun-ched Mastodons, a dedicated interdisci-plinary grand challenge planned to runfor ve years, which will fund crosscut-ting research projects that tackle theemerging eld of large data masses, itsmethods and applications.

With its far-reaching multidisci-plinary expertise, CNRS is uniquely po-sitioned to take up the challenge. As such,

we expect to become a world leader inthis exciting albeit complex domain.

4 I 5 In the News

2012 Nobel Prize in Physics SergeHaroche, Earth Sciences Summit,The ESOs 50th anniversary, CNRStops international rankings.

17 Innovation

Bioelectronic sensors fordiabetes patients and a newDNA sequencing method.

28I 30 In Images

Inside Frances prestigious centerfor heritage preservation.

31 Insights

Shale gas extraction: alternatives

needed.32I 37 CNRS Networks

CNRS and MIT joint research onporous materials, Microuidics,and research in Australia andNew Zealand.

38 CNRS Facts and

Figures

Latest data on the largestfundamental scienticinstitution in Europe.

39 SnapshotHow plants grow roots.

th pictograms inix onn (pi o vio)

h n b on honin vion o h mzin.

>www.n./nmzin

J.MITELMAN

6 I 16 Live rom the LabsThe Elyse Treaty turns 50, Writing with youreyes, SPIPOLL, Taming nitrenes, New cosmicrays, Electronic tongues that can see,Scarring cells, Better cancer treatments,

and Bio-inspired computing memory.

J.BRAgAETD.

DESCOuENS/CNRSPHOTOTHquE

18 I 19 ProfleAnthropologistPhilippe Descola isawarded the 2012CNRS old Medal.

20 I 27 Focus

The Big Data Revolution21 I A New Challenge24 I Coping with a Data Deluge26 I Data Storage: a Teething Problem

ToreceivetheonlineversioofCNRSInternatioMagazineinyourinbox,emailusacnrs-magazine@cnrs-dir.

7/30/2019 CIM28

4/40

| I the ews n I InnIn mzIn4w

Earth Sciences SummitWOn November 29, 2012, government

representatives from 13 European countries metat CNRS headquarters to endorse the concept of thefuture European Plate Observing System (EPOS), an

infrastructure dedicated to the Earth sciences. Theobjective is to give researchers easy access to data from

numerous observation systems (seismological networks,

volcano observatories, etc.), digital simulations, andexperimental analytical systems across Europe. To do so,

EPOS seeks to integrate data from facilities that are bothgeographically and thematically distant into a singleEuropean-wide resource. The French contribution,

overseen by CNRSs INSU,1 involves numerousinfrastructures, notably Resif, the French seismological

and geodesic network. The EPOS preparation phaseshould be completed by 2014.

01. Institut national des sciences de lunivers.

FE INFOION.

> www.mudam.lu> www.mihelpayat.f

ESO urns 50We European Soutern Observatory (ESO)

celebrated its 50t anniversary last October.

Supported by 15 member states, te organization

gives te scientic community access to top-level

astronomical resources suc as te Very Large

elescope (VL), te lma observatory, or te future

European Extremely Large elescope (EEL). France

is one of te ESOs founding countries and tesecond-largest contributor after Germany.

Ws in 2011, CNS is among te orlds 100 most innovative

companies and organizations according to te 2012 op 100 Global

Innovators list publised by omson euters last December.

e list is based on several criteria including te number of patent

applications, teir success rate, and te international scope of

patent portfolios. France ranked tird orldide, it a total

of 13 companies and public institutions.

in the Top 100

for Innovation...

FE INFOION.

> http://top100iovato.om

Wgain tis year, CNS is te main European researc organization

to ost EC grant laureates, aead of Britains niversity of

Cambridge and Germanys ax Planck Society, ic rank second

and tird respectively. Since te EC program as created in 2007,

172 researcers, eter young or senior, ave carried out teir

projects at CNS, making te institution te rst beneciary of tis

researc program.

and 1st RecipientofERC Grants

Wis year, CNS moved back from second to rst place in teScimago ranking. is system, created by Spanis and Portuguese

researcers, records te number of publications by researc

institutions beteen 2006 and 2010. e Cinese and ussian

cademies of Sciences ranked second and tird, respectively.

CNRS, LeadingPublisherWorldwide..

FE INFOION.

> www.imagoi.om

cnrs ks ns

Root GrowthWe emergence of lateral roots in te plantArabidopsis

thaliana is regulated by aquaporins, te membrane

cannel proteins tat facilitate ater movements itin

cell membranes.1 is result, obtained by an

international team associating Frenc researcers from

CNS and Inra,2 to labs from Germany, Spain, and te

K, may elp optimize root grot.

01. B. Pret et al., Nat. Cell Biol., 2012. 14 : 9918.02. Institut national de la recherche agronomique.

qerial view of thes Very argeelescope (V) atParaal (hile).

ESO/G

.H

dEPOHl

N a T U R E P U B l

7/30/2019 CIM28

5/40

5I the ews |n28 I qu I Jnu 2013

aroce, 68, a researcer at te Laboratoire

Kastler-Brossel (LKB)1 and a professor at te

Collge de France, specializes in atomic physicsand quantum optics. He is one of the pioneers of

cavity quantum electrodynamics, which consists in studyingthe interactions between a single atom and a few photonscontained in a box, or cavity. Te Nobel laureates havepaved the way for a new era of experimentation in quantumphysics by demonstrating the direct observation of individualquantum particles without destroying them, said the NobelCommittee. Trough their ingenious laboratory methods,Haroche and Winelandtogether with their research

groupshave managed to measure and control very fragilequantum states considered inaccessible for direct observation.

In 2009, when Haroche was awarded the CNRS GoldMedal, Frances most prestigious scientic distinction, hemodestly explained that despite the complexity of theset-up, the underlying physical theory is actually verysimple, albeit dicult to express without using equations.You need a basic grasp of maths, he admitted.

In fact, it was maths that Haroche rst studied, beforespecializing in physics at the cole Normale Suprieure

(ENS) in Paris, which he joined in 1963. Aer leaving theENS, he began his career at CNRS, where his research playeda signicant role in reconciling the microscopic quantumworld with the macroscopic classical world. During the1970s and 1980s, he developed new laser spectroscopymethods based on the study of quantum beats andsuperradiance. He then became interested in Rydberg atoms,giant atomic systems whose sensitivity to microwaves makesthem particularly well suited to fundamental research intomatter-radiation interaction.

Haroches own words best illustrate the common threadrunning through his career: I have always endeavored tocarry out experiments involving atoms and photons in

exotic situations not usually found in nature. I have tried tomake use of these situations to decipher fundamentalphenomena, and to develop new tools to investigate matterand radiation.

Haroches work, enabled by ongoing technologicaladvances, has made it possible to experimentally verifycertain postulates of the physics of the innitely small bydrawing inspiration from the thought experiments devisedby Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr.

For CNRS President Alain Fuchs, this Nobel Prizerewards pioneering work carried out over the longterm, combining fundamental understanding withexperimental skills.01. CNRS / ENS / Universit Paris-VI.

qerge Harochereceivig his nobelPrie fro His

majesty Kig arl Xstaf of wede athe tockholocert Hall oDeceber 10, 2012.

Serge Haroche,Nobel Prize in Physics 2012On ecember 10, 2012, in Stockholm,Serge Haroche received the Nobel Prizein Physics, jointly with the mericanphysicist avid Wineland, for their workin quantum physics.

A photo galley isavailable on the online

version of the magazine.> www.crs.fr/crsagaie

C

.lEBEdINSky/CNRSPHOTOTHqUE

7/30/2019 CIM28

6/40

cns I IntentIonl mgzIn6w Spotlight | L fom h Las

iterview b lue cIlloce

On Januay 22, 1963, Gman

Chancllo Konad Adnau and

Fnch Psdn Chals d Gaull

sgnd h elys tay, h ofcal

documn codfyng pos-a

Fanco-Gman conclaon. Ho

dd com aou?

Con Dfanc: e Elyse Treaty wasa bilateral treaty of rapprochementbetween France and Germany, settingobjectives for increased cooperationbetween the two countries. The termreconciliation is not used in the text it-

self, but is mentioned in the joint declara-tion issued by Adenauer and De Gaulle.Aer nearly a century of rivalry and threewars, the resentment between France andGermany was stronger than ever in 1945,and each country saw the other as ahereditary enemy. To ensure lastingpeace in Europe, this image needed to bedispelled once and for all. But first,groundwork needed to be done in bothcountries to prepare public opinion. Itwas only aer the state visits of 1962byAdenauer to Rheims in July and De

Gaulle to Germany in Septemberthat aproject of French-German cooperationwas proposed. De Gaulles tour ofGermany was a triumph, and his speechesin Germanthe language of the enemythat he had learned as an ocermade astrong impression. Memoranda were exchanged in the autumnof 1962. Just three days before signing the nal document,Adenauer suggested to De Gaulle that they make it a full-edgeddiplomatic treaty, a much more binding agreement that wouldhave to be ratied by the parliaments of both countries.

Dos hs man ha h had n ll o no Fanco-

Gman coopaon fo 1963?

C.D.: e notion that everything started with the Elyse Treaty

is part of the De Gaulle myth. But a number of initiatives hadbegun immediately aer the war, including by the French mili-tary government in Germany. In 1950, the Schuman Plan1 wasa historic step towards closer political and economic tiesbetween France and the new Federal Republic of Germany(FRG), and the blueprint for a European community.In civil society as well, actions to admonish lasting resentmentwere taken by various mediators, including many former French

Resistance ghters who had kept contact with the German

Elyse Treaty January 22, 2013, will mark the 50th anniversary of the Elyse Treaty.Historian Corine Defrance looks back on this historic European milestone.

50 years ofFanco-Gman Fndshp

7/30/2019 CIM28

7/40

n28 I qutely I Jnuy 2013 7 wL fom h Las | Spotlight

democracy activists they had met as co-prisoners in concentra-tion camps. rough associations like the French Committeefor Exchanges with the New Germany and BILD (InternationalLiaison and Documentation Bureau), they published reviewsand organized conferences to present their respective countries.Town twinning also predated the Elyse Treaty, starting in 1950with Montbliard and the German city of Ludwigsburg, whereDe Gaulle delivered his famous address to Germanys youth onSeptember 9, 1962.

th tay as sgnd only a f monhs la. whch

spcc aas of coopaon dd co?

C.D.: e treaty itself was a short document. e rst sectionestablished the principle of regular consultation in the form ofbi-annual Franco-German summit meetings. Initially, theseinvolved heads of state and a few ministers, but they would laterinclude all levels of the two governments. Cooperation waslimited to three areas: foreign policy, defense/security, andeducation and youth. At rst, the youth programs were theonly ones that produced visible results. e Franco-GermanYouth Oce (OFAJ), founded at the rst summit meeting in

July 1963, brought more than a million young people togetherin just ve years. As of today, 8 million youths from all socialbackgrounds have beneted from these programs.

wha aou oh coopa ffos?

C.D.: e rst decade proved a dicult one, but the era of ValryGiscard dEstaing and Helmut Schmidt, immediately followedby the Franois Mitterrand-Helmut Kohl period, ushered in aphase of close relations. is led to the substantial developmentof cooperation in the areas of education and culture, which werenot included in the original treaty. e idea of a Franco-Germantelevision network, Arte, was proposed in 1986, and its rstbroadcast was in 1992. Cooperation in higher education and

research took o in 1988, with the development of integratedFranco-German degree programs, which now involve 180establishments and more than 5000 students on both sides ofthe border. Joint research organizations like the Marc BlochCenter2 in Berlin were also established. As for secondary educa-tion, the so-called Abi-bac classes were created in the early1990s, to help students prepare for the nal high-school exambaccalaureat/Abitur in both countries. Finally, Europeanclasses, in which subjects like history and geography are taughtin the partners language, were created.

th sms o ha n much lss pogss n aas lk

dfns o nnaonal laons

C.D.: ings got o to a slow start due to basic dierences in how

the countries operated. During the Cold War, the FRG had very

close ties with the US and NATO, while France was morindependent. Yet there was cooperation in certain areas, likarmament or joint military exercise, and some highly symbolinitiatives were undertaken, such as the creation of the FrancoGerman Brigade in 1989, bringing together nearly 5000 troopA turning point came in 2003, when the two countries expressetheir opposition to the invasion of Iraq. As a result, France anGermany decided to hold special celebrations for the 40tanniversary of the Elyse Treaty. e French and Germaparliaments thus met for an extraordinary session in VersailleThe partners decided to establish the Elyse Fund, whicnances Franco-German cultural projects in other countrieStarting in the 1970s, the two nations laid the foundations fothe European Monetary System, initiated by Giscard dEstainand Schmidt, and later the euro, which was promoted b

Mitterrand and Kohl. In fact, it seems that Mitterrand made thcommon currency a condition for German reunication.

Ho can h Fanco-Gman laonshp dnd

oday? And ha s h fuu of hs coopaon hn

h euop of 27?

C.D.: ere is now a real paradox. On the one hand, FrancoGerman relations are at risk of being taken for granteThe younger French generations who grew up with thclose cooperation see no reason to strengthen ties with Germanrather than with Greece or Italy, for example. On the othehand, the Franco-German powerhouse has never beemore vital to Europes well-being. In these highly unstab

economic times, I cant think of any other countries that coulplay this role.

01. Named after French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman.02. UMIFRE (joint unit of French research institutes abroad) involving CNRS and the

French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.03. Identits, relations internationales et civilisations de lEurope (CNRS / Universits

Paris-I and IV).

contct InfomtIon:IIce, Pari.Con Dfanc> ri.dra@waad.r

The notionthat everythingstarted withthe Elyse Treatyis part of theDe Gaulle myth.

qth ripha1962 vii gra Prid Dga (), hr iB wihchar dar(rih).

qcri Dra,hiria a h IIce ab.

AKGIMAGES/UllSTEINbIl

D

DR

7/30/2019 CIM28

8/40

| Live from the Labs c I IttIo mgzI8w

BY ddy dch

Eye writing systems that let users

select letters and symbols on a

screen have existed for years, butEOL, short for Eye OnLine, goes muchfurther. Te system, developed by JeanLorenceau and his team at the CRICM,1allows subjects to draw with their eyes asif using a pen on paper. Te main chal-lenge in creating such a device lies in theeyes inability to generate smooth trajec-tories in front of a static background,resulting instead in saccadic movements.Tis is where the optical illusion, knownas reverse-phi,2 comes into play.

Reverse-phi is achieved when animage and its negative are shown in rapidsuccession, creating the optical il lusion ofmovement. Lorenceau found this tech-

nique could be used to create a seeminglymoving background, in turn makingsmooth eye movements possible.3 In hissystem, several hundred disks ickeringat a frequency of 10 to 15 Hz are displayedon a screen. Any eye movementproduced while looking at it triggersthe illusion and tricks users into believingthe screen is moving with their eyes.An oculometer tracks pupil movements,which soware recreates on a computerscreen. Tree to ve 30-minute trainingsessions are needed to control eye move-

ments and write letters. It takes someeort as one must rst see and select theillusion as a support for the eyesbefore attempting to draw letters.Te concentration required can also betiring, and dicult actions, such as cross-ing the letter t, may not be correctlyprocessed by the computer at this earlystage, explains Lorenceau. But withenough training, users can develop au-tomatisms to ease the process and reachhandwriting speeds.

Te system will soon be tested byamyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients. It

could help people affected by limb

Medicine Anopticalillusion,forwhichnopracticalusehadpreviouslybeenfoundisattheheartofaneweyewritingsystemdevelopedbyaCNRSresearchteam.

Writing with yourEyes

cotct IfomtIo:cIcm, Paris.

Jean Lorenceau> jean.lreneau@up.r

Environment

BY fI k

wIn 2010, ordinary citizens teamed u

with naturalists fromtheCERSP1an

theOPIE2 tolaunch the Photograph

SurveyofFlowerVisitors(SPIPOLL). 3Th

citizenscienceprojectisFrancesfir

country-wideobservatoryonpollinator

insectsthathelpfertilizeplants.Cruc

to biodiversity and crop productio

pollinators need to be monitored a

urbanization and intensive farmin

threatentheirhabitats.SPIPOLLsfir

findings, recently analyzedby CERS

OPIEresearchers,suggestwaystoboo

insectpopulations.4

qesearer Jean reneau wearin e uleer a e evelpe nverpupil veens in anwriin (visible n sreen).

Paris

COuRTESyP.ALLARd/REA

paralysis express themselves in a moreindependent manner through personal-ized writing and signatures. It could alsohelp dyslexic children become moreaware of their eye movements when read-ing, in turn providing a better under-standing of how dyslexia works to ght itmore eectively.

We are still at an early stage of devel-opment, as several technical issues have

to be resolved before an eye-controlledtablet is produced, but it is theoreticallypossible. In the future, surgeons could useeye control as a third hand, for example,or tennis players could use it to bettertrack a ball, concludes Lorenceau.

01.Centrederecherchedelinstitutducerveauetdelamoellepinire(CNRS/PMC/Inserm).

02.S.M.Anstis,Phimovementasasubtractiveprocess,Vision Research,1970.10:141130.

03.J.Lorenceau,Cursivewritingwithsmoothpursuiteyemovements,Current Biology,2012.22:1506-9.

Citizen Scienc

Avideocan be viewed on the onlineversion of the magazine. www.nrs.r/nrsaaine

7/30/2019 CIM28

9/40

28 I qty I Jy 2013 9Live from the Labs | w

Taming NitrenesBY mk yod

wNitrenes are the giant squids and

snow leoards of chemistrysoelu-

sivethattheyarealmostmythicalinstat-

ure.Theyexistonlybrieyastransitional

moleculesduringcertainchemicalreac-

tions,andhavesolelybeenobservedat

extremelylowtemperatures.Stabilizing

highly-reactivenitrenesatroomtemper-

atureisliketamingwildanimals,explains

JointResearch Chemistry Laboratory1

directorGuyBertrand,whoseteamwas

responsibleforarecentbreakthrough.2

Nitrene has been postulated to be

involvedinthousandsofreactionsasa

key intermediate that usually reacts

further.oucannotstopreactionsatthe

nitrenestep,headds.

Becausenitrenesareimportanttosomanychemicalprocesseslikethepro-

ductionofammonia,45,000tonsofwhich

aremanufacturedeachyeartheyareof

obviousinteresttochemists.

Tostabilizenitrenes,Bertrandandhis

teambondedthemwithaphosphorous

fragment,whichcomputermodelinghad

predictedwouldserveasanappropriate

electrondonor.Thisformedastrong

bondandreducedtheintermediatesin-

stability.Theresultingphosphinonitrene

retainssomeofthereactivityofnitrenes,

butremainsstableinthesolidandliquid

statesatroomtemperatures.

Thenewcompoundmightserveasa

nitrogenreagent,abletotransfernitro-

genatomstoorganicsubstances,thus

allowingthecreationofanewfamilyof

chemicals.Theprecedentsarepromising:Bertrandsstabilizationofcarbenestwo

decadesagoledtoathousand-foldin-

crease incarbene-related papers and

patentspublishedeachyear.

Whiletheapplicationsofnitrenesta-

bilizationareimpossibletopredict,the

satisfactionofhavingachieveditforthe

rsttimeiseasyforBertrandtodescribe.

Itfeelslikebeingtherstmantowalk

onthemoon:itsextremelyexciting.

01.JointResearchnitbetweenCNRSandtheniversityofCalifornia,Saniego.

02.F.ielmannetal.,ACrystallineSingletPhosphinonitrene:aNitrogenAtomTransferAgent,

Science,2012.337:1526-8.

Chemistry

cotct IfomtIo:Jin esear ceisr abrar, a Jlla.Guy Bertrand> uberran@us.eu

cotct IfomtIo:cP, Paris.Nicolas Deguines> euines@nn.r

Showcasingthepowerofcitizensci-

ence,SPIPOLLvolunteersnumbering

897to datecontribute photos of in-

sectssightedonfloweringplants.The

long-termgoalistotrackthewaythese

populationsevolveovertime.However,

thedatahasalreadypinpointedhowpol-

linatorsarespreadacrossFrance,viaan

indexontheirafnitywiththreeland-use

types:urban,agricultural,andnatural.

Insectsof theHymenoptera order

(includingantsandbees)provetobethe

onlypollinatorsactiveonallthreeland

types. The other orders observed

Coleoptera (beetles),Diptera(fliesand

mosquitoes), and Lepidoptera (moths

andbutteries)aremoresuitedtoagri-

culturalandnaturalzones.SPIPOLLalso

showsthattherarertheinsects,themore

theyfavornaturalareasoverurbanones.

Thestudyfurthercontradicts the

ideathatagriculturalregionsarepoorin

insectdiversity,notesNicolaseguines,

from the CERSP. Indeed, such areas,

which cover more than 40% of the

Europeancontinent,holdstronginsect-

hostingpotentialandshouldbeafocus

forpollinator-friendlypractices,accord-

ingtotheresearchers.Strategiesinclude

growingflowerstripsaroundfieldsto

providenectarandpollenforpollinators

ororganicfarmingwithfewerpesticides

andherbicidestonurtureowerbloom

Thiswouldnotonlybenetpollinato

butalsothecroptheyvisitawin-wi

solution.

01.Conservationdesespces,restaurationetsuividepopulations(MusumNationaldHistoireNaturelCNRS/niversitParis-VI).

02.Ofcepourlesinsectesetleurenvironnement.03.SuiviPhotographiquedesInsectesPOLLinisateur04.N.eguinesetal.,TheWhereaboutsofFlower

Visitors:ContrastingLand-sePreferencesRevealedbyaCountry-WideSurveyBasedonCitizenScience,PLOS ONE,2012.7(9):e45822.

qHalictidaebees (01),lier beele

Rhagonychafulva (02), ane buerAnthochariscardamines (03).

qirene sruurebaine b X-rarsallrap,swin niren(blue), psprus(re), an arbn(bla) as.

Paris

02

01

03Project Surveys Pollinators

PHOTOS:N.d

EGuINES

,OBSERVATEuRSPIPOLL

7/30/2019 CIM28

10/40

| Live from the Labs c I IttIo mgzI10w

BY tom Idgy

wA century ago, hysicist Victor Franz Hess

discovered thathigh-speedparticlesatomicnu-

cleiorelectronswerereachingtheEarthfromthe

MilkyWay.Thesecosmicrays,astheywerelater

called,arebelievedtobesuperchargedwithkinetic

energybytheshockwavesofsupernovaeexplo-

sions,whichallowsthemtopassthroughsolarwinds

andpenetratetheinnerSolarSystem.Cosmicrays

withlowerenergylevelslessthanhalfabillion

electron-voltshaveproved harderto findand

study as they never reach our System. Now,

Vincent Tatischeff and his colleagues from the

CSNSM1 have discovered thefirsthadronic low-

energy cosmic rays (LECRs) of galactic origin,2

enabling researchersto startlooking into their

chemical composition, flux, and effects on

theinsterstellarmedium.

TondasourceofLECRs,Tatischeffandhisteam

neededtobuildatheoreticalmodelofwhatLECR-

createdX-rayemissionsintheinterstellarmedium

wouldlooklike,andcompareitwiththedatagath-

eredbyXMM-Newtonsinceitslaunchin1999.They

thusidentiedasourceofLECRsinthevicinityofthe

Archesclusterofyoungstars,about100lightyears

fromthecenteroftheMilkyWay.Theparticlesthere

areacceleratedinthebowshockcreatedbytheclustersownmotion,thusgeneratingacharacteris-

ticX-rayemissionbyirradiatingtheambientgas

cloud,whichwewereabletoidentifyusingour

model,saysTatischeff.ThediscoveryoftheseLECRs

isparticularlyimportantsinceitprovesthatparticles

canbe charged withkineticenergynotonly by

supernovae explosions but also by the simple

movementofstars.

Newobservationsatradioandinfraredwave-

lengthscouldenableustostudythiscolossaluxof

LECRsanditsphysicochemicaleffectsonthedense

gas in the interstellarmedium,says Tatischeff.

ThisshouldproveinterestinginlightoftheseLECRs

possibleinuenceonstarformation.

01.Centredespectromtrienuclaireetdespectromtriedemasse(CNRS/niversitParis-Sud).

02.V.Tatischeffetal.,NonthermalX-raysfromlow-energycosmicrays:Applicationtothe6.4keVlineemissionfromtheArchesclusterregion,A&A,2012.546:A88.

New Cosmic Rays IdentifiedAstronomy

TTh Fl Ky T DTay vlT BYfI k

wEating habits say a lot about eole.

te an even reveal bilial an sialrais ur exin anesrs, aseeiss r e g1 an bilissr e mI2 lab ave swn.3 Bsuin ee ssils r u riascrale huanin sie, e ea asrensrue e ies inins,unlin eails n e earl uans.

Vinen Baler e g liensee rees a prue rins ase rw, ellin a persns isr.sin an innvaive laser ablaineniue expsin rw priss nenal enael, e ea rae e

lieln abia an iear anes iniviuals. earabl, e eniueals eeps e ee relaivel ina ein les ae b e beas areinvisible e ee.

tree inin enera wereexaineAustralopithecus africanus(2 3 illin ears l), Paranthropusrobustus (1.2 2.5 illin ears l), anearl Homo (Homo sapiens preursrain ba 2.3 2.4 illin ears a).sin srniu ispe analsis, eea rae a speiens abia bain levels waer an plansrniu absrbe in enael, se

un in surrunin ber. tesieniss eue a e ininssare e sae e rane area, lse e aves were eir bnes wereexavae. t ee eir iearnen, e ea easure eenaels bariu an srniunenrains, nwn erease as aaal es up e ain ansars eain ea.

wa i ur rbears ew n?Australopithecus a e s varieie, srunin anin r anialreains plan aer. te laer wrups erive r is n

cotct IfomtIo:cm, orsa.Vincent Tatischeff>vinen.aise@sns.in2p3.r

qte rein eres luser seenin X-ras (nurs)an in e nearinrare (baruniae) wasienie as a sure lw-enersi ras.

Orsay

Lyon

7/30/2019 CIM28

11/40

28 I qty I Jy 2013 11Live from the Labs | w

BY ddy dch

Electronic tongues are devices caable of recognizing

dissolved substances. Tey have many applications,from assessing foods freshness to detecting harmful

substances in wastewaters. Te receptors of conventional elec-tronic tongues consist of complex molecules known to bind withparticular chemical compounds. Te large number of complexmolecules required to create an array of receptors usually makesdeveloping electronic tongues time-consuming and arduous.

A team of researchers bridging several laboratories1 hasmanaged to speed up the process by using lactose and sulfatedlactosetwo small and easily accessible moleculesas buildingblocks to design receptors.2 aking inspi-ration from the heparan sulfates abilityto bind with proteins, the team mixednegatively-charged sulfated lactose and

neutral lactose molecules to create drop-lets of varying concentration ratios, eachdisplaying dierent binding properties.Te droplets were then deposited on agold-layered optical prism, where they

formed an array of receptors. Bindingsbetween receptors and chemical com-pounds were measured via SurfacePlasmon Resonance imaging (SPRi), anoptical detection technique never usedbefore in this eld. Each time a compoundbinds with a receptor, electron oscillations

(plasmons) change. Tis in turn alters theway light is reected on the prisms surface,each alteration being measured optically.

Using this real-time monitoringtechnique, a 3D landscape can be drawn

for each analyte. In other words, ousystem allows us to see tastes, explainYanxia Hou-Broutin, from the SPrAMlaboratory,1 who has been leading thproject for the past four years. Unlikprevious systems, our method allows areceptors to be linked, she adds. T

enables us to identify defective receptoand eliminate any abnormal signal. It cabe compared to our brains ability to reconstruct an image from a screen, evewhen defective pixels are present.

Te new tongues are also cheaper tdevelop, and can be re-used and/or kepfor months. We are now exploring thanalysis of complex mixtures such abeer, wine, and milk. While still undedevelopment, our system can alreaddierentiate between the three, and dtermine whether a milk sample is spoile

just by looking at its 3D landscapeconcludes the researcher.

01.LaboratoireStructuresetpropritsdarchitectumolculaires(CNRS/CEA/niversitJoseph-FourierGrenoble) ;InstitutdechimiemolculaireedesmatriauxdOrsay(CNRS/niversitParis-SudInstitutdebiologiestructurale(CNRS/CEA/niversitJoseph-FourierGrenoble).

02.anxiaHouetal.,Continuousevolutionprolesfoelectronictongue-basedanalysis,AngewandteChemie,2012.OI:10.1002/anie.201205346.

Chemistry Researchershavedevisedanewmethodfordesigningmorereliableelectronictonguesthatcanevenvisualizetastes.

Electronic TonguesthatCanSeeTaste

cotct IfomtIo:Prm, grenble.Yanxia Hou-Broutin> anxia.u-bruin@ea.r

anesr ivere in ie plansnl r Paranthropus, as nre beir aial an enal ana, wileHomowere arnivrus, unin wisne ls. s Baler explains, e la peiin r allwe e wrups abi r als a illinears. te ea suess a eansupin le Homos inreasebrain sie an uliae survival.

01. abraire e lie e n (c / n /niversi n-1).

02. nrplie lulaire e iaerie e snse(c / niversi tuluse-III / niversi erasbur).

03. V. Baler e al., viene r iear ane bu nlansape use in u rian earl inins,Nature, 2012. 489 558-60.

cotct IfomtIo:g, n.Vincent Balter>vinen.baler@ens-ln.r

qfirs superirri lar an earlHomo (le), irsuperir rilar aParanthropusrobustus (ile),an rs inerirri lar an earlHomo (ri).

Grenob

PHOTOS:J.B

RAGAETd

.dESCOuENS

HEpAAN LFATE.

Polysaccharideswith varying

binding properties.

q nvel elerninue an ranslaeases in speilansapes wi eelp suraeplasn resnaneiain (Pi).

7/30/2019 CIM28

12/40

| Live from the Labs c I IttIo mgzI12w

BY fI k

eroducing muscle movements

is a challenging issue for scien-

tists, with major alications at

stake. For the rst time, chemists fromthe ICS1 have synthesized an assemblyof nano-machines capable of musclefiber-like motion,2 a breakthroughvalidated experimentally by physicistsfrom the MSC.3

Living organisms consist of molecu-lar machines where groups of molecules like proteins controlkey biological tasks including muscle contraction. It is the jointaction of these tiny molecules that extends their scope. Tis isthe case of protein nano-machines in muscle tissue: individualmyosin proteins can only move a few nanometers along actin

laments, but grouped by the thousands in a sarcomere (thebasic muscle unit), their concerted movement can cover onemicrometer, allowing muscle contraction on a normal scale.Inspired by nature, chemists have articially synthesized nano-machines since the 1960s, but have never been able to coordinate

sets of nano-machines in time and space.Te puzzle has now been solved. Te

ICSs biomimetic feat began with a 13-step synthesis to produce a target nano-machine: a basic molecule coded to

contract and expand, explains teamleader Nicolas Giuseppone. Te next ob-jective was to create a big enough as-sembly to trace movement. About 3000molecules were joined together to form

polymers (compounds made up orepeated units) linked by supramoleculabonds, strong but dynamic. Tis techncal trick allows better incorporation othe machines within the long ancomplex polymer chains. Simultaneouresponse from the nano-machines watriggered by changing the pH of the envronment, causing the entire chain tcontract or extend. While each nanomachine can only move one nanometeor so, the movement of the whole chain amplied by 10,000, covering about 1micrometers. Tis echoes the model othe myosin/actin-driven sarcomere imuscle ber. Te nding was veried bmeasurements taken via light and neu

tron scattering experiments run by ErBuhlers team at the MSC.

his polymer chain breakthrougrepresents an important rst step towarda range of long-term applications. Te

Nanotechnology Anano-machineclusterproducingcoordinatedcontractionandextensionmovementsbringsusclosertomimickinghumanmuscle.

CNRSTeamFlexes Muscles

qcnrain (le) an exensin (ri) a elespipler ain (ener) ae up usans nan-aines.

BY ddy dch

wA team of Euroean astronomers

has just detected a lanet withamass

similartothatofEarth,orbitingAlpha

CentauriB.1

NotonlyisAlphaCentauriBbthe

bdesignatingtherstplanetfoundin

orbitthelightestplanetfoundtodate

around a Sun-like star, it is also the

closest to our Solar System. Alpha

Centauri B is 4.3 light years away, a

relatively short distance considering

that our galaxy stretches over some

100,000lightyears.

etthenewplanetorbitstoocloseto

itsparentstarforwater,ifpresent,tobe

liquid,andthereforedoesnotqualifyas

anEarthtwini.e.,aplanetsimilarto

Earthinsizeandmass,andorbitingina

starshabitablezone.Itisanimportant

discoverynonetheless,as80%oflight

planetsarepartofmulti-planetarysys-

tems.Sothereisagoodprobabilitywe

willfindEarthtwincandidatesinthat

area,explainsFranoisBouchyfromthe

IAP,2whoparticipatedinthestudy.

TheteamfoundAlphaCentauriBbby

detectingtinychangesinitsparentstars

radialvelocity,causedby theorbiting

planetsgravitationalpull.Thesechan

es,oflessthan2km/h,werepickedu

usingtheHARPS3instrumentonthe3

meter telescope at theESOs La Sil

ObservatoryinChile.WhileHARPSoffe

thehighestaccuracyavailableforradia

velocitymeasurements,itdoeshave

limitations.Wecanonlyobserveve

brightstarssuchasAlphaCentauri,an

stilllacktheprecisionrequiredtofin

Earthtwins,explainsBouchy.Thearriva

of the high-precision spectrograph

ESPRESSO4 and SPIRou5 in late 201

shouldmakeitpossibletodiscoverEart

twinswithinthenext10years.

Exolanet Closest to EarthAstronomy

Strasbour

Paris

WILEy-V

CHVERLAGGMBH&CO

.KGAA

.REPROdu

CEdWITHPERMISSION

.

7/30/2019 CIM28

13/40

28 I qty I Jy 2013 13Live from the Labs | w

Par

cotct IfomtIo:Ic, rasbur.Nicolas Giuseone> iuseppne@unisra.r

include medical devices such as articialmuscles, but also information storage andprocessing tools in molecule-based com-puters. Tey also cover microrobots andnew substances with novel properties,such as sponge-like materials that cancontract, adds Giuseppone. Te teamsnext objective is to bundle several berstogether to further amplify their move-ment and integrate other movementssuch as rotations.

01.InstitutCharlesSadron(CNRS/niversitdeStrasbourg).

02.G.uetal.,Muscle-likeSupramolecularPolymersIntegratedMotionfromThousandsofMolecular

Machines,Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.,2012.doi: 10.1002/anie.201208497.

03.Matireetsystmescomplexes(CNRS/niversitParis-VII).

qtis su aee ver pae Angewandte ChemieInernainaliin. BY cmtI c

wCN researchers have identied

cells involved in scarring thatmayplay

asignicantroleinbrosis,apathologi-

calhealingprocesswhichcanbelethal

whenitaffectsinternalorgans. 1Whenanorganisinjured,thehealing

processinvolvesseveralfactors.Among

these, collagen-producing myofibro-

blastsmakeupthescar,whichisusually

eliminatedoncethetissueregenerates.

etincertainchronicdiseases,the

scarringprocesspersists,leadingtobro-

sis,withcollagen-producingmyofibro-

blastsaccumulatingtothepointofim-

pairingorganfunction.

Theoriginandregulationofmyofi-

broblastsarestillunclear.Weknewthat

a transmembrane protein called

AAM12whichisexpressedphysiologi-

cally during embryogenesisis often

overexpressedinpathologieswitha-

broticcomponent,suchasmuscleand

liverdiseaseorscleroderma.However

theroleofAAM12+cellswasnotknown,

explainsLuciePeduto,2principalinvesti-

gatorofthestudy.

Tondoutmoreabouttheirfunction,

theteamdevelopedtransgenicmicethat

produced a fluorescentprotein when

AAM12wasexpressed.poninjuryin

themuscleandtheskin,theresearchers

observedthat expression ofAAM12

When Scarring Cells Overdo It

wasrapidlyinducedinasubsetofpe

vascularcells,albeittransiently.Thes

cellsalsoexpressedhighlevelsofpro-i

flammatory cytokines and growt

factors.

BylabelingAAM12+cellsgeneticall

thescientiststrackedthecellsasthmoved andmultiplied overthe enti

processoftissuerepair.Thecellsspec

callygaverisetocollagen-overproducin

myofibroblasts during the scarrin

process.Furthermore,specificelimin

tionofAAM12+cellswassufcient

decreasecollagenaccumulation.

Inacuteinjury,thedevelopmento

AAM12+cellsisonlytransient.Buti

certainchronicbroticdiseases,theya

generated continuously, whichmig

playaroleinexcesscollagendeposition

saysPeduto,whohopesthismighthel

designnoveltherapeuticapproachest

brosis.

01.S.ulauroyetal.,LineagetracingandgeneticablationofAAM12+perivascularcellsidentifyamajorsourceofprobroticcellsduringacutetissueinjury,Nature Medicine,2012.doi:10.1038/nm.284

02.nitdedveloppementdestissuslymphodes(CNRS/InstitutPasteur).

Biology

cotct IfomtIo:Insiu Paseur, Paris.Lucie peduto> luie.peu@paseur.r

qarrin issue

seleal usle aeran injur. tedm12+ ells (reenwi blue nuleus)prue exessllaen (re).

01.X.umusqueetal.,AnEarthmassplanetorbitingAlphaCentauriB,Nature,2012.491:207-11.

02.InstitutdastrophysiquedeParis(CNRS/PMC).03.HighAccuracyRadialvelocityPlanetarySearch.04.EchelleSPectrographforRockyExoplanetand

StableSpectroscopicObservations.05.SpectromtreInfrarougepourleCanada-France-

HawaiiTelescope(SPIRou/CFHT).

cotct IfomtIo:IP, Paris.Franois Bouchy> bu@iap.r

qurpeanasrners aveisvere a planewi rul eass e ar,rbiin a sar in elpa cenaurissee lses urs (aris'sreniin).

lpa enauri

lpa enauri B

un

ESO/L

.CALAd

A/N

.RISINGER

WILEy-VCHVERLAGGMBH&CO.K

GAA.R

EPROduCEdWITHPERMISSION

7/30/2019 CIM28

14/40

| Live from the Labs c I IttIo mgzI14w

BY cmtI c

sing the human immunodeciency virus (HIV) to cure

cancer atients would provide a sense of victory overone of humanitys greatest villains. And this is exactly

what a team of CNRS researchers have in mind. HIV iscapable of producing a number of molecules that dontexist naturally, much like a mutant factory, explains teamleader Matteo Negroni, from the IBMC.1 So we tried to usethis to our advantage.

Te IBMC team knew that researchers had long been tryingto develop a more potent version of a human enzyme calleddeoxycytidine kinase (dCK), key to the eectiveness of antican-cer drugs once they enter the organism. If dCK can be improvedto better phosphorylate anti-cancer drugs, their eectiveness

could be enhanced, he explains.In their experiments,2 the researchers inserted a copy of the

dCK gene into the HIV genome, and let it replicate in a cultureof human cells. Te team then collected the produced mutants,and tested them along with anticancer drugs in a culture ofhuman tumor cells. By doing so, they eventually identied avariant capable of boosting the eciency of anti-cancer drugs60-fold, as compared to the wild-type dCK.

he second study concerns analternative anti-cancer treatment forcells resistant to conventional chemo-therapy. Te LIM kinase (LIMK) enzyme,which is overexpressed in cancer cells,had already been identified as apotential new therapeutic target. LIMKplays a central role in regulating thedynamics of the cytoskeleton microtu-bules and actin laments and the cellsoverall motility. However, very fewselective LIMK inhibitors have beenexplored to date.

Now, a collaboration of researchers

from France, Australia, and the UK saythey have discovered the long-soughtagent.3 Tey used an automated high-throughput screening tool to analyzemore than 30,000 molecules, selectingthose capable of acting on microtubules,a phenomenon that can be visualized byusing specic markers.

Going a step further, they investgated whether their selection containean agent capable of specificalinhibiting LIMK. With the help of lucit did, as principal investigatoLaurence Lafanechre4 puts it. Te teacalled this agent Pyr-1. In vitro analysthen revealed that Pyr-1 was toxic tseveral cancerous epithelial cell lineincluding ones that are resistant tcurrent therapies.

By blocking LIMK, Pyr-1 targets aenzyme involved in several physiologic

pathways: it blocks cell multiplicatioand motility. Pyr-1 is not only a new anttumor agent, its also potentially antmetastatic, says Lafanechre, outlininthat 90% of cancer deaths are generalcaused by metastases.

01.Institutdebiologiemolculaireetcellulaire(CNRS(TeamArchitectureetractivitdelARN).

02.P.Rossolilloetal.,Retrovolution:HIV-drivenEvolutionofCellularGenesandImprovementofAnticancerrugActivation,PLoS Genetics,2012.8:e1002904.

03.R.Prudentetal.,PharmacologicalinhibitionofLIMKinasestabilizesmicrotubulesandinhibitsneoplasticgrowth,Cancer Res.,2012.72:4429-39.

04.InstitutAlbertBonniot(CNRS/Inserm/niversitJosephFourier)(Team3Polarity,evelopmentandCancer).

Biology Tworecently-publishedresults,oneexploitingtheHIVmachinery,theotherinvolvinganewcytoskeletoninhibitor,couldleadtobettercancertreatments.

FightingCanceron All Fronts

01te geiabineru ills aner ellsre eienl ine presene euan ck (re)as pare w ck (blue) rn ck a all (reen).

Grenoble

Strasbourg

M

.NEGR

ONIETP.ROSSOLILLO

10 m

Dynamicmicrotubules

C

ontrol

Pyr1

02

7/30/2019 CIM28

15/40

28 I qty I Jy 2013 15Live from the Labs | w

cotct IfomtIo:IBmc, rasbur.Matteo Negroni> .nerni@ib-nrs.unisra.r

Insiu lber Bnni, grenble.Laurence Lafanechre> laurene.laaneere@uj-renble.r

BY Btt kB

wHow long does it take your brain to recognize

a face? Not long. etforcomputers,thisisanex-

tremelychallengingtask.Now,researcherManuel

Bibes1andhiscolleaguesatCNRS,Thales,andthe

niversityofCambridgehavemimickednatureby

buildingelectroniccomponentscalledmemristors

that are inspired by the brains computational

circuitry.2

Inourbrain,neuronsactascomputingunits,

eachofwhichisconnectedtoathousandother

neuronsbysynapses.Butsynapsesalsoserveas

memory,whichcontrastsstarklywiththedesignof

computers,wherememoryisaseparateentityfrom

thecomputingunit.Amuchmoreglaringdifference

isthatneuronscommunicatethroughvoltagepulses

ratherthandirectcurrent(C)voltages.Theresultis

thatthebrainisfarmorepowerfulandenergy-ef-

cientthananyman-madecomputer.

Memristorsmimicsynapsesinthattheyactas

wireswhoseelectricalresistancedependsonthe

previousvoltagepulsessentthroughthem,giving

themmemory.The firstmemristor, producedin

2008,wasbasedonthediffusionofionsthrougha

thinlm;aphenomenonpoorlyunderstoodanddif-

culttocontrol.Toovercomethisdifculty,Bibes

andhiscollaboratorshavebuiltmemristorsbasedonultrathinferroelectriclmssandwichedbetween

metalelectrodes.

Ferroelectriclmsprovideananswerbecause

theyretainanelectricpolarizationafterbeingex-

posedtoanelectriceld(i.e.,avoltage).Thislets

themstoreinformation,muchlikeferromagnetsmagneticharddisks,explainsBibes.Whenplace

betweenmetalelectrodes,thepolarizationofth

ferroelectricfilmdeterminestheelectricalres

tanceofthememristor.Inthisway,theresistanceo

thedevicedependsonitsvoltagehistory,permittin

memorystorage.

Incontrasttoconventionalmemorycircuit

whichstoreonlytwobits,theresistanceofferroele

tricmemristorscanbenelytuned,allowingthem

tocontainmuchmoreinformation.Thisispossib

becausethefilmbecomespolarizedinnm-size

chunks,calleddomains.Byvaryingthevoltagea

pliedacrossthelm,thedensityofpolarizedd

mainscanbepreciselycontrolled,allowingtheresi

tancetobetunedbetweenaminimumvalueand

maximumvalue300timesgreater.

A n ot he r a dv a nt a ge o f f er ro el ec t ri c

isthattheyhavebeenstudiedfordecades,soth

mechanismsofdomainformationandinteractio

arewellunderstood.Theteamnowplanstousethi

knowledgetobuildaneuralnetworkwith10ele

tronicneuronsand100memristorsynapses.

01.nitmixtedephysiqueCNRS/Thales.02.A.Chanthboualaetal.,Aferroelectricmemristor,Nature Materia

2012.11:860-4.

Bio-nspired Computing MemorPhysics

cotct IfomtIo:c / tales, Palaiseau.Manuel Bibes> anuel.bibes@alesrup.

n re news...

Islamic Art taying Alertwsing a non-invasive and mobile aman sectroscoy technique onfour ancient lams, researchers1 have revealed the secrets of Mamluk

ultanate enamellers (Egyt and yria: 1250-1517).2 Lais lazuli or

cobalt were used for blue, and mixed with Nales yellow to roduce

green, while tin oxide reciitates or calcium hoshate were used

for white. Comarison with relicas by 19th century master

glassmakers unambiguously shows that very different igments

were used in that later eriod. This study therefore rovides

tools to identify recently-restored sections or coies

from originals.

01.Laboratoirededynamique,interactionsetractivit(CNRS/PMC).02.P.Colombanetal.,J. Raman Spectrosc.,2012.43: 197584.

wBlue light roved as effective as

coffee to kee drivers alert during long

journeys at night.1Althoughthepositive

effectofbluelightonnighttimealertness

wasknownsince2005forsimpletasks,ithad

neverbeentestedonhighly-complextasks

likedriving.Thestudy,conductedbyteams

fromFrance2andSweden,couldleadtothe

developmentofelectronicanti-sleep

systemsbuiltintovehicles.

01.J.Taillardetal.,PLoS ONE,2012.7(10):e46750.02.Sommeil,attentionetneuropsychiatrie(CNRS).

02treaen a elaner ell line (hela)wi Imk inibirPr-1 inreases sableirubules nen(reen) wiuaein naiirubules (re).

Palaise

Stablemicrotubules

L

.LAFANECHRE/CANCERRESEARCH

P

.COLOMBAN/CNRS

qte tuuiurlap, ne emalu bjesanale b aanspersp.

7/30/2019 CIM28

16/40

cn I IntntIonl mgzIn16 On Location | Live from the Labs

BY KtI YzlI

Created in 1927, the Tsingy de

Namoroka, a 223-km2 national

park in northwest Madagascar,is one of the worlds earliest naturereserves. With its striking karst land-scapes, the area is an exceptional hotspotof biodiversity harboring a multitude ofspecies, some still unknown.

at is until a few months ago, when

an international team of scientists, led bybotanist Thomas Haevermans of theOSEB laboratory,1 headed to the islandwith an ambitious objective: to undertakethe rst complete inventory of plants andwildlife in Tsingy.

Because the areas dirt and bumpyroads make the reserve dicult to accessduring the rainy season, the region hashardly been explored and is thereforevery well preserved. e latest scienticexpedition dates back to the early 20thcentury.

In August last year, taking advantage

of the dry season, a convoy of seven four-

wheel drive vehicles and one truck set ofrom Mahajanga. Aboard, more than 20scientists, specialists in plant biology,entomology, paleoentomology, and her-

petology brought research equipment,but also food and water rations for a3-week expedition.

Aer crossing two bays and continu-ing on dirt roads for two dayssometimes not exceeding 5 km/htheresearchers nally reached Namorokaand its spectacular limestone formations.A camp was set up in an open-roof cave,with electricity generators, computers,and a temporary lab.

e hunt for new species started eachday before sunrise, with the help of expe-rienced local guides. Plants and animals,

including reptiles and insects found in

the field, were systematically geolocalized with GPS technology to prcisely map their distribution across tharea, before being collected, photographed, and preserved. Once collecteplants were dried overnight, then tightpressed together in bundles, and nalkept in plastic bags, explains botaniLucile Allorge. Various plant speciesuch as ferns, euphorbs, and orchids wesampled over more than 400 harvests.

Entomologists not only worked in thdaytime but also at night, setting up traparound the camp to lure insects. emanaged to gather around 4100 specmens of Hemipterans , hundreds o

dierent types of moth and beetle specieand a host of eco-ethological data likinsect host-plants, biotope descriptionand insect sound recordings. For thfirst time, we were able to record thplanthopper Typhlobrixia namorokensa cave-adapted insect never collectesince its discovery in 1952, explainOSEB entomologist ierry BourgoinSeveral new genera and species have aready been identied and analyses arstill underway, but one expedition is noenough. An exhaustive inventory woul

require an entire year on site, explainHaevermans. We now have a better ideof the kind of specimens we can nd ithis highly endemic area. e resulof the mission will also help the government of Madagascar establish futurconservation strategies.

01. Laboratoire Origine, structure et volution de labiodiversit (CNRS /MNHN).

Biodiversity In August 2012, a pluridisciplinary research team initiated an exhaustiveinventory of the species inhabiting Madagascars Namoroka National Park.

Treasre Trovein Madagascar

contct InfomtIon:oB, Paris.Thomas Haevermans> haever@h.r

01

0302

T.HAeveRMANS

F.

RAkOTONdRAINIBe

T.

BOuRgOIN

01 the speauarkars adsape he tsiy denarka park.02Strophanthusboivinii, as kw

as rksrew wer,riiaes rmadaasar.03the pahpperTyphlobrixianamorokensis,rerded r he rsie duri heexpedii.

Aphoto galleryisavailable on the online

version of the magazine. www.rs.r/rsaaie

7/30/2019 CIM28

17/40

n28 I qtlY I JnY 2013 17Innovation |

C

mgnt

mgntIcB

SquNC INTST

STuCTuS NHIIN

glPlt

NIN THN MLCuL

CNRS

BY ggoY flct

wesearchers have designed a new

N seencing method that could be

both cheaper and more precise than

those in use. It is being developed com-

mercially by the start-up PicoSeq,

launched in June 2012. The technology

overcomes some of the main drawbacks

linked with existing techniques. Current

methods involve multiplying in large

numbers the NA sequence to be ana-

lyzed. Yet this procedure often induces

New Sequencing Method Pinned Downbias, explains incent Croquette, bio-

physicist at the LPS.1 The strategy devel-

oped by the scientist and his team in-

volves carrying out sequencing from

single NA molecules. This recently pub-

lished innovative approach2 is based on

the mechanical opening of the double

strand of NA to be decoded. To do this, it

is necessary to give the NA a hairpin

structure, using a complementary NA

fragment and a ligase enzyme. Placed in

solution, this NA hairpin is then at-

tached to a magnetic bead by one of the

two branches of the hairpin, while the

other is securely fastened to a glass plate.

sing magnets to pull on the beads, the

double-stranded molecule can then be

opened up like a zip. Small fragments of

synthetic nucleic acidsoligonucle-

otides of random sequence such as CT,

A, Aare added to the solution and

thus hybridize through complementarity

with the single-stranded NA: a CT se-

quence always pairs with AC, A with

TCC, and so on. When the force exerted

on the NA hairpin is released, the mole-

cule closes, but pauses each time it e

counters one of these small fragments

explains the researcher. The analysis o

the temporary blockages generated b

each of these oligonucleotide fragmen

provides a faithful imprint of th

sequence of the initial NA molecul

based on the laws of NA complementa

ity. This method also has a key advantag

over available sequencing technique

unlike these, it enables scientists to ma

certain types of repeated sequences i

volved in serious genetic pathologie

such as Huntingtons disease. This adva

tage could allow PicoSeq to nd a niche

the highly competitive market of genet

sequencing.

01. Laboratoire de physique statistique de lNS (NS /CNRS / niversit Pierre et Marie Curie / niversitParis iderot).

02. . Croquette et al., Single-molecule mechanicalidentication and sequencing, Nature Methods,2012. 9: 367-72.

PicoSeq

contct InfomtIon:lP, Paris.Vincent Croette> vie.ruee@ps.es.r

Paris

iabetes

qPriipe heve Pieehy, based uippi n

srads r dedi.

BY Jn-PIlIPP BlY

wvery day, and several times a day, millions of

people have to prick their ngers to check their

blood glcose level, and self-inject a dose of insulin

because they suffer from type 1 diabetes. This illness

is caused by the destruction of pancreatic cells

which normally secrete insulin and control blood

glucose levels.

Implantable glucose sensors connected to insu-

lin pumps have been on the market for several years,

but they have limitations, particularly in terms of

sensitivity and reaction times. Therefore, research-

ers from the Bordeaux-based laboratories CBMN1

and IMS2 are working on a new bioelectronic sensor

that could overcome these drawbacks by fixing

cells onto an electronic chip. Fashioned by evolu-

tion, these cells constitute the most sophisticated

tool for determining insulin requirements, explain

CBMN researchers Jochen Lang and Bogdan Catargi.

contct InfomtIon:cBmn, Pessa.

Jochen Lang> j.a@ieb.ubrdeaux.r

Im, taee.Sylvie enad> syvie.reaud@isbrdeaux.r

They actually adjust their electrical activity accord-ing not only to the level of glucose, but also of various

nutrients and hormones. This electrical activity,

which is directly correlated with the insulin needs of

the body, is measured using microelectrodes on the

chip. The bioelectric sensor is able to calculate in real

time the quantity of insulin required and when it

should be delivered.

The researchers have recently succeeded in cul-

turing cells on an electronic chip capable of mea-

suring these electrical variations in real time over

several weeks, something that had never been done

before. The team has led an international patent to

protect its invention. First of all, we hope to be able

to use this technology to test the effect of candidate

drugs on cells, explains Sylvie Renaud, of IMS.

A rst prototype is scheduled for 2014.

01. Chimie et biologie des membranes et nano-objets (CNRS / IPB /niversit Bordeaux-I).

02. Laboratoire Intgration du matriau au systme (CNRS / niversitBordeaux-I / Institut Polytechnique de Bordeaux).

Novel Bioelectronic Sensor

Pessac

Talence

qthe array 60ireerdes whih he ises laerhas (darksps) are uuredr weeks.

7/30/2019 CIM28

18/40

| fl nr I InrnIn mgzIn18w

Portrait TheanthropologistPhilippeDescolawasawardedthe2012CNRSGoldMedal,Francesmostprestigiousscientificdistinction.

PhilippeDescolaHan Na

AN iNNovAtive visioNI knew at a rather young age that Iwanted to become an anthropologist,but I didnt really know how to make ithappen, Descola recalls. While studyingphilosophy at the cole NormaleSuprieure of Fontenay-Saint-Cloud inthe late 1960s, Descola developed a keeninterest in Rousseau, and in MauriceGodeliers classes on economic anthro-pology. A brilliant student, he decidedto pursue a double major, earning adegree in ethnology (1972) as well as ateaching certicate in philosophy (1974).He then submitted a thesis projecton the Amazon region to... Claude

Lvi-Strauss.Unlike the African societies, which

were already well understood, theAmazon Basin populations attracted mefor their mystery, Descola explains. Itwas impossible to comprehend whatconstituted society for these Amerindians,

living in small scattered groups, witno leader, no apparent history, analways at war.

With funding from CNRS, he and hwife Anne-Christine Taylor,3 herself aanthropologist, went to do fieldworamong the Achuar people of Ecuadobetween 1976 and 1978. Understandinthese peoples relationship with naturwas what mattered most to me, thresearcher adds.

AmoNg tHe AcHuArDescola undertook a systematic study othe techniques and representationthrough which the Achuar made them

selves part of their environment. Hconclusions contradicted the prevailinviewpoints of the time, especially in thUS, which held that these cultures wersolely determined by environmental fators, such as the quantity and distributioof game animals.

Aer observing the Achuars huning practices, I had to conclude thopposite, he explains. ey considanimals to be non-blood relatives anconversely, see cultivated plants as bloorelatives to be pampered. e Achua

believe that plants and animals are imbued with a soul, and converse with themin dreams or through incantations. Fafrom the traditional Western standpoinof seeing nature and culture as oppositethe Achuar see them as a continuity.

Enriched by his travels and on-location experience, the anthropologist returned to France where he was hired aslecturer at the EHESS4 in 1984. Workinin the field transforms you, he sayExperiencing such dierent ways of living and of perceiving the human condtion gives you critical perspective. Its lik

being suspended between two worlds.

BY PHnI r

Phlpp Dla, 2012 cNrs gld mdal pn

and d h LAs,1 had braced himself for thewhirlwind of media attention that inevitably accompa-nies any distinction of this caliber. As he welcomes us

into his oce, his calm and professional demeanor is unshaken.Now in his sixties, with a trim white beard and sparkling

blue eyes, this specialist in the native tribes of the Amazonsurveys a collection of photographs retracing his career: In thisone, taken at the Collge de France, you can see Claude Lvi-Strauss, in my opinion the preeminent thinker in the socialsciences of the 20th century. Heres another one with MauriceGodelier, the man who made me realize that I could makeanthropology my profession.

Seventeen years aer winning the CNRS Silver Medal,

Descola is surprised to have joined his two illustrious mentors,who were awarded the CNRS Gold Medal in 1967 and 2001respectively.2 I didnt expect to see anthropology honored likethis yet again. On the other hand, its a discipline that studieshuman beings from every anglecultural, moral, mental andphysicaland addresses our societys uncertainties about thefuture of humanity.

C

ollGeDeFRaNCe

qPhilippe Descola (left) eets his eto laude vi-tauss. Betweethe is Faoise Hitie, aothe eiet athopoloist at the

olle de Face.

Five keY DAtes

1949 Bo i Pais

1976 avels to the aoBasi to study the chuaJivao people

1983 PhD i ocial athopoloy

2001 naed diecto of the (ocial thopoloyaboatoy)

2012 waded the nr goldmedal

7/30/2019 CIM28

19/40

n28 I qrr I Jnr 2013 19fl |

tHe FroNtiers oF mANHis ethnographic work led him to adopta comparatist line of thinking. He beganto reect on the types of relationships thatpopulations cultivate with their environ-ment, rst in the Amazon Basin and thenin societies everywhere.

Descola identies four ontologiesanimism, totemism, analogism, andnaturalism (see box)four ways of de-tecting the limits between self and non-self in human societies and discussesthe cosmologies that arise from them.

Today, the anthropologist continues his

research in parallel with his work at the

LAS. He is also hard at work on a new bookon images, which, even before verbaliza-tion, evince the ways of conceiving the rela-tions and contrasts between people and theother components of their environment.01.aboratoiredanthropologiesociale(CNRS/Collge

deFrance/HSS).02.Theethnologistandprehistorianndr

eroy-GouranalsowontheGoldMedalin1973.03.nne-ChristineTaylorisdirectorofeducationand

researchattheQuaiBranlymuseuminParis.04.coledeshautestudesensciencessociales.

video ad photo galleryca be viewed o the olie

vesio of the aaie:>www.cs.f/csaaie

n InFrmIn, Pais.Phlpp Dla> descola@ehess.f

PiiPP Da'Fu i

InhisessayBeyond Nature and Culture,1

PhilippeDescoladistinguishesfourprimarysystemsthroughwhichpeople

perceivetheirrelationshipstothe

environment(objects,plants,animals,

otherpeople)andmakedistinctions

betweenhumansandnon-humans.

w in an, non-humanshave

thesameattributesofinteriority

(intentionality,subjectivity,reexivity,

affects)ashumans(moralcontinuity),but

differintheirphysicalandcorporeal

characteristics(physicaldiscontinuity).

Thissystemcanbefoundamongthe

IndiansofSouthmericaandtherctic

regionsofNorthmerica,aswellasthe

PygmiesandcertainpopulationsofSoutheastsia.

w in ,inparticularamong

theustralianborigines,humansand

non-humansaregroupedtogetherin

asingletotemicclass:despitetheir

differenceinform,theyareconsideredto

possessidenticalmoralandphysical

qualities(moralandphysicalcontinuity)

derivedfromanancestralprototype.

w in anal l,allbeingsare

seenassingular,dissociatedinevery

aspect(moralandphysicaldiscontinuity)

Thesearethemodelsoftheclassic

ChineseandIndiancultures,thendes,

muchofWestfrica,anduropeuntiltheRenaissance.

w in naal,bywhichourWestern

cultureisstructured,onlymanhasasoul,

anintentionality,andthecapacityto

expressit,eventhoughheshareshis

physicalcharacteristicswithnon-human

(moraldiscontinuitybutphysical

continuity).

01.TheUniversityofChicagoPressbooks,inpress,June2013.

cosmoLogY.

A representationo the organization

o the worldcharacteristic o agiven culture and

based on a specifcontology (animism,

totemism,analogism, or

naturalism).

From tHe AutHor:.

he cology of thers: anthropologynd the Qeston of tre(Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press2012).

pers of wlght: fe nd Deth nthe amzon Jngle (New York: TheNew Press, 1998).

tre nd ocety: anthropologclPerspectves. Philippe Descola andGisli Palsson, editors. (New York:Routledge 1996).

in the ocety of tre: a tvecology n amzon (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1994).

7/30/2019 CIM28

20/40

| Focus cs I II mzI20w

ew challenge20 coping with a Data Deluge 24

Data storage: a eething Proble 26

FromtheInternettolarge-scaleresearchfacilities,theamountofdigitaldatageneratedtodayisgrowingexponentially.Dataproducersandusersalikeneedtodevisebetterwaystocopewiththisdelugeofinformation.Howcanitbeclassified,stored,maderelevant?CNRS International Magazineexaminesthebitsandbytesthatarereshapingourworld.BFIc Dm, DIs Dcq D y Fc

Every two days, w

create as much info

mation as we did fro

the dawn of civiliz

tion up until 2003,said Google CEEric Schmidt at a conference in the US i

2010. And this observation illustrates burning issue for scientists and economists worldwide: how to cope with sucunprecedented amounts of data? We arfaced with a real deluge of data, sayChristine Collet, head of the DB team athe LIG1 and full professor at the GrenobInstitute of Technology. Numbers speafor themselves. Every second, one hour video is uploaded to YouTube and mothan 1.5 million emails are sent across thglobe.2 Scientists are no less productive. I

eight years (2000-2008), the Sloan Digit

ew

hours of videoare uploaded

On Youtube

,

new articlesare written

On Wikipedia

The BIG DATAI

7/30/2019 CIM28

21/40

28 I qy I Jy 2013 21Focus | w

Sky Survey, a large astronomical observa-tion program, recorded 140 terabytesof images (see table o scales). But itssuccessor, the Large Synoptic Survey

Telescope (LSST)a project involvingteams from CNRSs IN2P33will collectthat much information every ve daysonce operational. Each year, the LargeHadron Collider (LHC) gathers almost 15petabytes of data, the equivalent of morethan three million DVDs. Today, man-kind generates around one zettabyte ofdata each yearnearly as many bytes asthere are stars in the universe.4

A ECIC PIITe Big Data phenomenon, as it is dubbedby specialists, continues to expand, driven

by the success of the digital economy, the

widespread adoption of mobile devices,the boom of social networks, the openingof several databases to consumers (OpenData), and the development of large-scale international scientic programs.We are witnessing a full-edged democ-ratization of data, adds Collet. Data is

everywhere and it is generated, sold, and

consumed like any other manufacturegood. ese massive volumes of information have taken on such economic, indutrial, and scientic importance that governments and businesses are makinmassive investments in this field. IMarch of last year, US President Barac

Obama announced a Big Data pla

BIG DATA.

The term commonlyused by specialists

to describelarge amounts of

digital data.

Challenge: HDII P,YB,I,I, , ,IIPDI,FB,

searchesare launched

on Google

. billion

users connectto Facebook

million

emails are exchanged

billion

tweets are sent

via Twitter

million

text messages are sent million

megabytes of dataare collected

Very Large Telescope (VLT)

,gigabytes of data

are produced atthe Large Hadron

Collider (LHC)

,

ATD : C EAD TE A

matodon i a hallenging projet initiatedb cs miion for Interdiiplinarit.matodon involve a large nuberof cs intitute around a oonobjetive: to iprove the anageent andue of the huge aount of data available inthe databae of all ientifi diipline,explain mokrane oueghoub, deputientifi diretor at cs Is2I,1 whooveree the progra. ong the variou

thee invetigated are data torageand eurit, data viualiation, dataining, or onfidentialit.aunhed in ma 2012, matodon i

alread a ue: 16 projet have beeneleted aong the 37 preented. hehave been alloated 700,000 in fundingfor 2012. he ain objetive i to foterthe eergene of an interdiiplinarientifi ounit around data iene,a oueghoub. ah matodon projetould lat four or five ear. he rtmatodon workhop wa held in Parion Deeber 5, 2012, offering reearher

an opportunit to ae ongoing progrein the field.

01. Intitut de iene inforatiue et de leurinteration.

7/30/2019 CIM28

22/40

| Focus cs I II mzI22w

allocating $200 million to the countrysBig Data Research and DevelopmentInitiative. e EU has made managementof digital content a priority for the end ofits 7th Framework Programme (FP7). InFrance, a 25 million program is dedica-ted to big data management technologies.

CIETIFIC CAEGE AEADBig Data is a considerable scientic chal-lenge that can only be met by a combina-

tion of basic science and engineering,explains Mark Asch, scientic ocer for

Mathematics and High PerformanceComputing at the French Ministry ofHigher Education and Research. Thisprompted CNRS to launch the Mastodonsprogram last summer (see box p. 21). eidea is to support interdisciplinary proj-

ects that will identify the problems in-volved in the management of very large

amounts of scientic data. What is thbest way to store and preserve data? Hocan it be processed, analyzed, viewedand interpreted? How should it be protected, in particular from abusive usand how can it be permanently deleted

All issues that need to be addressed, anfor which we have few answers, say

KilobyteKB Bytes

Byte MegabyteMB KB

GigabyteGB MB

TerabyteTB GB

PetabytePB TB

ExabyteEB PB

ZettabyteZB EB

YottabyteYB ZB

millionbooks

A two-hourfilm

A piece ofmusic

One pageof text

Basicunit of

measurement

A stack ofDVDs

as tall asa -storey

building

All theinformationgeneratedup to

All the datarecorded

in

Storage capacity othe NSA datacente

(, m, )

B

KB MB GB TB

PB EB

, ZB YB

Big Data has revolutionizedthe work of specialists in thehumanities and socialsciences, indicates Bertrand

Jouve, mathematician anddeputy scientic director atthe CNRSs Institute forHumanities and socialSciences (INSHS).1 He sees BigData as a great opportunityfor his peers. Onlinedatabases now provide asingle entry point foraccessing knowledge thatwas previously scatteredacross many locations, headds. Internet-basedsurveys, for example, havenot only made the work ofsociologists easier, but also

given their research morereach. Despite hisenthusiasm, Jouve is alsoaware of the many difcultiesfacing users today. Theproblem is how to processthe raw data, he explains.

When the information isnot collected directly by theresearcher, it is difcult toknow how the data was

processed before its inclusionin the database. LIG2researcher Sihem Amer-Yahiabelieves this to be Big DatasAchilles heel. Raw dataprocessing is often a blackbox, completely opaqueto the user, she explains,yet it is a known fact thatcommon manipulations candelete a large part of theinformation.The emergence of very largedata volumes and theall-digital world raises otherissues, albeit less technical.

Big Data is inevitably a causefor epistemological concern,notes Sandra Laugier, deputyscientic director at INSHS.What does it mean to haveaccess to more informationthan a human mind can

fathom? How will suchuncontrollableexhaustiveness impact ourrelation to knowledge?

There are a number of otherconcerns, such as dataownership, usage rights, theright to be forgotten, orethics. Researchers in thehumanities and socialsciences must address theseissues, in collaboration withother disciplines, in order toserve the public interest andavoid the possiblestranglehold by privateinterests.

01.Institutdesscienceshumainessociales.

02.aboratoireinformatiquederenoble(/niversitderenoble-I,-II,and-III/Institutpolytechniquederenoble).

cc IFmIBertrand Jouve> bertrand.jouve@nr-dir.frandra augier> andra.laugier@nr-dir.fr

BIG DATA I TE AITIE AD CIA CIECE

CPAATIE CAE F BTE

01he digital era iplie ae to inforationprevioul attered aro variou librarie.

01

D

atagIF/cnrs

gallerYstock/PlaInPIcture

7/30/2019 CIM28

23/40

28 I qy I Jy 2013 23Focus | w

Mokrane Bouzeghoub, deputy scienticdirector of the INS2I,5 which coordinatesMastodons. At the heart of these issuesare algorithms, methodologies, but alsoHigh Performance Computing (HPC)infrastructures.

AEED QETIFarouk Toumani, LIMOS6 researcherand head of the Petasky project withinMastodons, shares the same point ofview. A telescope like the LSST, whichshould go live in 2020, will be able to savea 3 billion-pixel image of the sky every 17seconds, he explains. At the end of theprogram, astronomers will have a140-petabyte database containing hun-dreds of characteristics for each object inthe sky. At present, even the most ecient

data mining algorithms would take doz-ens of years to explore the database andanswer certain questions raised by re-searchers. LSST program scientists al-ready know that some of their morecomplex interrogations will remain un-answered. Nevertheless, such a databaseis an ideal eld of application for furtherfundamental research into Big Data,which is exactly what researchers on thePetasky project are involved in. In orderto overcome the obstacles inherent to thehandling of very large volumes of data,we will certainly need to improve storage

and processing technologies, as well as

come up with new ways to process data,notes Toumani. Sihem Amer-Yahia,social network specialist at the LIG,agrees. e Big Data revolution, drivenby the explosion of social networks wherecitizens themselves provide the content,has overthrown the traditional data

storage and processing structure.

ADICA PEAAEverybody is concerned. From biologiststo astrophysicists, from Facebook to thetax oce: no one can escape the Big Dataphenomenon or the problems it spawns.is is an urgent issue: the amount ofdigital information generated worldwidedoubles every two years, and this pace isaccelerating. Data is at the heart of boththe digital economy and the informationsociety, concludes Collet. It represents abasic ingredient with high-added value:

nothing will happen without it.

01.aboratoireinformatiquederenoble(/niversitderenoble-I,-II,and-III/Institutpolytechniquederenoble).

02.ourcesYouube,Instagram,headicatiroup.03.Institutnationaldephysiquenuclaireetde

physiquedesparticules.04.ourceID.05.Institutdessciencesinformatiquesetdeleurs

interactions.06.aboratoiredInformatique,demodlisationet

doptimisationdessystmes(/niversitdelermont-Ferrand-IandII/coledesMinesde

aint-tienne/Inst.Fr.Meca.vancelermont-Ferrand).

AGIT.

A series ofoperations andinstructions to

solve a problem.

02he future ssteleope will beintalled in chile ontop of cerro Pahn(artit rendition).

03With 189 enor,it will reord kiage in unpre-edented detail.Pitured here: theiulation of aphoto taken ba ingle enor.

02

03

lsstcorPoratIon

cc IFmIihem Amer-ahia> ihe.aer-ahia@iag.frokrane Bouzeghoub> okrane.boueghoub@nr-dir.frChristine Collet> hritine.ollet@grenoble-inp.frFarouk Toumani> farouk.touani@iia.frark Asch> ark.ah@u-piardie.fr

7/30/2019 CIM28

24/40

| Focus cs I II mzI24w

Today, the amount of information

exchanged over the Internet

represents five million times

that contained in all the books ever

written. How can this ever-expandingmass of information be analyzed? Marie-Christine Rousset, computer scienceprofessor and LIG1 member, is amongthose in the scientific community at-tempting to structure the continuousow of data across the Web. e pageswe look at every day are part of the text-based Web, which contains billions ofinterconnected documents, she explains.ese pages cannot be used as a genuineknowledge base since they were designedto be read by humans, not machines. Inother words, when entering a query in asearch engine like Google, all it does isprovide a list of thousands of documentslikely to match it. It is then up to the userto laboriously search for the most relevantresponse. Given the dizzying rate atwhich documents are published on theWeb, this type of search model may soonprove inecient to manage such large

amounts of data. e alternative is toupgrade the existing Web to a data Web:is approach is based on adding meta-data to the URL addresses that identifyWeb pages. It aims to simplify the Webby organizing its information, thusgranting end-users easier access toknowledge, explains Rousset.

is development is already under-way through W3C, the international

Coping with aDataDeluge

The profusion of data now available toresearchers is not always an advantage: themore information available, the harder it is tointerpret. At the Bordeaux Computer ScienceResearch Laboratory (LABRI),1 David Auber andhis team are trying to make this deluge ofinformation more legible using analyticalvisualization methods. Our approach is to applymathematical tools like algorithms to siftthrough this raw data and extract the mostpertinent information, explains the researcher.Using this method, stock prices, communicationssystems, chemical processes in cell metabolism,and geographical or social networks can betranslated into visual metaphors.

Such representations enable researchers toanalyze the structure of these masses ofinformation both quickly and efciently.Although exponential growth in computingpower has generated a considerable quantity odata over the past ten years, our brains ability tprocess that information lags far behind. Ourshort-term memory prevents us from analyzingmore than seven things at once, Auber stresseThe principle of analytical visualizationviainterfaces to help with data analysismay soobecome essential to bridge the gap.

01.aboratoireBordelaisderechercheeninformatique(/niversitBordeaux-Iand-II/niversitBordeaux-egalen/IPB).

cc IFmI:David Auber> david.auber@labri.fr

IAIATI T IPE DETADIG

08 ap of ouniation between

20,000 oputer, developed at I.

.

(Uniform ResourceLocator)

A string ofcharacters for

locating a Web pageor website.

06

04

07

08

05

MIt

senseaBlecItYlaB

o

.H.B

eaucHesne/scIenceMetrIxDonnesDescoPus

De

usconsortIuM

l

aBrI

7/30/2019 CIM28

25/40

28 I qy I Jy 2013 25Focus | w

The US is still the undisputedleader with regard to HighPerformance Computing(HPC). In 0, the country

boasted 5 of the worlds500 most powerful super-computers, about half of thetotal computing poweravailable worldwideestimated at 0 petaops(PFlops). With of these500 supercomputersrepresenting a total of 6.4PFlops, France ranks 6th interms of computing powerdedicated to HPC.At CNRS, the INP3

computing center playsa key role in this eld bydeveloping computing grids

dedicated to the LargeHadron Collider (LHC)experiments and tobiomedical and industrial

applications. More than500 researchers andacademics are involvedin high performancecomputing at CNRS,making us one of thelargest multidisciplinarycommunities in Europe,points out Michel Dayd,director of the CNRS HPCOrientation Committee(COCIN). But the number ofhours allocated either tonational centers or Europeanprojects does not alwayssatisfy the communitys

growing HPC needs. Inorder to meet the demand,we must keep increasingthe overall capacity ofsupercomputing power inthe country, and associate itto a suitable organization(urbanization) of computingand data infrastructure

including HPC, computinggrids, cloud computing, andlarge data centers, notesJean-Pierre Vilotte, scienticdirector at CNRSs INSU.3 TheCOCIN plans to implementthis strategy both at thenational and European level.

01.petaopequalsonemillionbillionoating-pointoperations

persecond.02.Institutnationaldephysique

nuclaireetdephysiquedesparticules.

03.Institutnationaldessciencesdelunivers.

cc IFmI:ichel Dayd> ihel.dade@nr-dir.fr

Jean-Pierre ilotte> vilotte@ipgp.fr

consortium founded in 1994 by TimBerners-Lee, principal inventor of theWorld Wide Web. Some preliminary

versions already exist for this newso-called semantic Web, which makesinformation on the Internet intelligible tomachines. Making the semantic Web auniversal model is a daunting task, how-ever. Its one thing to gra query algo-rithms onto a centralized database,adds the LIG scientist, but managing iton the Interneta gigantic decentralizedentityis more than a question of tech-nological improvement.

EDITIBTED DATAIn recent years, new technologies drasti-

cally changed practice in one scientic

designed to federate distributed data anknowledge in biomedical imaging.

e Credible project has an opposiapproach to that of ADNI. While ADN

centralizes biomedical information bfore analyzing it, Credible federates thdata scattered across a number of Frenchospitals. Sooner or later, the strategof centralizing huge amounts omedical data will be limited by availabstorage capacity, explains MontagnaFurthermore, the proliferation of datacquisition devices in hospitals makes impossible to prevent the scattering oinformation across various storage sitesBut this federated approach is also pronto technical diculties.

Two types of data must be federateraw data (images, treatment results, etcand so-called symbolic data, whicdescribes this raw information (the context in which it was collected, the antomical or pathological characteristiextracted from an image, etc.). One othe Credible projects main challenges to develop a semantic representation othis symbolic data to give it scientimeaning, he continues. Once harmonized, these usually very heterogeneoudatabases can be used for a single nationor even international clinical stud

Analysis of biomedical resources on th

IG PEFACE CPTIG

09he curieuperoputeran perfor upto 2 illion billionoperation pereond, and torethe euivalent of7600 ear of uile. It i loated atrure-le-chtelin the onne

region (Frane).

09

04he iulationof the univeredeveloped for theDeu projet willgenerate orethan 150 P of data.05studing theliate (here a tudof the atopherihuidit on June 17,1993) reuireproeing oloalaount of data,whih hould reahone ettabte (z)b 2020.

06Preentationof the dieaeaffeting 7.2 illionerian and their

interrelationhipprovided b the mI.07n exapleof oplex datarepreentation:here, a ap ofworldwide ientiollaborationbetween 2005and 2009.

M.

rIenecker

,M.s

uarez,r.g

elaro

,J.B

acMeIster

,r.t

oDlIng

,l.t

akacs

,e.

lIu,s

.Pawson,M.B

osIlovIcH,s.s

cHuBert,gI-kongkIM,n

asa/goDDarD;

vIsualIzatIon:t.s

cHInDler

,nasa/goDDarD/uMBc

eld: biomedical research. In the US, theAlzheimers Disease NeuroimagingInitiative (ADNI) has become one of the

largest public image databases dedicatedto a single pathology. It compilesMagnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI),nuclear medicine examinations, andspinal taps for cerebrospinal uid. ADNIalready contains more than 5000 MRIimages from 2000 patients.

With the advent of digital technolo-gies, the amount of information frombiomedical imaging has considerablyincreased over the past decade, saysJohan Montagnat, CNRS seniorresearcher at the I3S2 laboratory inSophia Antipolis. He is also Mastodons

coordinator for the Credible project,

7/30/2019 CIM28

26/40

| Focus cs I II mzI26w

scale would provide researchers with anew way of addressing todays healthcarechallenges.

CETED DATAIt is easy to get lost in the depths of BigData. Its analysis needs to be handled byexperts: data mining specialists, who needto bring to the surface the knowledgeburied under the mass of digital informa-tion. is dicult algorithmic work issimilar to siing through a draughtboardwith billions of rows and columns toidentify a handful of repeated pat-terns, explains Jean-Franois Boulicaut,researcher at the LIRIS3 in Villeurbanne.With his team, he is currently applyingthis expertise to the analysis of large vol-umes of urban and environmental data(the Amadouer project). is project ex-plores the databases of the greater Lyonarea to collect information on road trac,energy, and pollution. Once analyzed, thisdata may be used to devise, for instance, anew transportation policy for the citycenter. ere is however a downside: thistype of information is of great interest to

the private sector, which would like to useit for commercial purposes, sometimes atthe expense of the scientic community.Twenty years ago, a company wanted tobuy the rights to the digital photos held bythe association of French museums,notes Boulicaut. As the quality of digitalpictures could not rival that of lm-basedphotography at the time, the Ministry ofCulture almost agreed, before decidingagainst it. Todays politicians will hope-fully be as clear-sighted with respect to theBig Data gold rush.

01.aboratoiredinformatiquederenoble(/niversitderenoble-I,-II,and-III/Institutpolytechniquederenoble)

02.Informatique,signauxsystmesdeophiantipolis(/Inria/niversitdeiceophiantipolis).

03.aboratoiredinformatiqueenimageetsystmesdinformation(/niversitlaudeBernard/niversityon-II/Insa/colecentraledeyon).

The constantly generated ood of

data must be stored somewhere.

e obvious solution is to multiplythe number of storage units like harddisks on computers or memory chips onmobile devices (see box). While this gen-eral principle can apply to massiveamounts of data, its implementation isnot yet well dened. ink of storage asa construction site, says PatrickValduriez, Inria senior researcher at theLIRMM.1 Speeding up operationsmeans hiring more workers. But coordi-nating their activities also becomes morecomplex. In other words, piling up stor-age systems is not enough: the way theywork together must also be optimized.is is all the more dicult as, in additionto being plentiful, the data is heteroge-neous and dynamic.

Hence the emergence of new ways tostore information, notably driven by

Internet giants like Google which need to

keep track of billions of Web pages. Withuge amounts of data, we have seen thadvent of specic massively parallel solutions which involve dividing the task sthat many machines address specifparts, explains Valduriez.

BIG DATACETEDatacenters housing these massiveparallel computing and storage systemare cropping up all over the world. is particularly true in colder regions sinall these mach