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Fundamental Research Division
The DRF at the CEA assemble approximately 6,000 scientists since January 2016.
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) consortium brings together 1300 scientists from 32 countries. They have published their scientific aims in a document over 200 pages long. This is the result of several years of work, and includes contributions from approximately fifteen Irfu researchers involved in X-ray and gamma-ray observatories (Fermi, Integral, XMM-Newton, Hess, etc.).
A CEA research team, headed by Denis Le Bihan, has just used diffusion MRI to reveal the connection between the level of neuronal activity in regions concerned by wake-sleep states in anesthetized rats, and the degree of neuronal swelling in these regions.
To better understand the effects of therapeutic irradiation on cartilage, the structure of its main constituent, collagen, has been studied by a collaboration involving Iramis. Their analysis suggests that the stability of collagen owes nothing to its aqueous environment, but all to its remarkable triple helix structure that can exist in the absence of any solvent.
A team from Iramis analyzed the long-term corrosion of steel in a clay environment, under conditions of geological storage for nuclear waste. They observed that an iron oxide layer of sub-micron thickness appears on the steel surface, stabilizing the kinetics of the deterioration. This result enhances the corrosion models of the CEA and the Andra!
Data collected at the LHC (Cern) were processed to provide the most accurate assessment of an asymmetry in top quark and top antiquark production. The result is that the measured value is compatible with the prediction of the standard particle model.
A collaboration involving the Inac has revealed an astonishing transition between two phases that possess the same magnetic symmetry. This characteristic makes it impossible for the phase transition to be controlled by magnetism, which imposes the following corollary: the very nature of superconductivity has changed!
The means of diagnosing bladder cancer are proving to be insufficient. Researchers from the BIG are proposing a methodology to determine effective urinary biomarkers.
An international collaboration led by the Irfu has demonstrated that exoplanets in orbit close to their star are rapidly approaching or moving away from it under the combined effects of tidal forces and magnetism. The consequences of these two-way migrations (spreading apart or coming closer together) could soon be observed via the distribution of exoplanets closer to and farther from their star, by several space observatories: NASA’s Tess (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) in 2018, or the ESA’s Plato (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) in 2024.
A collaboration involving Iramis and the Institut Joliot has revealed the spontaneous aggregation into amyloid fibers of a bacterial protein called Hfq and non-coding RNA strands. Furthermore, the collaborators demonstrated the ability of these fibers to penetrate a lipid membrane. This study paves the way for a better understanding of bacterial communication in addition to new approaches in antibiotic development.
After 40 years of research, BIG researchers and their partners have uncovered the cause of tubulin detyrosination. The surprise: it is not one enzyme, but two that are capable of modifying this essential component of the cell skeleton.
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CEA is a French government-funded technological research organisation in four main areas: low-carbon energies, defense and security, information technologies and health technologies. A prominent player in the European Research Area, it is involved in setting up collaborative projects with many partners around the world.