Spotlight 27 May 2022

Science in France

This collection showcases France's achievements in science, technology and innovation. We focus on individual researchers and their career stories, how wider policy developments affect the country's working scientists, and examine key collaborations at home and abroad.

Content

How science is helping farmers to find a balance between agriculture and solar farms

In the French countryside, energy companies are rushing to set up solar farms, with the risk of marginalizing agriculture. Researchers are finding solutions.
- Magali Reinert
Spotlight19 Feb 2024 Nature
Réunion’s search for energy self-sufficiency

Whether the French island succeeds in producing all of its electricity depends not only on technology, but also on social and political will.
- Rachel Nuwer
Spotlight23 Nov 2023 Nature
How Paris is becoming a happy home for health-technology start-up companies

A long-term investment plan is helping the French capital to attract talent.
- Nic Fleming
Spotlight8 Nov 2023 Nature
Changing old viticulture for all the right rieslings

Can the French wine industry, built on history and terroir, adapt fast enough to withstand climate change?
- Rachel Nuwer
Spotlight20 Sep 2023 Nature
France’s research minister has a plan to shake up science

Physicist-turned-politician Sylvie Retailleau speaks to Nature about her ambitions for the country’s scientific research.
- Barbara Casassus
News Q&A6 Mar 2023 Nature
How France became the unlikely home of the insect-farming industry

The country is known for its love of meat. Could the growing insect industry help to reduce agricultural carbon emissions?
- Rachael Pells
Spotlight2 Feb 2023 Nature
How Grenoble has mastered industry–academia science collaborations

Despite its small size, the French city’s long history of science and business means it punches above its weight in scientific output.
- Nic Fleming
Spotlight19 Jan 2023 Nature
Medical research in the mountains

Cécile Moro studies the use of near-infared light to treat Parkinson’s disease in the French Alps.
- Nic Fleming
Spotlight19 Jan 2023 Nature
How I turn greenhouse gas from landfill sites into carbon-neutral fuel

Mathieu Lefebvre discusses his innovative company and what it is like to work in Grenoble, France.
- Nic Fleming
Spotlight19 Jan 2023 Nature
Why France’s nuclear industry faces uncertainty

No other country produces more nuclear power per capita. But climate change, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and French politics could change that.
- Benjamin Plackett
Spotlight5 Sep 2022 Nature
Fungal findings excite truffle researchers and gastronomes

A foraging dog has unearthed an Italian white truffle that had been cultivated, a feat that once seemed unattainable.
- Nic Fleming
Spotlight5 Aug 2022 Nature
How France ramped up its capacity to innovate

President Emmanuel Macron wants France to become a ‘start-up nation’, fuelled by industry–academia collaborations. How is it faring?
- Nic Fleming
Spotlight28 Jun 2022 Nature
My work digging up the shelters of our ancestors

Ludovic Slimak, a cultural anthropologist at the CNRS and the University of Toulouse — Jean Jaurès, describes his research and the changing face of archaeology in France.
- Nic Fleming
Career Q&A8 Jun 2022 Nature
Macron win relieves French researchers

Scientists cheer for the defeat of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, but say President Emmanuel Macron’s plans for research are vague.
- Barbara Casassus
News25 Apr 2022 Nature
Researchers sense apathy towards science in French presidential election campaign

Campaign-trail debates about research reduced to a sideshow as Ukraine, government finance, health and energy dominate.
- Benjamin Plackett
Spotlight22 Apr 2022 Nature
France set to choose its next president — researchers share their hopes

Exploring other worlds and blue-skies research should be among the next president’s priorities, say scientists.
- Barbara Casassus
News31 Mar 2022 Nature
Luc Montagnier (1932–2022)

Virologist who won a Nobel prize for discovering HIV.
- Heidi Ledford
Obituary4 Mar 2022 Nature
Restoring Notre-Dame’s ‘magical’ windows

Conservation scientist Claudine Loisel is spellbound by the stained-glass splendours that survived a devastating fire at Paris’s famous cathedral.
- Chris Woolston
Where I Work1 Jul 2020 Nature

Science in France

Content

How science is helping farmers to find a balance between agriculture and solar farms

Réunion’s search for energy self-sufficiency

How Paris is becoming a happy home for health-technology start-up companies

Changing old viticulture for all the right rieslings

France’s research minister has a plan to shake up science

How France became the unlikely home of the insect-farming industry

How Grenoble has mastered industry–academia science collaborations

Medical research in the mountains

How I turn greenhouse gas from landfill sites into carbon-neutral fuel

Why France’s nuclear industry faces uncertainty

Fungal findings excite truffle researchers and gastronomes

How France ramped up its capacity to innovate

My work digging up the shelters of our ancestors

Macron win relieves French researchers

Researchers sense apathy towards science in French presidential election campaign

France set to choose its next president — researchers share their hopes

Luc Montagnier (1932–2022)

Restoring Notre-Dame’s ‘magical’ windows

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