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---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scientific highlights -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New research facilities The construction of the Spiral2 linear accelerator, which will produce exotic nuclei (so called because they do not exist naturally on Earth), officially started on 17 October 2011 at the French National Large Heavy-Ion Accelerator (GANIL), in Caen. Scientists hope this instrument will enable them to find out more about the structure of the atomic nucleus and understand certain nuclear reactions inside stars. A month earlier, the foundation stone was laid of IPANEMA, the service and research platform dedicated to ancient materials, which is installed at the Soleil synchrotron in France’s Essonne département. Meanwhile, AST-RX, the X-ray Tomography Scientific Access Platform was inaugurated on 12 September 2011 in Paris. Set up at the French Natural History Museum, this imaging tool is one of the most powerful in the world for the 3D exploration of natural science samples such as fossils, insects and plants. Last but not least, the AMS-02 particle detector, produced by an international collaboration, has arrived at the International Space Station, ready to track down antimatter particles and help solve the mystery of dark matter. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- It made the headlines in 2011  October The world’s press had its eyes set on ALMA, a radiotelescope installed in Chile, as it first began to scan the skies in early October. It March galaxies 70 million light years away, andcaught images of the Antennae, two colliding The announcement created quite a stir: should be able to unveil the formation of the the scientists of the EDELWEISS first galaxies within a few years experiment, set up at the Modane Underground Laboratory (French Alps), might have spotted particles of dark matter November called WIMPs, which would be a world first. The astonishing properties, as shown in video images, of a new material developed by a  June This revolutionary material can be reshapedteam of chemists caused a media sensation. Only four centuries after the Egyptian temples when hot, like glass, while keeping some of of Karnak were built, the Nile flowed at the the specific properties of organic resins and foot of this ancient site for the first time, rubbers. due to flooding. The result of this geo- archeological study generated considerable media coverage after its publication in the Journal of Archaeological Science in June.  May September Photographs of the third pair of wings of an insect related to the grasshoppers filled the The ‘photon box’ built by a team of physicists science pages of newspapers. The discovery has surpassed Einstein’s dream of trapping a gives the lie to the notion that insects are photon for around a second. The researchers  December programmed to have at most two pairs of succeeded in permanently maintaining a wings. constant number of photons in a cavity Tara Oceans, the CNRS-backed scientific formed by two superconducting mirrors. expedition that has traversed the world’s The LHC, the world’s most powerful particle oceans, finally returned home after two years accelerator, sent sparks flying when it studying marine ecosystems. After a rich exceeded 100 million collisions per second, harvest of results, the voyage continues in the surpassing all expectations. By June it had labs, where the samples are being studied. already achieved the number of collisions scheduled for the whole of 2011. 7 2011 A year at CNRS


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