With the Académie des Sciences in 2013-2014

PeRFORminG the ROLe OF An eXPeRt AnD ADViSOR

The

Comité Science et Métrologie (Standing Committee for Science and Metrology)

takes an active part in these redefinition efforts. It has thus met on this theme at

the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (International Bureau on Weights and

Measures, BIPM) in Sèvres in April 2013. At this session, the Comité Science et Métrologie

has interviewed Martin Milton, the director of BIPM, and Michael Stock, the Director of the

Electricity Department and (Interim) Director of the Mass Department of BIPM. Both have

provided an overview on the obstacles that remain to be addressed before any redefinition

of the SI may take place, including the persistent divergence between the experimental

values obtained for Planck’s constant. Moreover, the Comité Science et Métrologie has

looked into drafting the next presentation brochure of the SI, edited by BIPM.

In 2014, the

Comité Science

et Métrologie

organized a colloquium to celebrate the

centenary of the Sagnac effect discovery :

Sagnac Effect: 100 years later

- 10 October

2013

. In 1913, indeed, the French physicist Georges Sagnac observed a phase difference

in the interference of two luminous signals circulating in two opposite directions on the

circumference of a rotating disc with their source of emission is on this very disc. This

discovery, known as the Sagnac effect, was published in the same year in the

Comptes

Rendus de l’Académie des sciences

. It lead to the invention of ring laser gyroscopes, which

for example allow for aircraft navigation (10 October 2013).

science and biosafety

The

Comité Science et Biosécurité [Committee for Science and Biosafety Issues]

of the Académie des

Sciences has replaced in 2014 the

Comité Science et Sécurité (Standing Committee for Science and

Safety Issues)

. It gathers a group of about fifteen members of the Académie along with some external

personalities, all experts from different fields pertaining to the life and medical sciences - cell biology,

molecular biology and genetics, bacteriology, virology, risks associated with the use of toxins, immunology,

chemistry, computer sciences, plant biology, the environment and synthetic biology.

The Académie has warned the political decision makers on how essential it was to promptly implement the

appropriate goals for ensuring biosafety in France, which are recommended in the Académie’s report

Les

menaces biologiques. Biosécurité et responsabilité des scientifiques [Biological threats: Biosafety and the

scientists’ responsibilities],

published in 2008 under the supervision of Académie Member Henri Korn

Some of the proposals expressed in this report have been considered and are being discussed with the public

authorities. Such is particularly the case with the proposal to set up a National Advisory Council for Biosafety

(Conseil National Consultatif pour la Biosécurité, CNCB), with two distinctive sides: a scientific side, with the

Comité Science et Biosécurité

of the Académie des Sciences, and an institutional side, under the supervision of the services of the Prime

Minister and involving representatives from the different ministries and bodies concerned by biosafety issues. Decisions should be shortly

taken with the relevant administration and soon made public but in the current context of threats, the

Comité Science et Biosécurité

felt

it necessary to start exploring these issues by itself, and has committed itself to undertake the following missions:

• to discuss any relevant issue pertaining to biosafety;

• to contribute to the foresight studies that focus on the risks posed by the dual nature of research in life sciences;

• to contribute to raise the researcher’s awareness and respect for agreements and conventions ratified by France in the field of biology;

• to express advice, for the best benefit of the public authorities, on research projects that might lead to the emergence of new

biological threats, through a “risk/benefit” analysis enabling them to identify the critical point beyond which the risks presented by

such research exceed the beneficial effects that are wished for;

• to express the principles with which the agencies in charge of allocating resources should comply, including the Agence Nationale

pour la Recherche [French National Research Agency] and scientific and technological public institutions, in order to avoid funding

research of potential dual nature, whose “benefit/risk” ratio would first appear negative;

• to contribute to updating, should the need occur, the list of protected sectors and sensitive specialities that are subject to the

risks detailed in the policy arrangements for protecting the scientific and technical potential of the nation (Protection du Potentiel

Scientifique et Technique, PPST)

;

• to make recommendations to avoid the dissemination of any research result presenting biosafety risks.

A watt balance