With the Académie des Sciences in 2015

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ENCOURAGING THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY
Colloquia by and for the Scientific Community
Confronting knowledge and skills is crucial to scientific progress. Boosted by its multidisciplinary approach and close connections
with the forces of research, both in France and abroad, the Académie des Sciences holds every year a series of scientific meetings
focused on research fields that delve into the boundaries of knowledge.
Conference Debates
Research on the Ebola Virus
From the beginning of 2014, West Africa was the scene of a new
epidemic of Ebola fever, which, due to its quick dissemination and its
severity, raised a global alert. This session organized by the Académie
des Sciences, aimed at taking stock of the clinical aspects of the disease,
modelling work applied to this epidemic, and specific characteristics
related to the nature of the virus at the origin of the epidemic, the Ebola
Zaire strain, which emerged in West Africa (“Les recherches sur le virus
Ebola”, 13 January 20154).
Translational Research
Based on examples of research conducted in such various medical fields as neurology, cardiology, oncology, immunology or
addictology, the Académie, during this session, “La recherche translationnelle”, considered the pitfalls of passing from the stage of
discoveries in biology to that of possible innovations in human therapeutics (17 March 20155).
The Security of Computer Systems: Myths, Reality and Prospects
The security of computer systems concerns every one of us, from the citizens in their daily lives to the whole State, as it must now
defend itself against many-sided attacks. The conference “Sécurité des systèmes informatiques: mythes, réalités et perspectives ”
looked back on these various issues and showed what answer scientific progress could provide, from the software development
breakthroughs that followed recent results in cryptology, to progress achieved in the security of large computer systems (24 March
20156).
Twenty Years of Research on Exoplanets
Twenty years after the discovery of the first extrasolar
planet – 51 Pegasi b – by Michel Mayor et Didier Queloz,
2 000 exoplanets have thus far been discovered. During
this session organized by the Académie des Sciences,
stock was taken of the methods that may be used to detect
exoplanets, study their formations and the dynamic of the
systems that house them, and search for signatures of life
in their atmospheres (“ Vingt ans de recherches sur les
exoplanètes ”, 31 March 20157).
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