With the Académie des Sciences in 2015

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ENCOURAGING THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY
In search of Time
This session on the theme of time gathered scientists from very different disciplines: it provided the opportunity to confront
different notions of time: the definition of time according to the Phoenicians, biological time within various species, and time on the
scales of humankind, the history of life, and Earth (“A la recherche du temps”, 19 May 201520).
Evidence-Based Public Policy
How may the scientific approach be used as a basis to optimize public decision? The conference first recalled the experience of
medicine, which, in fifty years, has passed from decisions made on the advice of masters and experts, to the search for rigorous
demonstration based on randomized therapeutic trials. It then showed how such approaches now extend to many other fields, par-
ticularly education, but also criminology, agriculture or the care of disadvantaged populations (“La décision publique fondée sur la
recherche de preuves”, 11 September 201521).
Transgenerational Epigenetics
A growing number of studies now point to the responsibility of
modifications in gene expression, rather than to the sole gene
sequences, to explain phenotypic variations between individuals
– variations which are, moreover, transmissible to their offspring.
The mechanisms underlying such transgenerational epigenetics
was at the heart of this international colloquium held by the
French Académie des Sciences (“Can Epigenetics Explain
Transgenerational Transmission of Acquired Traits?”, 8 December
201522).
When Members of the Académie Pay Tribute to Their Predecessors...
• Tribute to François Jacob (1920-2013): the Académie des Sciences and Académie Française, of both of which François Jacob was a
member, have devoted a joint session to the life and work of this great researcher, 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine, honorary
professor at the Collège de France and the Institut Pasteur, through five lectures, as so many facets of his personality (27 January
201523);
• ARN Day, a tribute to Marianne Grunberg-Manago (1921-2013): a former president of the Académie des Sciences, Marianne Grunberg-
Manago discovered the polynucleotide phosphorylase, which is responsible for the synthesis of the polyribonucleotides that constitute
RNA. The objective of this day was to illustrate the growing place RNA is taking in all fields of biology (bacterial virulence, parental
fingerprints in humans, etc.) (10 February 201524);
• Recent extensions of the work of Anatole Abragam (1914-2011): during this session, the speakers retraced the work and personality of
this pioneer of NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), and presented the recent progress of this discipline that was directly derived from
the theories he developed (14 April 201525).
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