Nom Machine
journal

A 300,000-year melting pot

At the Musée de l’Homme anthropology museum in Paris, an exhibition traces the movements of Homo sapiens across the long history of humanity. To address this complex topic, often the subject of fanciful representations, the scientific curators approached it from multiple points of view, including research and art, but also purely human.

Solar storms ahead

Over the past few months, our planet has been ìmpacted by intense solar flare activity on the Sun. This phenomenon, which caused the polar auroras that recently lit up European skies, could also disrupt a number of industries. To better predict such solar storms, scientists are hard at work developing the emerging discipline of space weather.

When beauty overshadows scientific genius

The actress Hedy Lamarr died 25 years ago. A brilliant inventor, she devised a system for encoding data transmissions that became widely used in telecommunications. But for decades, history has remembered her only as a Hollywood movie star. As the world celebrates International Women’s Day this month, two women scientists provide an insight into her inventions and their impact in later years.

Those stars that come and go

White dwarfs are the extremely dense, compact remnants of stars that have ended their lives, and are at the origin of tremendous explosions known as novae. This phenomenon (not to be confused with supernovae, which destroy the star) is thought to be the source of the excess lithium in the Universe.