Having obtained his basic school-leaving qualification and having practised the bakery trade,  Joseph Ferdinand
Cheval is officially named ” Facteur Cheval” mailman in the post offices  in 1867.  Allocated to Hauterives,  he has
on responsibility the ‘ tour of Tersanne ‘,  hike the daily 33 kilometers of which he kills by dreaming. Absent person of  hang by earthing up on a stone during a trip of 1879,  he slides this last one in his pocket to study it  later then, noticing the presence of more singular pebbles even the next day,  decides to act himself as sculptor to dash
into the construction of  a ‘ Ideal Palace ‘.  Choosing the most beautiful stones every day,  he  fills pockets,
baskets, wheelbarrows while working of long hours on the light of a kerosene lamp.  After thirty years of patience, construction by means of  lime,  mortar and cement,  the palace,  finished in 1912,  is a leader of
work of Biblical and Indian inspirations.  Showing the desire to be buried within this one in his in its
death,  the mailman  Horse sees its wish slowed down by the nervousness of a French law not allowing this
kind  of practices without preliminary incineration.

From then on obliged to comply with the legal constraints, the artist agrees to withdraw in the Municipal
Cemetery provided that we leave him  the choice of its grave.  The accepted requirement, the mailman spends
then eight new years marked by the stone:  transporting its material up to the cemetery of Hauterives,
the mailman Horse finishes in 1922 the ‘ Grave of the silence and the unlimited rest ‘ and is interred
there two years later.

THE WORK OF A SINGLE MAN !

(1879 – 1912) – 10 000 days,  93 000  working
hours,  33 years of endurance and test….
More obstinate than me put itself  in the work !

The winter as the summer, night and day I wolked, I crossed
the plain and the hillside, as well as the brook to bring the stone lasts
chiselled by the nature.  It is my back which paid the
share, I defied everything even the death..

The principle of the exhibition  is simple:  the life-size cows,  in fiberglass,  are proposed to companies,  institutions,  private  individuals, storekeepers who give who give cards white to an artist of their choice to decorate, and to relook the animal. Why the idea of a cow ?  Pascal Knapp found that the rounded off surface and the skeleton of the animal allowed an adequate creative work.  The cow is also an animal liked by all,  particularly by the children,  a way of approaching the art with whim by means of an original support and to make him  share
by a largest number.

The cows parade is also an event for charitable purpose.  Since its creation,  the cows parade  in already brought back  18 million dollars.  Among the buyers of the works represent Nelson Mandela,  Queen Nour of Jordan,  Ringo Starr or still Prince Albert.  Anecdotally, the most expensive cow  was sold 130 000 dollars :
She was adorned with diamonds and signed John Rocha.

It was once the Motocross..

EARLY MOTOCROSS BIKES

The first motorcycle dates to 1885 , when German inventors pretty much put an engine on a bicycle.  By
the late 1800s,  motorcycles were available to the general public,  and in the early 1900s,  they began to take on characteristics that were more distinct from a regular motorcycle. The earliest motocross bikes in the era
before World War II (1939-1945)  were essentially regular motorcycles.

BRITISH  SCRAMBLING

The key development  in the evolution of Motocross came when British riders in the 1920s decided to skip the observation portion Trials and focus squarely on completions the cours the fastest. The result was the first recognized motocross race, the Southern Scott Scramble, in 1924.

British messengers sped through the countrysides of Europe during
World War I, using motocycles to get the job done fast .

EUROPEAN ROOTS

The Motocross did not begin in the United States ,  in fact,   it came here from Europe,  where its roots date to 1920s, and where it became immensly popular long before it caught on with more than a small segment of sports fans in the United States .. The Word “Motocross” comes from France.  It is a combination of  “moto” for motorcycle and “cross” for cross-country.  But don’t let that fool you into thinking that the French invented the sport!  We now know that motocross actually started in Great Britain as  “scrambling” before it was exported to the rest of the World and became “motocross” , don’t forget your helmet !

In the 1990s the World Wide Web, an application designed to ride on top of TCP/IP, accelerated expansion of the Internet to avalanche speed. Conceived by Tim Berners-Lee, a British physicist working at the CERN nuclear research facility near Geneva, it was the product, he said, of his “growing realization that there was a power in arranging ideas in an unconstrained, weblike way.” He adopted a venerable computer sciences idea called hypertext—a scheme for establishing nonlinear links between pieces of information—and came up with an architectural scheme for the Internet era. His World Wide Web allowed users to find and get text or graphics files—and later video and audio as well—that were stored on computers called servers. All the files had to be formatted in what he termed hypertext markup language (HTML), and all storage sites required a standardized address designation called a uniform resource locator (URL). Delivery of the files was guided by a set of rules known as the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), and the system enabled files to be given built-in links to other files, creating multiple information paths for exploration.

UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science — the birthplace of the Internet– hosted a special forum commemorating the 35th Anniversary of the Internet.

In 1969, the first Internet message was sent from computer science Professor Leonard Kleinrock’s laboratory at UCLA, ushering in a new method of global communications that forever changed the course of business, politics, entertainment, education, law and social interaction.

To celebrate this historic event, a special day-long forum took place on Friday, October 29, 2004 at UCLA’s Northwest Campus Auditorium. Some of the Internet’s early pioneers, as well as many of its rising stars took a closer look at how the Internet came to be what it is today, and what it will be like tomorrow.
The cabinet of studies Forrester has just published its forecasts on the growth of the Internet manners by 2013 for the whole planet. Among the most considerable, let us quote the fact that in less than five years, there will be more Internet users in China than in the United States.

In 2013, the number of Internet users in the world will pass in 2,2 billions against 1,5 today, is an increase of 45 %. Counting a quarter of the world Internet users, Europe is classified on the second place behind Asia. Today near an European on two lives in one of the following 5 countries: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. The penetration of Internet and the growth rates vary there considerably, passing of 69 % in the United Kingdom in 2008 in 49 % in Italy. In 2013, the Internet users in the United Kingdom will be 48,7 millions (that is a rate of 81 % penetration) against 41,3 millions (69 %) today. In Germany, this number will cross(spend) 56,2 (68 %) in 62,5 millions (76 %) and in France of 37,2 (60 %) in 45,9 millions (73 %).

Asia will remain the main engine of this growth. 43 % of the connected world population will live there in 2013, among which 17 % in China where the growth rate of the number of Internet users will be 11 % on average a year. As a result of which, there will be, in 2013, more Internet users than in the United States. The number of Internet users in India will be respectively upper to that of Japan, Germany and Brazil.

52 million active Internet users in India!

The number of active users of Internet in September, 2009 amounts to 52 millions; he(it) amounted to 42 millions in September, 2008 is a 19 % increase in one year. 36 % of these users arise from medium-sized(of medium height) cities such as Kolhâpur ( 500.000 inhabitants), Thrissur and Panipat. The privileged modes of connection are first of all cybercafes, comes then the internet access to the work. A quarter of the worn connect from their home and 2 million Indians use their motive(mobile) to browse the Web.

This increase of the number of users explains by the growth of the network and the distribution of the manners in the less easy  sectors of society. A big part(party) of these Internet users are students in university and in school, an important imbalance exists between the proportion of men(people) and women reaching internet. The consumption evolved too, so we are crossed of 9. 3 hours(am) by weeks at 15.7 am a week. This more important consumption explains by the appearance of innovative contents and the entertaining consumption of Internet understanding
the download, the access to the social networks and to the sites of blogging microcomputing.

An effort must be however made to facilitate the access of the Internet users to contents in vernacular language Subho Ray announced the president of the IAMAI, it is that Google  already strives moreover to make.

Report: Rural India overtakes Urbanites !  http://t.co/wJZpz2p via @trakin

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The number of Chinese Internet users will be in a half-billion..

Internet users’ Chinese community does not stop increasing every year even if the country is already in the first world rank concerning the number of Internet users. Qian Xiaoqian, Vice Minister of the Office  of the information of the advice of the affairs of state has just announced yesterday in March 25th which ” the Web Chinese, the most numerous community to the world, should reach the half-billion Internet users before two or three years.

This Chinese senior official considers that the number of Chinese Internet users is going to be more enlarged thanks to the newcomers of the rural zones. According to him, ” three quarters of the newcomers will be native of rural zones “. it is to note that at the moment, the number of Chinese Internet users exceeds 380 millions in spite of the various censorships in the country. On this subject, it is to know that Google has just raised the censorship in China, the giant search engine decided on Monday evening to redirect the Chinese Internet users towards Hong-Kong, its servers will be based there.

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The plastic speech builds itself through mixed techniques (emulsions, coulures, drawings, writings,
stickings, objects of rubbish on painting cloth or on paper..

About A.Roger Painting  Style, description made by himself :

Fortuitous reversals sometimes reveal us unsuspected perspectives. The repentirs uncountable, occasions, restorations , rehabilitations and the other supperpositions, operated these last years, update an incredible constant. If my plastic erring ways gave a good place to the body through multiple mediums, the graphic speculations which accompanied them allowed me to deepen  and to develop the notion of glyphe sexual. The repository symbolism already in germ in my first compositions emphasized the track, the mark , the stigma without giving him  however scoop. Nevertheless, it is necessary to agree there, the combinatorial logic of the sign seems to get the upper hand: the imaginary alphabet, where every line , every height, every chink belongs to consonnance male or feminine, invades the space of the picture . The man, the biped in the silhouette  singular surprise,
is not more than an imprint, a profile, a shade..    © A. Roger

It is to Egas Moniz, a Portuguese neurologist, that we owe, in 1935, the idea that the mental illnesses are caused by problems of infections and connections of the present neurones in the frontal lobe. This party of the brain, situated behind the front, is constituted by white material, a set of nerve fibers. Infected and disconnected, the neuronal circuits provoke mental illnesses such as the schizophrenia, the epilepsy, the chronic migraines… Egas Moniz and the other doctors believed that we could intervene on this region of the brain without altering the normal functioning of the patient, by means of the lobotomy and of the leucotomie. These practices consist in splitting and in removing the part of this white material which causes a dysfunction inside the brain. Moniz obtained a Nobel prize in 1949 for his works. The practice is since forbidden because it is in no way without consequences.

2 -Therapy by the electric shock treatment

We attend for these last years a discreet return of one of the roughest treatments that the man never used. It is
about the electric shock treatment. A French Hopital finished the construction of a special room intended for the administration of shock therapy (the other term to indicate  éléctrochocs). This brand new room welcomes ” his
first patients ” since summer, 2002.

This treatment of shock, which created voluntarily an epileptic coma, is administered in case of depression and is practised on fragile persons without limitation nobody, for the old persons, the pregnant women, even the teenagers. At present, they are practised under general anesthesia, what limits the spectacular demonstrations on the patients, but regrettably not the side effects.

The controversy which exists in the medical environment shows that its use is far from making the unanimity. This file is intended to explain the dangers of the electric shock treatment and to present victims’ testimonies.

The Committee of the Citizens for Human Rights wishes the adoption of a text of law to restrict the practice of the shock therapy in particular to protect the teenagers, the pregnant women and the old persons. The ultimate objective of the CCDH being naturally the abolition of this practice as therapy.

Electrochoc Therapy

(This image was modified to hide the pain)

Therapy by Electrochocs

3 -Therapy by the Phrénologie

If we say that some have the ” bump of the math “, it is to make echo for this underestimated and old-fashioned science. The phrénologie consisted in trying to describe the personality and the diseases associated with an individual by observing the shape of the skull. This theoretical science, exposed  in 1920 by the German doctor
Franz Joseph Gall, was not however possible that try a diagnosis and not to look after somebody. By observing a patient, and bumps situated at the level of his dome of the skull, a doctor thought he could describe his personality, and the source  of his troubles. Although exceeded, not proved, and even mocked scientifically, this practice always has some followers.

4 -Therapy by the Hypnose

Frédéric-Antoine Mesmer, German doctor practicing at the end of the 70s, believed that an invisible strength surrounded us and influenced our states.

According to him, the breaks of the continuity of this strength pulled  pains and sufferings at the human beings,
and the gravity of the Moon was the cause of many other troubles. To try to restore a good blood flow at his patients, Mesmer used magnets . The patients were satisfied by the obtained results , but the medicine compromised him.
If his  technique had no impact on the modern medicine, its ideas on the hypnosis, which result from it, seduced more than a scientist. Interesting anecdote, in English, to hypnotize says itself “to mesmerize”.

5 -Therapy by the Malaria

At the beginning of the last century, Von Jauregg found how to cure the syphilis: by contaminating his patients with the malaria. When we did not still know the penicillin, that is before 1928, the doctors had how found to look after the syphilis. They made so that their patient catches the malaria, this one activating then a strong fever. Indeed, a high physical temperature was the ideal cure against the syphilis. The problem is evident: in spite of its good results , this method contained numerous risks. His inventor, Von Jauregg, obtained all the same a Nobel prize for this discovery and the success of this therapy. The malaria is often transmiss by a moustic!

6 -Treatment by the Hydrotherapy

This therapy consisted, at the beginning of the XXth century, in curing the patients suffering from a psychiatric disorder thanks to various techniques appealing to the water. We so plunged the hyperactive patients into the water, whereas the lethargic received stimulating jets. This therapeutic method was supposed to look by the water or to prevent(warn) the disease. Fountains(water jets), baths, showers, vapors and compresses were so used. Today
still, in the terms or the saunas, the hydrotherapy helps to clean out certain skin diseases or states of stress.
His psychiatric benefactions are on the other hand non-existent.

The treatment by hydrotherapy consisted in placing the standing patients in a big room and to spray them by means of a water jet with strong pressure by alternating the cold water and the boiling water to create many thermal shocks on the patients in situation of stress.

7 -Therapy of rotation

Erasmus Darwin (the big father of famous Charles of the same name, the editor’s note) finalized , in approximately 1750, a therapy consisting in stretching out the patient and in making him turn. Erasmus Darwin, doctor, philosopher and scientist, thought of having found a means to look after his patients by making them turn. An American doctor, Benjamin Rush, used  this method in psychiatry: he thought that she would allow to decrease
the stroke, and thus, to look after certain mental illnesses. This theory was erroneous, and was neglected.

8 -Therapy the trepaning

The trepanning consists of a perforing of the cranium. Exercised on human or dead beings, this practice consists in piercing the skull to cure diverse pathologies. In Néolitique, from 5.000 to 2.200 years BC, this therapy of the extreme based a priori on the faith that the madness was caused by present devils in the skull. To fit out a “exit” so allowed to free(release) them… This method is still current, in particular to certain Peruvian or Colombian tribes, but the modern medicine condemns it and uses her it today mainly for the ablation of tumors or the evacuation of intellectual bruises.

9 -Therapy the coma

It turned out that dive a patient into the coma allowed, in certain cases, to cure him(it) of dependences due to a previous treatment. It is in 1972 when this idea germinated, after doctor Manfred Sakel gave by mistake an overdose of insulin to one of his patients diabetic. The reaction was rough: this one fell in the coma. Later, this person declared to have no more dependence in the morphine, used in the treatment of its diabetes. The accident had so cured him(it) of its dependence. Doctor Manfred Sakel then turned(shot) to specialists who managed to deal by this case-study method of schizophrenia. No scientific explanation has ever validated this method, finally
forbidden because of its dangerousness: 2 % of the patients never went out indeed of the coma.

In the memory of my Mother who has sudden these treatments to lose the reason for ever…

New Psychiatric Therapies  : Behavioral and Cognitive therapies,  Sexothérapie … and what else ?

The Sexotherapy of group was tried and applied in a psychiatric section of a French hopital in the  80s – 90s  on the initiative of an eminent psychiatrist.  In practice that consited to leave the patients free to exercise all their fantasies (even dirtiest and most daring) on their partners (men and woman), during the very private scéances. It was a complete failure defeat and the scandal burst in broad daylight!

Omegas 6 and 3 are essential polyinsaturés fatty-acids: they are essential to the human organism which cannot produce them itself and must thus find them in its food. Omegas 6 are contained in particular in the corn which itself is introduced in great quantities by the livestock whose man nourishes himself in his turn (half of the lipids which we consume come from the meat and the dairy products). Omegas 3 as for them are present primarily in grass, linseeds, colza and fish fatty like salmon, sardine or mackerel very rich in omega 3. During these forty last years, obesity regularly increased with the generations in the Western companies. During this same period, the food of the industrialized countries is marked by a quantitative increase in the introduced calories (lipids accounting for 35 to 40% of the nutritional contributions) and by contents raised in linoleic acid (omega 6) and weak in alpha-linoleic acid (omega 3). Indeed, the quantity of omega 6 introduced during these four last decades increased considerably (+ 250%) while that of omega 3 dropped by 40%, thus unbalancing the report/ratio omega 6/oméga 3 compared to the contributions recommended. Indeed, the AFSSA recommends a ratio of 5 omegas 6 per 1 omega 3, but we consume 15 omega 6 per 1 omega 3. In the United States the report/ratio can even reach 40 omegas 6 per 1 omega 3.

To carry out their experiment, the researchers exposed four generations of mouse to a food mode of Western type, characterized by these same reports/ratios omega 6/oméga 3. Result: they observed a progressive increase in their fat mass on several generations. They also noted the appearance of metabolic disorders like insulino-resistance, first stage towards the development of the diabetes of the type 2 and the stimulation of the gene expression of inflammatory nature implied in obesity.

Thus, on a genetically stable animal population, the exposure to a food pointing out that of the countries developed or in the process of development is enough to make emerge a transgénérationnelle obesity, in agreement with the data collected at the man. One knows the beneficial role of the essential polyinsaturés fatty-acids omega 6 (linoleic acid) in the treatment of the hypercholesterolemy and that of omegas 3 in cerebral operation. But soups in an unbalanced way, they increase the factors supporting obesity and can have serious consequences, in the long run on the human health. The implications of such observations should be more systematically taken into account by agribusiness industry.

The first two images of this gallery show the dramatic consequences of the obesity: fats get everywhere, including in the internal organs, where their presence can pull grave problems of health.

MRI of an athletic man..

The littoral of the Guianese plate, with the island of Cayenne until Guyana, is strewn with small hillocks, which one could take for banal lumps of earth. Is the origin of these buildings natural? For the inhabitants of the surroundings, their origin is mysterious and of many explanations circulate. Some affirm, for example, that these hillocks are related to the repeated passage of bovines in these marshy savannas. However, of the archaeological studies led to the end of the Eighties revealed that these structures were the fruit of the human hand.

How fields built by Amerindians précolombiens and given up for the majority about 1250, before the arrival of Europeans, could persist until our days? They should have disappeared because of erosion, of the rains, the fires and the vegetable rehandlings. An interdisciplinary research team tries, since 2007, to answer this question.  While being pressed on a large range of expertises (archeobotanic, archaeology, paleoecology, sciences of the ground, ecology and air imagery), the scientists sought to include/understand how the last action of the Man on these landscapes could modulate the current operation of the ecosystem.

Fields designed and exploited between year 650 and the year 1250
This study confirms first of all that farmers précolombiens built these vast complexes of fields raised within Guianese savannas. These coastal fringes considered inhospitable undergo seasonal floods (alternation of periods of flood and dryness). The Amerindians built well drained monticules, which allowed an intensive sedentary agriculture. They thus had a powerful agricultural engineering to exploit grounds now considered to be inapt to cultivate. The researchers managed to precisely go back some to these fields: one of the studied sites goes back to XIIe century, the older second, in XIe century of our era. The analysis of two types of microfossiles vestiges of plants – silica particles (phytolithes) discovered in the hillocks, and of the starch grains found in the pieces of ceramics dishes put at the day in the villages précolombiens – revealed that at least three plants were cultivated at the time: the corn – which, surprisingly, are absent today from the agricultural panel -, the manioc and the marrow. By building these drained small islands, the Amerindians produced heterogeneity between the flooded plain and the elevated part: the biogeochemical composition of these two zones differs today still up to 50 cm of depth.

Landscapes Co-built by the Man and Nature Once given up, these fields were colonized by Nature. Ants, termites, worms of ground, plants and other organizations were installed preferentially on these well drained structures. Car-organized processes generated by these “builders” of ecosystems were then set up. These organizations bring organic matter there and mineral and modify of it the structure as well as the composition of the ground. Thanks to their actions on the porosity of the ground, the capacity of infiltration of rainwater is nine times higher on the monticules than in the flooded plain, reducing the sensitivity of the hillocks to erosion. Biogeochemical mechanisms thus allowed the maintenance of these raised structures, where the concentration in resources initially created by the Man was preserved.

These car-organized ecosystems are the agents of the ecological heritage of the inhabitants précolombiens of Amazonia. This forgotten agricultural technique (1)  that of the elevated fields – could cause idea in order to conceive ecologically intensive systems of agriculture. These results make it possible to identify how certain ecosystems are preserved through the centuries and to better include/understand the history of the Amazonian biodiversity.

Planet Earth :  Global warming worse than envisaged..

En 1995, the researchers elected by the United Nations did not believe that the warming of planet would exceed 3 d’degrees; here 2100. Their revised report/ratio now speaks about 6 degrees a disaster! Switzerland 30/10/2000 – During the next century, the warming of planet will be twice worse that it was thought from here. It is at least what believes the intergovernmental Panel on the climate changes, a group of hundreds of researchers elected by the United Nations. A preliminary version of his report/ratio, which must be adopted in May 2001, circulates since mid-October in the various governments of planet. The previous model, in 1995, envisaged a rise of the temperature of 3 degrees; here 2100, which was alarming. The revised figures estimate that the rise could reach 6 degrees a true disaster. Gas emissions carbonic related to human activity currently reach 6,8 billion tons per year. In 2100, they could reach 29 billion tons, if they continue to progress to the current rhythm. On this level, it is probable that whole forests would die on foot because of the climate changes. This accelerated death would release carbonic gas imprisoned by the plants, carrying the annual emissions at the fantastic level from 35 to 40 billion tons. There exist still some uncertainties on the effect of all this carbonic gas on the climate. After all, a small portion of the warming seems connected with perfectly natural causes. It is why the level of warming from  here to 2100  is hardly precise: from 1,5 to 6 degrees. But it is certain that any significant growth of the temperature would have dramatic effects: put out of order climate, lost harvests, destroyed forests, cast iron and part of the ices of  The Antarctic and flood of coastal regions. In 1997, the international community s’ is intended to reduce by 5,2% (compared to the level of 1990) its gas emissions to  greenhouse effect; here 2008 to 2012. No nation industrialized still ratified this agreement and all indicates that its objectives will not be achieved. They are however modest. The intergovernmental panel estimates that it would be necessary to reduce the emissions by 60%  here 2050 to maintain the warming of planet on an acceptable level. There is no doubt that this report/ratio will come to haunt the next talks on the application of this agreement, which must take place in the Netherlands in one month. Philippe Gauthier

Cast iron of the ice-barrier of l’ Arctic Ocean s’ accelerate. Last July, the layer of ice narrowed each  day; an average surface equivalent to 2 times and half Switzerland! Such a cast iron speed had already been measured in 2006 and 2007. Blow scientists estimate that the Arctic ice-barrier will have completely disappeared in 30
years already. By Silvio Dolzan.

Did you know? The near total of the Antarctic continent is covered with an icecap of a thickness being able to exceed the 4.500 meters. It constitutes the greatest reserve of fresh water in the world, is 90% of world reserves. The disappearance of the latter would make assemble the level of water of five meters on the together sphere.

The World Meteorological Organization has just confirmed what everyone feared:  the temperature of the sphere increased 0,6°C during the past century. The fault falls about it on the greenhouse effects (GES) and, indirectly, on the policies which did not succeed with an agreement last November at the Summit of  the Hague, to decrease the emission of  GES. To take stock, the interdepartmental mission places at the disposal of the citizens this site which analyzes the world context, presents the international agreements and details the actions undertaken in France?

Leonardo Da Vinci’s paintings fascinate, partly due to a range of subtle optical effects that blur outlines, soften transitions and blend shadows like smoke. Known as “sfumato”, this technique is not only the result of the genius of the artist but also of technical innovations at the beginning of the 16th century. Minute observations, optical measurements and reconstitutions have already described the sfumato, but new analysis can confirm the procedure of this technique, especially related to how the gradation is done.

For the first time, Philippe Walter (LC2RMF) and his team, in collaboration with the ESRF and the Louvre Museum, have brought new insight on the sfumato thanks to a quantitative chemical study of the different painted layers. Seven paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci have been analysed without extraction, directly in the rooms of the Louvre Museum (Virgin of the Rocks, Mona Lisa, Saint John the Baptist, Annunciation, Bacchus, Belle Ferronnière, Saint Anne, the Virgin and the Child). The scientists concentrated on the study of the faces because they have the characteristics of the sfumato. They used a technique called
X-ray fluorescence⁽²⁾ to determine the composition and thickness of each layer in nine faces (including Mona Lisa’s) painted by Da Vinci throughout 40 years of career.

Photo taken during the measurements on the Mona Lisa: X-ray fluorescence spectrometry was done directly on the paintings in the Louvre Museum. © V.A. Solé/ESRF

Representation of the superposition of layers in paintings in the face of Mona Lisa, on one light zone near the nose and the darker shadow of the hair. After treating the data, the thickness and concentration of pigments in the different layers. © C2RMF

Isolating the light of the biggest stars is a difficult and tedious process. Massive stars are rare, distant, short-lived and crammed inside dense clusters that are shrouded in dust. In the past, reports of stars up to 2,000 times the size of the sun all turned out to be clusters of stars, not single, massive objects.”People have been trying to find the most massive star and to determine the upper mass limit of stars, but it’s like prospecting for gold. You have to sift through a whole lot of junk and there’s also a lot of fool’s gold,” said Rochester Institute of Technology astronomer Donald Figer.

Armed with new high-resolution imagery, an international team of astronomers is throwing down the gauntlet again with studies on NGC 3603, a very young star cluster located about 22,000 light-years away in the Milky Way’s Carina spiral arm, and RMC 136a, which resides in the Tarantula Nebula, located 165,000 light-years away in our neighbor galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. In addition to chemical analysis and precision position measurements, astronomers checked they weren’t seeing binary pairs by scanning for telltale X-rays that would come from the clash of solar winds. They didn’t find any, leading the team to conclude that they had, in fact, uncovered several stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud cluster which began their lives between 165 and 320 times the mass of the sun. Among their findings, the star R136a1, found in the R136 cluster, is the most massive star ever found, with a mass of about 265 solar masses and with a birthweight of as much as 320 times that of the sun.
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