I am a little late this week. That’s because Monday’ s welcome but quite heavy rain caused a power outage. Not the neighbourhood or even the street. A quite small power outage confined to one part of our house. We could still use the kitchen and we had the tele and lights so it wasn’t […] … learn more→

You’ve probably heard the claim that it takes more muscles to frown than to smile. It’s usually framed as a feel-good reason to turn your frown upside down – less effort, more joy. But anatomically, the numbers don’t quite add up. We’ve all seen it – the smile that doesn’t quite reach the eyes. From […] … learn more→

The mental health of university students has become a global concern. In Spain, only 38% of young people consider themselves happy, a figure much lower than in other European countries such as the Netherlands, where 74% of young people say they are happy . We recently designed an intervention program based on positive psychology to increase optimism and […] … learn more→

As the expression “cultural good” indicates, the book is a product, that is to say, a good that is bought and sold. However, its specificities mean that it evolves in a particular environment studied in particular by Louis Wiart and Philippe Chantepie, the authors of Économie du livre , published by La Découverte (collection “Repères”). We publish […] … learn more→

The growing proliferation of AI-powered chatbots has led to debates around their social roles as friend, companion or work assistant. And they’re growing increasingly more sophisticated. The role-playing platform Character AI promises personal and creative engagement through conversations with its bot characters. There have also been some negative outcomes: currently, Character.ai is facing a court case involving its chatbot’s role in a […] … learn more→

When multibillion-dollar AI developer Anthropic released the latest versions of its Claude chatbot last week, a surprising word turned up several times in the accompanying “system card”: spiritual. Specifically, the developers report that, when two Claude models are set talking to one another, they gravitate towards a “‘spiritual bliss’ attractor state”, producing output such as […] … learn more→

Imagine a child reading the story of a refugee girl who crosses the sea to flee a war. By the end of the book, that child has not only learned new words: they have felt fear, hope, anger, relief… This is one of the powers of literature: its ability to make us experience other people’s […] … learn more→

AI has already transformed industries and the way the world works. And its development has been so rapid that it can be hard to keep up. This means that those responsible for dealing with AI’s impact on issues such as safety, privacy and ethics must be equally speedy. But regulating such a fast-moving and complex […] … learn more→

A federal judge in Boston on May 23, 2025, temporarily blocked a Trump administration order that would have revoked Harvard University’s authorization to enroll international students. The directive from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and resulting lawsuit from Harvard have escalated the ongoing conflict between the Trump administration and the Ivy League institution. It’s also the latest step […] … learn more→

Acquiring written language is a complex process that spans an entire school year. And the omnipresence of digital tools requires rethinking how we learn, as screens require a different way of processing information. From notebooks to computers or smartphones, the logic is no longer the same. Here are some ideas for reflection. “Writing is not […] … learn more→