Science and Technology

The latest science stories from around France, plus developments in French tech and news updates for smarter living in France.

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Got a question about technology in France? Get in touch at news@connexionfrance.com

Gadget inspector: French tech firms reveal the future

Such is the vitality of the technology sector in France that the country had the third largest national presence in the startup section of the recent prestigious CES electronics innovation show in Las Vegas.

Pedal-powered pop-up cinema

Movie-loving cyclists can take to pedal power to screen a film at a pop-up cinema in Saint-Malo in August.

Mobile and internet promise is hard to keep

Mobile phone and internet service providers have been told to speed up installing 4G mobile phone networks in poor-coverage areas as, in addition to improving service, they can also be used to offer home broadband where the powerful signal can give very high speed connections in many zones.

Bank opts for words, not passwords

The Banque Postale has become the first bank in France to offer voice security technology to secure transactions.

Talking Point: Installing TV in my French holiday home

I would like UK TV in my holiday home in France. What is the easiest way to do this?

Orange accused of running down landline service

Telecoms giant Orange has been accused of deliberately running down the landline network in a bid to push people from cheap ADSL broadband towards faster and more expensive fibre optic cabling.

Sea plastic gets a new life as trainers

Sportswear firm Adidas is helping cut ocean plastic waste by creating a new range of sports shoes that uses marine plastic debris recycled to make the fabric of the trainers and cutting new plastic from all stages of manufacture.

Ethical vending machines love small change

A French company has developed a vending machine which accepts those 1, 2 and 5 centime coins – known as pièces rouges - which we all collect but which seem to have no value.

Google is not getting lost in translation

It was not a very subtle April Fool but it made a fine point.
A Christian website posted a story saying Google had updated its translation software for believers so anyone “speaking in tongues” could have a translation done in the language of their choice.

Free solar radios are lifeline for homeless people

A homeless charity has transformed the lives of thousands of street sleepers... by handing out free radios to fight loneliness and isolation.

Can science make us live healthier for longer?

The main thrust for now is not necessarily to live longer but to live better; to decrease the period of bad health and frailty to a minimum amount.
Biologist Oliver Bischof

Heat from computer servers warms homes

Why spend money cooling giant computer servers when it can give residents hot water instead?

‘Flying taxis’ coming to Paris in June

Sea Bubbles are a French invention and will be tested on the River Seine

‘Internet+’ costs warning

Orange has been obliged to repay an internet customer more than €700 for bills he racked up unknowingly because he was automatically subscribed to its services Contact+ and Internet+.

The future is bright for tech firm’s leading lights

Wifi is dead ... Long live lifi

Anti-pee walls plea

Paris resident requests the use of anti-urine paint throughout the capital.

St Pierre and the transatlantic aviation mystery

The French island off the coast of Canada is thought to hold the key to the mystery of a vanishing plane

Scientist who can move objects by thought alone

Award-winning Nataliya Kosmyna hopes her success will inspire more women to work in the sciences

Farewell landlines as they give way to digital future

Breton towns to test internet replacement for the old telephone exchange - but rural areas may face problems

Bloctel ‘floptel’ as nuisance callers ignore watchdog

Three million people sign up for spam opt-out service but cold calls continue

How virtual reality can treat phobias

A hospital in Marseille is using virtual reality headsets to treat conditions like phobias and anxiety.

Driverless buses on streets of Lyon

Year-long experiment in heart of capital of Auvergne Rhone-Alpes is world's first long-term public trial of driverless vehicles