Neuroleptic chemical compound belonging to the family of "substituted" benzamides, which competes with cerebral dopamine for binding to the D2/D3 receptor sub-type.

The method by which most exoplanets have been discovered involves measuring variations in a star’s velocity, thanks to the Doppler-Fizeau effect. In the same way that a planet is attracted to a star, a star is drawn to a planet. They thus gravitate around the same centre of gravity with the same orbital period. But given the much greater mass of a star, the resulting velocity for the latter is a lot smaller. For example the speed gathered by the sun under the Earth’s influence is hardly 0.4 km/h.

The movements of a star are thus influenced by the presence of a planet orbiting around it, which causes a periodic lag in its position, an oscillation. It is this oscillation which is measured by the method of radial velocities. Depending on this discrepancy it is possible to estimate the orbit of the planet as well as to deduct a minimum value for its mass. This method is all the more effective when the planet has a heightened mass and is close to its star, the reason why the majority of planets discovered up until now are gas giants with relatively short orbital periods. Read also the article An exoplanetary drama: a planet collapses on its star.

This is an analytical technique that makes use of a discovery made in 1928 by the Indian physicist Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1930. The Raman effect is a very small change in the diffusion of rays of light when they pass through a transparent medium. Raman observed that a tiny fraction of the diffused light had a different wavelength from the incident rays. This fraction was very small indeed: its intensity attained a maximum of .01% of the intensity of the original beam. Studying the causes of the effect that would be named after him, Raman showed that the variation in wavelength depended upon the structure of molecules that were responsible for the diffusion of the light. Raman spectra can be obtained with the use of light sources (quite powerful) of visible or infrared light, but sources using laser light are preferred today. In conjunction with computer programs and microscopic optics, Raman spectrometry allows scientists to carry out chemical analyses of exceptional accuracy in a very short time.

The name of the greatest pharaoh of the 19th dynasty. A builder and conqueror, we owe to him in particular the rock temple of Abou Simbel and the great hypostyle hall of Karnak. His prestige was such that all the kings of the 20th dynasty, apart from the first, took his name. It is thus quite natural that the project is named after him.

An Italian painter who was the chief architect of the buildings of the Vatican under the popes Jules II and Leon X. We owe to him paintings such as the ‘Transfiguration’ or the ‘Triumph of Galatea’ and some frescoes in the chambers of the Vatican.

The group of flightless birds whose sternum lacks a wishbone (ostrich, emu, kiwi…)

A short term memory task created by Daneman and Carpenter (1980) enabling the measurement of the abilities of short term memory in its double function of processing and storing. In this test, the subject has to read a series of sentences and judge if they are correct or not whilst at the same time memorising the last word of each one of them in order to remember them later.

An imaging technique using functional nuclear magnetic resonance, which allows the results of research to be obtained while the subject is still in the MRI machine, while the data is being collected. Although this technique will never completely replace detailed analysis outside of the connection, fMRI is very useful, especially in the area of research.

The RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion) or Red Army Faction is an urban guerrilla group created in Germany in 1968. The first resounding act carried out by this group, founded mainly by Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin (joined later by Ulrike Meinhof) was the explosion of hand made bombs in Frankfurt supermarkets in 1968. They carried out numerous attacks, kidnappings and assassinations. Its two most spectacular acts were the exploding of a bomb in the generally American neighbourhood in Heidelberg and the kidnapping of the German boss of bosses, Hans Martin Schleyer on 5th September 1977. The RAF was of Maoist inspiration and advocated the liberation of every individual through the use of arms. It remained active, albeit to a lesser degree, up until the beginning of the 1990s, not being able to survive the collapse of the Berlin Wall (1989).

In the strict sense of the term, a reef is a constructed structure of organic origin, normally in shallow water, whose constituents build a rigid frame capable of resisting the action of the waves and currents. In the broad sense of the term, a reef is an organic structure. The Belgian Frasnian “reefs” are constructions whose deepest part was under the area of the waves.

In general, several phases can be distinguished in the construction of such structures. First of all, there is a stabilisation phase: a certain number of species fix the substrate. This is then colonised by other species that have a constructive action (colonisation phase). Then comes the diversification phase: the number of species increases significantly. The majority of structures are formed during this phase. The domination of certain species – only a limited number – constitutes the final phase.

The reflectivity of a material measures its reflective properties. It is perfect when the ray sent to the material is reflected and non-existent when the material entirely absorbs the ray received.

The Medieval Church was marked by numerous reform movements, sometimes accepted by the authorities (the reforms of Gregory VII and Francis of Assisi, for example), sometimes declared heretical (Vaudois, Cathares). In the 16th century a new wave of religious disputes, driven by progress in printing methods, led to the division of the Church (or schism). This movement is called the Reformation and ended up in the birth of the Christian Protestant churches.

The Reformation was launched in 1517 in Germany when the German monk Luther published his 95 theses denouncing the principle of indulgences. It rapidly took hold in Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Switzerland, where it was given momentum by the French theologian Jean Calvin. The Reformation also penetrated France (where its followers were called Huguenots). There it was violently confronted by the Catholic powers, as it was in the Netherlands and in Germany. Europe was soon aflame with the ‘Wars of Religion’ (in the second half of the 16th century).

The Catholic Reform (formerly known as the Counter-Reformation, a term judged by historians as being too reductive) is a movement which took form at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century with the aim of limiting the expansion of Protestantism and also trying to reform a Catholic Church which had lost direction. The birth of reforming religious orders, such as the Society of Jesus or the Oratorians), as well as debates around doctrinal and disciplinary questions during the Council of Trent (1545-1563) permitted the emergence of a clergy which was better educated, better trained and more capable of carrying out its pastoral duties effectively.

Rapid Eye Movement sleep, also called paradoxal sleep. It is characterised by EEG traces resembling an actively wakeful state, rapid movement of the eyeballs, and muscular lifelessness interspersed with muscular jerks. Paradoxal sleep is linked in a privileged way to dreams.

Contrary to fossil energies, a renewable energy is produced from a source capable of being regenerated at a rhythm similar to that of how we consume it. It consists for example of wind, solar or hydraulic (water) energy.

Replication is a process which enables DNA to reproduce.

Oldest part of the brain that includes the hypothalamus and the brain stem in particular. It maintains the vital functions of the body including reproduction. This term refers to the work of Paul MacLean who distinguishes three parts in the human brain: the reptilian brain, the limbic brain and the neocortex.

Promised to the people from the war onwards, the dawn of the Fourth Republic was definitively achieved by the referendum of the 21 October 1945, which proclaimed the assembly elected that day as constitutional. After rejection of the first text, the constitution of the 4th Republic was finally adopted – by a hair’s breadth – by referendum on the 13th of October 1946. It governed France until 1958. That year the National Assembly gave General de Gaulle, last President de Conseil (Prime Minister) of the Fourth Republic who was invested on the 1st of June, the right to elaborate a new constitution, approved by referendum on the 28th of September. To this day, France lives under the regime of the Fifth Republic.

Residence refers to the action of housing someone with him/her, to provide that person with shelter under his/her roof. The child's right of residence is one of the elements of parental authority, which translates into a right that each parent has to take in and accommodate the child at the place of his/her residence. This right translates into establishing a residence the practical modalities of which may differ depending on space (e.g.: principal residence, alternating residence, etc.).

A period of French history located between the fall of the First Empire (6th April 1814) and the revolution of 29th July 1830. It is marked by the restoration and the fall of the Bourbons (the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X). The Restauration was interrupted by The Hundred Days (the return to power of Napoleon). It is for this reason that one speaks of the first and second Restauration.

The rear section of the eye onto which light is focused. It contains photoreceptors: cones, rods and ganglion cells which express melanopsin. The cones and rods are cells or neurones which are sensitive to visible light. The cones (there are around 6 million on a human retina), which transform the electromagnetic signal of light into an electrical signal, assure diurnal vision and the vision of colours. The rods (around 125 million) assure nocturnal vision and vision in conditions of low light intensity but do not perceive colours. Thanks to these two types of cell, the brain can interpret the signal and construct vision.

Term covering all diseases affecting the retina.

In July 1830, three days of rioting – the July Revolution – put Louis-Philippe on the throne of France. This marked the beginning of the July Monarchy. It lasted until 1848. The end of Louis-Philippe’s reign was marred by numerous restrictions, particularly that of freedom of speech. The republicans, in particular, were forbidden from meeting. They circumvented this ban by organising “republican banquets” where speakers took the stand. Following the ban of one of these banquets in Paris on 22nd February 1848, students and workers demonstrated, and were soon joined by the National Guard. The replacement of Prime Minister Guizot by Adolphe Thiers did nothing to calm the rioters. On 24th February, the republicans, including the poet Lamartine and François Arago, reached Paris’ town hall and declared the advent of a republican government. This was the beginning of the 2nd Republic.

rRNA is the main constituent of ribosomes (cellular organelles which allow for the translation of genetic information coded on a RNA messenger, from which it synthesises proteins within the cell). Its sequence is used to retrace the evolution of living organisms and to study their relationships.

A disease caused by bacteria belonging to the genus Rickettsia. Their pathogenic power is closely linked to the arthropod vector; eleven species of the genus are transmitted to humans by ticks. Rickettsia is divided into two distinct groups, the typhus group (transmitted by lice and fleas) and the spotted fever group (mostly transmitted by ticks).

A rift is a region where the continental lithosphere thins under the actions of a separation of two tectonic plates and/or a progressive fusion of the terrestrial crust by deep magma. Morphologically a rift is a ‘gulf’ of linear subsidence which represents the initial stage of lithospheric rupture. The formation of rifts is linked to the opening of fissures into which magma injects itself, as well as to active volcanism. When the lithospheric rupture takes place, the rift becomes an oceanic dorsal which constitutes the limit between the two new lithospheric plates.

A French poet and a genuine enfant terrible. Arthur Rimbaud was born in 1854 at Charleville and died in 1891 at Marseille. More than a literary heritage, Arthur Rimbaud also leaves us with the closest archetype of what marginality and bohemian life are. If he stopped writing poetry at the age of only 20, he leaves behind two collections which are still extremely important today:: Les illuminations and Une saison en enfer.

Besides his works of a great modernity he is remembered for his escapades, of every type of genre, his homosexual adventures with Paul Verlaine, but also his voyages to Africa, where he was an explorer and a merchant.

An abbreviation of "RiboNucleic Acid". It constitutes the second type of nucleic acid, the other being DNA. RNA is found in the nucleus of the cell as well as in the cytoplasm. Like DNA, it is also a very long molecule, with a repeated structure, made up of a base, a sugar and a phosphate. But contrary to DNA it is only made up of a single helix. It is synthesized in the cell by recopying DNA and plays an essential role in the synthesis of proteins.

A technique of RNA interference is used to inhibit the expression of targeted genes. The technique consists in injecting into a cell RNA codons that make either “sense” or “nonsense”, depending on the gene that scientists want to “knockout” or “knock down”. Following the injection of this exogenous genetic material the cell will destroy it and the corresponding mRNA fragment that had been produced by transcription of its own genetic makeup, thus inhibiting the expression of a targeted gene.

A Belgian francophone writer, born in Tournai and who died in Paris, after having lived successively in Ghent and Brussels. This descendant of a great French speaking Flemish bourgeois lineage, the holder of a law degree gained at the University of Ghent, distinguished himself in several literary genres: poetry, theatre and the novel. But, besides his contributions to La Jeune Belgique, which brought together supporters of ‘an art for arts sake’ ethic, it is his novel Bruges-la-Morte – first appearing as a series in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro in February 1892 – which made him famous. This work, swimming in fog, rain and wind and in which chime the bells of the dulled Flemish town, and affected by the pessimistic philosophy of a Schopenhauer, relates the passion of a widower for a women who strangely resembles his wife. But nonetheless it is the historical town named ‘the Venice of the North’ which is the real character of this book with symbolist resonances, an inspirational town reduced to a shadow of itself at the moment Rodenbach painted it.

French critic and semiologist (1915-1980), one of the main representatives of structural linguistics and contemporary semiotics. His body of work is large; early on he revamped his approach to the analysis of literary texts in Le Degré zéro de l'écriture (1953). Later in his book entitled Mythologiques (1957), which won him a large audience, he tried to make readers aware of the fact that myths (signs par excellence) create beliefs and serve as ideological tools. Apart from other works on the foundations of semiology, following the pioneers Saussure and Greimas, he published Fragments d'un discours amoureux (1977) and La chambre claire. Note sur la photographie (1980). The latter is an unusually delicate analysis of the art of photography, which “says nothing (necessarily) that is no more, but only says with sureness what has been.”

Jean Rouch (1917-2004) is a French ethnologist and filmmaker. Throughout the whole of his career he has produced a series of documentaries which have contributed towards influencing the emergence of the practice of audio-visual anthropology. He was also President of the French Film Archive from 1987 to 1991.

King Leopold III remained in Belgium in his palace at Laeken for the whole duration of the Second World War and was taken into captivity by the Reich in 1944. He left behind a “political testament” in which, notably, he demanded a public apology from the Belgian Government for having dissociated itself from him in 1940. The tone of this document incited the Government not to make it public, thus making the King’s return possible. When he was liberated by the Allies in May 1945, and despite increasingly fierce criticism, the Government proposed that he regain the throne on the condition that he purge his entourage, pay homage to the Allies and affirm his attachment to the Parliamentary Democracy. The King refused and counter-attacked by proposing on the 14th of July 1945, that the population decide the outcome by means of a popular consultation. The Parliament opposed this, making the King’s return impossible without convening a joint assembly of the Chamber and the Senate to carry out a vote. The “Royal Question” was born. It increasingly divided the country and political parties as the years went on. A popular consultation was finally organised for the 12th of March 1950: it supported the King by a small majority (57%). But it also divided the country: support was largely given by the Flemish while the French-speakers, Walloons and Brussels inhabitants, on the whole rejected the King. Demonstrations increased and difficulties threatened the unity of not only the country, but the monarchy itself. Leopold III thus preferred to withdraw: he handed over his powers to his son Baudouin, “Prince Royal” in August 1950, then abdicated in his favour in July 1951.