Established in December 1991 and signed on February 7, 1992, this treaty is an agreement amongst the members of the EEC through which they instituted European economic and monetary union. It was this treaty which inaugurated the European Central Bank (ECB), the single currency, the common foreign and defence policy and European citizenship.

A Belgian francophone poet and playwright, born in Ghent and died in Nice. Originating in the great French speaking Flemish bourgeoisie, he studied law but very soon manifested a great curiosity for the arts and sciences, doubled with philosophical preoccupations. His first poetry collections – Serres chaudes (1889) and Douze chansons (1896) – straight away became striking works of the Symbolist movement. His theatre, of a symbolist stamp also, broke with a fossilised art of theatre, reduced only to successful authors and smoothly run machinery. Into it he introduced new themes such as death and the anguish it provokes, the role of dark forces on peoples’ destinies, the tragedy of life in short: La Princesse Maleine (1889), L'Intruse (1890) and above all Pelléas et Mélisande (1892) are characteristic of this renewal, tragedies which even earned him the nickname ‘the Belgian Shakespeare.’ With L'Oiseau bleu (1909), on the other hand, the tone became lighter, a sign of a spiritual evolution towards greater serenity and an acceptance of the apparent absurdity of the human condition. Maeterlinck is also a passionate observer of nature, as is witnessed to by his works entitled La Vie des abeilles (1901), L' Intelligence des fleurs (1910), La Vie des termites (1926) and La Vie des fourmis (1930). He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1911.

The magnetic sensitivity of some particular matter has to do with the ability of that matter to become magnetized itself in the presence of a magnetic field.

Technique for measuring magnetic fields emitted by the encephalon. This technique is used for clinical purposes in neurology (particularly in the study of epilepsy), and also used in cardiology and research in cognitive neuroscience.

The magnetosphere is the space around a heavenly body in which the movement of charged particles is determined mainly by the magnetic field of the body, rather than by its gravitational field.

The Earth possesses a magnetic field which surrounds it. It is produced by currents due to the convection of matter in our planet’s iron and nickel core. The activity of this magnetic field gives birth to a region in which the movement of particles obeys this field: the magnetosphere. This region extends up to 60,000km from the Earth in the direction of the Sun. In the opposite direction it forms a tail which stretches over several millions of kilometres.

When particles with origins in the Sun (solar wind) approach the earth they are, for a very great majority, deviated by the terrestrial magnetic field and they thus bypass the magnetosphere. It is in this way that the latter protects the Earth’s atmosphere. The particles which are not deviated penetrate the magnetosphere and circulate within it according to lines of the magnetic field, leading to the creation to two zones rich in particles, the Van Allen Belts.

A Belgian painter. He followed courses at the Brussels Académie des Beaux-Arts from 1914 and joined the Surrealist group in 1926. He became famous in the USA with his first personal exhibition in 1936. In 1938 it was the turn of London to host him. It was also during the 1930s that he became a fellow traveller of the Belgian Communist Party. For him painting does not consist of representing an object, but the action of the painter’s thought on this object.

Born in Cairo in 1911 to a petit bourgeois family, Naguib Mahfouz has written over fifty novels and around a dozen works of fiction, thus marking the Arab novel of the second half of the twentieth century. This Egyptian novelist, who loved to analyse the transformation of the Egyptian society of his era, received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1988.

Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization is a soft ionization technique used in mass spectrometry which allows the analysis of many types of molecules, such as biomolecules (peptides, proteins, sugars) and large organic molecules (polymers). A laser beam is directed at a matrix/sample mix that is co-crystallized on a metallic surface. The laser beam desorbs and ionizes the mix. The matrix absorbs the energy from the laser, becomes stimulated, ionizes, and changes to a gaseous state. The expansion of the matrix induces the sample to transform into a gas as well; the latter also ionizes. The matrix is a small molecule capable of forming crystals with the sample and of rapidly absorbing the energy from the laser, which protects the sample.

This battle, in Lombardy, on the 13th and 14th of September 1515, saw the troops of the French king François the 1st confront those of the pope, Leon X. The happy outcome for the king of France allowed him to reconquer the Duchy of Milan.

Chris Marker, born Christian Bouche-Villeneuve, on 29th July, 1921, at Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine), is a French director and photographer as well as a writer. He is the author of numerous documentary films, which are cinematographic essays in a very personal style, including la Jetée, le Fond de l'air est rouge, Sans soleil.

One of the biggest comic publishing houses in the United States. Created in 1939, it has belonged to the Walt Disney Company since 2009. It has ownership of such famous characters as Spider Man, X-Men, Hulk, Iron Man, Daredevil, etc., characters who have been subject to cinema adaptations which have had colossal funds made available to them.

An analytical technique that measures the mass of, and identifies, a chemical or biological substance. Its principle rests on the separation, in a gaseous state, of charged molecules (ions) according to their mass-to-charge ratio. A mass spectrometer is composed of: - an ion source: the molecules are vaporized and ionized using different methods, such as Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI). - the mass analyzer: classes the ions according to their mass, using various physical methods. - the detector: the ions are converted to electrical signals that can be recorded and analysed.

This category is for stars whose mass is around ten times that of our sun. These stars are likely to produce supernovae and in so doing enrich the interstellar environment with heavy elements.

'In general, all the regulations concerning personal assets that govern, during and at the dissolution of the marriage, the property of the spouses (as regards the ownership, disposal, administration and enjoyment) and all the household financial issues, both in the relationships between spouses and in the relationships of these with third parties, including the regulations of the primary matrimonial regime. In a more restricted sense the term indicate more precisely the body of rules that specifically make up a type of regime (e.g.: community, separation of property).'

Australian psychologist and sociologist at the origin of the human relations movement and considered as one of the founders of industrial sociology.

The classic theory of virtue in Greece and notably for Aristotle who makes the whole of virtue a happy medium between opposing excesses; courage is thus a happy medium between recklessness and cowardice.

The light which reaches the eye sends two types of information to the brain. First of all visual information through cones and rods situated on the retina. Then non-visual information (in other words light intensities, for example) transmitted by melanopsin, a photosensitive protein also contained within the retina. It is information transmitted by melanopsin which influences the quality and duration of our sleep.

A hormone whose rhythm of nocturnal secretion by the epiphysis is ensured by the circadian clock, located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus which governs the waking-sleeping cycle.

A symptom characterised by the presence, in the stools, of digested blood, which are thus black in colour (tarry stools is the term then used). This symptom expresses most often a haemorrhage called ‘high’, as it comes from the oesophagus, the stomach or the duodenum.

First appearance of menstruation. The age of menarche, of first menstruation, varies from one country to another. In certain developing countries, young girls who are poor and malnourished may begin to menstruate later than well-nourished girls in America or in Western Europe. Things take place as if a sufficient level of nourishment and supply of energy sent a signal to the hypothalamic centers, indicating that a young girl is ready to go through puberty. Today we know that the signal involves the operation of a hormone produced in fatty tissue, called leptine.

A Greek word designating first of all the soul or the principle of life, then – above all in Homer – the courageous act, in the sense of ‘physical form and ‘ardour in combat.’

Born in 1964. French author, layout artist and publisher. He is one of the founders and spokes-people of L'Association. He is very outspoken and venomous in criticising the academicism of comic strips.

Mercosur (from the Spanish Mercado Commún del Sur) is the economic community of the countries of South America. Created on 26th March, 1991, by the Treaty of Asuncion (Paraguay), it is the world’s third integrated market after the European Union and NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Association. Its objectives are the free circulation of goods, services and production factors, and the creation of a common external customs tariff, but also the convergence of economic policies and the harmonisation of legislation between member states. Mercosur thus has the aim of becoming a co-operation tool which is far more integrated than NAFTA, a simple free exchange area which has no desire for political bridge-building. Mercosur’s permanent members (making up a population of around of 260 million inhabitants) are Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and, since 2006, Venezuela, whose membership has yet to be definitively ratified by all the other member states. Mercosur has permitted important progress in developing exchanges and consolidating democracy, notably due to the fact that the installation of a dictatorship following a military coup d’état would expose the country concerned to being excluded. But co-operation still suffers from the area’s relative poverty, even if it is less flagrant than in the rest of Latin America, and above all from economic and political rivalry between the two largest member countries, Brazil and Argentina. Five countries (Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador) are already associate partners of Mercosur, whose ambition is the progressive economic and political integration of the whole of South America. It could even be extended to other Latin American countries: Mexico and Panama, for example, have already expressed an interest. Mercosur has concluded free trade agreements with India and four small southern African countries. Since 1995, it has been linked by an inter-regional co-operation agreement with the European Union, and the two zones are looking to create a common free trade area.

The first dynasty of the Frankish kings. It owes its name to Meroveus, the presumed king of the Franks from around the year 447 to 457. His grandson, Clovius I, is nonetheless considered as the genuine founder of the Frankish kingdom. On his death the kingdom was divided into four: Aquitania, Austrasia, Bourgogne and Neustria. Dagobert I re-established the kingdom’s unity but his successors proved to be weaker and weaker, to the point where they left power in the hands of the palace mayors, such as Pepin of Landen, Pepin of Herstal and Charles Martel. The latter’s son, Pepin the Short, deposed the last Merovingian, Childeric III, in 751 and founded the Carolingian dynasty.

A Belgian francophone writer, born in Brussels in 1939 to a journalist father and a biologist mother, and a member of the Royal Academy of French Language and Literature since 1989. An avid reader from his earliest years, marked forever by Kafka’s oeuvre, and stimulated into politics by the war in Algeria, he studied at the Etterbeek Athénée, then at the Free University of Brussels where he picked up a doctorate in law. Hardly had his university education terminated than he tackled head on several activities: that of a citizen-jurist – attached to human rights everywhere in the world, that of a Professor of comparative literature at the Higher National Institute of Performing Arts (INSAS), and that of a prolific author: numerous publications in Belgian and foreign journals, literary chronicles in Le Soir newspaper and, above all, novels which have become landmarks. Les Bons Offices (1974) and Terre d'asile (1978) are amongst their ranks, as well as Les Éblouissements, which won the Médicis Prize inn 1987. But it was, in 1995, Une paix royale which would have the greatest public impact, with the court case instigated against its author by Princess Lilian de Réthy, the second wife of King Léopold III, and Prince Alexandre. It is an ambitious work, mixing personal memories, historical reality and fiction, with as a background the thorny ‘Royal Question’ which stirred Belgian at the end of the Second World War. As in the previous novels, the writing in it is haunted by History, a matrix of apocalypses (Auschwitz as the major reference) from which we can only emerge unscathed with a heightened moral conscience, a refusal of all oppression and literature’s powers of dissuasion.

Region of the brain that comprises a major relay point for the ascending auditory pathways.

Multipotential stem cell that creates skeletal cells and connective tissue.

RNA molecule copied from the DNA of a gene, which will be translated into protein through the action of ribosomes.

Polymer of nucleic acids very similar to ADN. The sequence of the messenger RNA is copied from the ADN by transcription and serves as a model for the synthesis of proteins.

An organic substance which plays a role in metabolism, in other words chemical transformations which are performed in all living beings, or which is formed over the course of these transformations.

Refers to higher order thinking that involves active control over the thinking processes involved in learning. Several international studies have clearly shown that this activity, which leads to an awareness of the procedures, methods and intellectual processes used to solve a problem, not only improve learning but also reinforce the knowledge acquired.

Names a plant which grows exclusively in environments rich in metals.

A family of proteolytic enzymes involved in the degradation of extracellular matrix proteins. These proteases play a significant role during cancer progression particularly by favouring tumoral invasion.

Growth of a pathogenic organism (which can cause a disease) or a tumoral cell distant from the initial affected site (primary tumor). In man, metastases may develop by the diffusion of malignant cells or microorganisms via the blood or lymphatic system.

Succession of events during which a cancer cell breaks away from the primary tumor, invades the connective tissue, enters the blood and/or lymphatic circulation, and passes through the vascular walls a second time to invade and establish itself in another organ distant from the first localization, where it will be able to produce a metastatic colony.

Born in Tirlemont in Belgium, Edmond Michotte was sent to Paris to take classes at the Louis le Grand School. The Revolution in 1848 brought him back to the homeland. Determined to dedicate himself to music, he cut short his studies at ULB and spent long periods in Paris. He moved back to Brussels in 1870, where he began his Japanese collection. However, it was in the French capital, where he was in contact with the first great lovers of Japanese art of the second half of the 19th century, that he made the majority of his acquisitions. Today, his collection, composed of 300 to 400 pieces collected up until 1889, is kept at the Royal Museums of Art and History Museums in Brussels.

Small RNA molecule that is not translated into protein and which controls the deterioration or translation of messenger RNA.

Nutritional elements essential to the life of a plant, not exceeding 0.01% of dry material.

Microtubules in part form the cytoskeleton. They participate in the transporting of substances in the cell.

Stars visible to the naked eye are all in our home galaxy. It is called the Milky Way because of the whitish streak belonging to it, which can be observed on a clear night if there is sufficient darkness, that is, not too much light pollution (since our Sun is in the Milky Way, we are seeing this streak from the inside).

Comic strip writer, as well as an American cinema actor, director, scriptwriter, author and producer. He very early became an illustrator at Marvel Comics before working for DC comics, another large American publishing house. Amongst other things he offered a new adaptation of the Batman character. He was also the writer of the screenplays for Robocop 2 and Robocop 3. In 2005 he brought out Sin City, an ambitious adaptation of his comics, and a film which had enormous success.

The term ‘mineral coal’ (a translation of the French ‘houille’, itself a Gallicised Walloon word) designates a carbonaceous rock with origins in the decomposition of plants in the Carboniferous period. It is one of the three varieties (along with ‘peat’ and brown coal) of what is more commonly known as ‘coal.’ Mineral coal, whose capacity for transformation is greater than that of peat or brown coal, is the coal whose carbon tenor and calorific value is the highest. The variety of mineral coal with the largest proportion of carbon is called ‘anthracite.’ It is still intensively mined today for personal heating, but above all for industrial and energy production.

Intracellular structure (or organelle) measuring approximately one micron, where energy produced by organic molecules is recuperated and stored before being used by the cells.

The cells of eukaryotic organisms contain a nucleus which encloses the chromosomes in which are contained the genes, the cells’ genetic material. When the latter divide, their nuclei also divide. It is this act of nucleus division which is called mitosis. By extension, mitosis designates cell division itself. Mitosis is thus an essential phenomenon and has the task of reproducing identically (unless there is an accident!) the whole of the genetic material – genome – of each cell and to transmit this material to two daughter cells. This type of reproduction thus ends up in forming genetically identical clones (apart from the accidents which can occur during the reproduction of the genome).

During mitosis, the spindle can align the chromosomes in the same plane, in a symmetric manner. This operation is indispensible to cell division.

Also called engram, the mnesic trace refers to the physical substrate of memory in the cerebral circuits.

A different psychic state from the ordinary waking state – dream, trance, hypnotic state, somnambulism, ecstasy, near-death experience, etc.

A protein or protein complex capable of carrying out directed movement when energy is supplied to the system. It is notably active in the transport of proteins in the cell, through the network of microtubules.

The ratio between the mass of a molecule and the atomic mass unit. The mass unit is equivalent to 1/12th of the mass of one atom of carbon 12 (in other words, the weight of hydrogen is equal to 1 and that of carbon to 12) . To calculate the weight of a molecule, one simply adds the atomic mass of each atom of the molecule multiplied by its index in the basic formula. For example, the molecular weight of C6H1206 is : 6X12 + 12X1 + 6X16 = 180.

The magnitude of energy measured during a seism. The more energy the seism has freed, the higher the magnitude. But it consists of a logarithmic scale: an increase of a magnitude of 1 corresponds to a multiplication of energy by 30 and by 10 for the amplitude of ground swing. The best known measuring scale is that imagined by Richter in 1935, which does nevertheless not measure the intensity of energy but rather the amplitude on a seismograph. It is hardly used today. What the media wrongly call the Richter scale in fact corresponds to the scale of moment magnitude conceived by Hiroo Kanamori in 1977. This scale is linked to the seismic moment, a measure of the seism’s energy.

The likelihood that a certain force will make a mechanical system turn around a given point, which is called the “pivot.”

male French economist and politician. He began his career as Deputy Secretary General of the League Of Nations, which was set up at the end of the First World War. From 1923 to 1938, he carried out economic reorganisation missions in Poland, Romania and China. During the war he held different posts within war economy authorities for the Allies. After the conflict he drew up the first plan for modernising and reconstructing France. He was behind the Declaration of May 9, 1950, which laid the foundation of the ESCS, of which he would be the first President.

A type of disease for which only one gene is responsible, e.g., mucoviscidosis

James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States of America, is mainly known for the speech he made before Congress on 18th December, 1823, at a time when Washington had recently recognised the independence of the former Spanish colonies in the American sub-continent. This speech, outlining the contours of the doctrine that bears his name, fixed one of the fundamental basics of United States’ diplomacy. Monroe stipulated that the European states should abstain from intervening in the American continent, and that any such intervention would be considered as a threat to the security of the United States. In return, Washington would intervene neither in European colonies nor in conflicts between European states. This doctrine, temporarily suspended during the two World Wars, served the development of North American influence in Latin America and justified numerous US interventions in the sub-continent’s countries. The Monroe doctrine has often been criticised as being a manifestation of American imperialism, authorising Washington to consider Latin America as its ‘backyard’.

In epidemiology, the rate of morbidity is the ratio that measures the number of sick people in a determined group at a given time. Within the framework of a period of time (often a year), this rate indicates the number of people affected by this illness in relation to the entire population within which this group lives.

The Morin-Chartier method, enriched by university research effected for over forty years, is a content analysis method which enables both quantitative and qualitative research to be carried out in studying the intensity, neutrality, partiality and orientation of the content of a news item or a speech, for example. This analytical method enables the penetration levels of a message to be measured (the media, written press, political speeches, etc.) in order to feed different types of research in social sciences, public relations and communication marketing or in management sciences.

A type of molecule used to modify genetic expression.

Exit pathway for information from the central nervous system, and the final carrier of any motor action. Each motoneuron has an axon that goes out from the central nervous system in order to carry commands to the fibers of muscles. The group made up of a motoneuron and the muscle fibers it can cause to respond is called a motor unit.

Viscous, translucent liquid secreted by the mucous membranes.

An Arab word signifying ‘a combatant in the holy war’ (jihad). The word appeared in the West to designate the Afghan fighters who resisted the invasion of their country by the USSR.

A method by which several States act together in a co-ordinated manner. A mode of discussion, consultation, negotiation and action involving more than two partners. International organisations such as the United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the Organization of American States (OAS) are examples of the institutionalisation of multilateralism. Multilateralism sets itself against unilateralism (thinking and acting alone) and bilateralism (two parties thinking, discussing, negotiating and acting together). Multilateralism has disadvantages (the decision making process is laboured, there are risks of stalling, failure and immobility), and advantages (the impulse to go beyond antagonisms between States and to create regulations and institutions to manage their interdependences, creating compromises which respect the general interest, and including the smallest partners in the decision making process.)

The term ‘myopathy’ refers to a collection of diseases which have the common feature of attacking muscle fibre, triggering muscle degeneration. There is a wide variety of these diseases and the causes are not always the same. Many human myopathies are genetic. Horses can be the victims of this type of illness following excessive physical exercise, or in the case of atypical myopathy, the ingestion of a toxin attacking the mitochondria. Myopathies are serious illnesses which, in humans, often lead to death. But they are never contagious.

The act of myth-making, that is to say creating myths which are often representations of real facts and people but distorted and magnified by the collective imagination. A literary tradition which dates back a long time.