My thingy (a smartphone) is not smart. Versatile and fast, yes; intelligent, not at all. It controls a lot of routines and no reasoning. That is not intelligence.

In education, urban planning, sustainability, in any domain, we tend to slide down the anecdotal slope of casuistry. Everything becomes a specific case.

In the vernacular, theory amounts to opinion. Everyone has theories. But in science, a theory is a verified body of knowledge.

In a group of islets in the North of Madagascar, a hitherto unknown chameleon species has been found whose adults barely reach 3 cm in length. This minuscule chameleon has the same bone arrangement as any gigantic crocodile.

Our economic system has learned to put a price to production and commerce. But it has not assessed the cost of the outsourcing of cumulative residual materials

In Sarlat, the Perigord city with a splendid medieval centre, there is a sheltered market inside a desacrilised church. The reform was supervised by the architect Jean Nouvel, born in Fumèl, a nearby town. A quote from Jean Baudrillard can be read over the immense nave door: «Architecture is a mixture of nostalgia and extreme anticipation».

Science springs from a method that measures and contrasts. Without measurements, thinking is something vague. But life-cycle assessors have no thermometers. The lay their hands on the sick creature’s forehead and knit their brows

Above all, Hedy Lamarr was interested in sinking German submarines. She was an actress who, deep down, wanted to be an inventor. And she was.