[Industrial property and basic research in the genesis of the mRNA vaccine against COVID-19].

The extreme speed of the design and provisional approval of the covid-19 mRNA vaccines, as well as the speed of their mass production one year after the start of the pandemic, surprised and contradicted all the experts and big pharmaceutical companies who expected years of development. Their superior efficacy to other vaccines should make mRNA vaccines indispensable, but their diffusion remains low outside developed countries. Several reasons are given, ranging from logistical difficulties to mistrust of populations or the impossibility of producing them locally without lifting patents.

[Reforming Biosciences and Health Research: Part I, Funding].

The COVID-19 pandemic occurred in the context of a dramatic decline in support for biological and health research in France. An analysis of resources allocated to this sector shows that the credits in 2020 correspond to only 17.2 % of the total credits allocated to research, the lowest ratio inat least 15 years.

Efficient generation of narrow-bandwidth picosecond pulses by frequency doubling of femtosecond chirped pulses.

We demonstrate efficient generation of picosecond narrow-bandwidth pulses by frequency mixing of broadband opposite chirped pulses in a type I doubling crystal. This procedure allows us to produce picosecond pulses that are perfectly synchronized with femtosecond pulses. The experiment shows a decrease of the initial bandwidth by a factor of more than 30, while a high conversion efficiency is maintained.