Tania Louis

France has a reputation for underperformance when it comes to inequalities in education. “As in all countries, pupils do not arrive at primary school on an equal footing: children from poorer backgrounds, for example, know fewer words than those from more privileged backgrounds. But unlike other countries, French schools are unable to reduce this gap. On the contrary, it increases over the course of a child’s education” comments Camille Peugny.

The term is everywhere: from the École de l’Anthropocène in Lyon to a dedicated IGN atlas1 and even two dedicated scientific journals2, everyone – scientists included – is using the concept of the Anthropocene. This new geological era is characterised by a significant global human footprint on the planet. But the term is not officially recognised.

Out-of-body experiences, meeting deceased loved ones, seeing a light at the end of a tunnel… These images and sensations are recounted by people who have come close to the boundary between life and death. Near-death experiences only became of real interest to science in the 1970s, yet they are not that uncommon and they say something about our consciousness.