Science at UM [S02-ep13]: From the resilience of teeth to hummingbirds

[Podcast] - Published on January 26, 2023 in Science-Society

This week on A l’UM la science, Alban Desoutter and Frédéric Cuisinier from the LBN talk to us about enamel drapes, a discovery that could explain the high resistance of our teeth. The report introduces you to Colibri, the world's lightest extracorporeal circulatory assistance system, and Jean-Paul Udave invites you to a conference on the constitutional principle of secularism.

To have long teeth, or to have a grudge against someone, often a hard tooth or, why not, a hollow tooth if you have fangs. Fangs to bite into life with gusto or, on the contrary, to gnash your teeth until they grind. Expressions referring to our canines, molars, and other incisors pepper our vocabulary and thus testify to the importance we attach to our teeth. In psychoanalysis, Gustave Jung and others even interpreted dreams featuring falling teeth as a sign of fear or resistance to change. Don't smile, because it is undoubtedly to prevent little ones from breaking their teeth on this anxiety that our imaginations, armed to the teeth, finally gave birth to a mouse to recover teeth and peace of mind without waiting for chickens to grow teeth.

As you can see, today's topic has us opening our mouths wide to talk about a scientific discovery that could explain the great resistance of our teeth. Alban Desoutter and Frédéric Cuisinier both work at the Bioengineering and Nanosciences Laboratory in Montpellier, the former as a technical assistant and doctoral student, the latter as Professor. Using 3D technology, they discovered a mysterious structure hidden in the hollows of our teeth, which they named enamel drapes. Their findings were published in the journal Archives of Oral Biology.

In the second part of the program, we take you to Montpellier University Hospital, specifically to the anesthesia and intensive care unit at Arnaud de Villeneuve Hospital, where Dr. Philippe Gaudard introduces us to Colibri, the world's lightest extracorporeal circulatory support system.

Finally, our last guest is Jean-Paul Udave, secularism advisor at the University of Montpellier and organizer of the conference on the constitutional principle of secularism, which will be given on February¹ at the Aimé Shoening student center (Richter campus) by Gwénaële Calvès, professor of public law at the University of Cergy-Pontoise.

At UM Science, you have the program, so let's get started!

Co-production: Divergence FM / University of Montpellier
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Lucie Lecherbonnier / Aline Périault
Reporting and editing: Aline Périault
Production: Tom Chevalier

Listen to the program “A l’UM la science” on Divergence FM 93.9

Keywords: Science at UM, Secularism, Research, Science, Company