Science and technology in France

Scientific research in the country is supported by industry, by the network of French universities and by higher education establishments outside the main framework, Grandes écoles.

France is home to some of the world's oldest universities (Montpellier, Paris) although they were, at the time of their foundation, more centered on philosophy, theology and law than on science.

The theoretical foundations and mathematical framework of special relativity were laid by Henri Poincaré, before Albert Einstein used them in 1905 and later.

[5] (see also Adding machine) Probability theory was developed by Pierre de Fermat and Blaise Pascal in the seventeenth century (with Gerolamo Cardano and Christiaan Huygens).

The fictitious mathematician Nicolas Bourbaki's "association of collaborators" is based at École Normale Supérieure in France.