Link to read the PDF of the published article (for free) :
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1l%7Eq73QW8SA4Rv

Press release Institut Pasteur:
EN: https://www.pasteur.fr/en/press-area/press-documents/study-suggests-two-unsuspected-pathogens-struck-napoleon-s-army-during-retreat-russia-1812
FR : https://www.pasteur.fr/fr/espace-presse/documents-presse/deux-pathogenes-insoupconnes-auraient-frappe-grande-armee-napoleonienne-lors-retraite-russie-1812

Making Science Accessible: Multilingual and Simplified Versions of This Article:
To bridge the gap between academic research and broader society, we produced multilingual versions of our article, each accompanied by paragraph-by-paragraph simplified explanations. This initiative aims to make cutting-edge research directly accessible to non-specialist audiences—regardless of language or scientific background—so that anyone can read and understand the source of scientific knowledge, not just summaries or digested versions. Created and curated by the authors themselves, these materials ensure both accuracy and clarity, and reflect our commitment to equity in knowledge dissemination. This approach aligns with the Pasteur 2030 strategy to fight inequality, including that between academic and non-academic worlds, and offers a model for inclusive and transparent science communication.

English-Original_accepted_article_with_Simplified explanations Download

Version en français:

Français-Original_accepted_article_with_Simplified explanations Download

Official song of the article, explaining its content in a poetic way:

Teeth Remember (Winter Forgets)

Song’s Lyrics

Note: The lyrics has been produced with help of ChatGPT and the music using AISongGenerator

Verse 1 — The scene
Moscow burned and the road ran white,
Bitter wind and a starving night.
Guns fell silent, frost held sway—
Three hundred thousand slipped away.
Not just battles, not just steel,
But fevered breaths the snow could steal.
 
Chorus
Teeth remember, winter forgets,
Old DNA keeps its secrets.
Not the whole story, but part of the scene—
Paratyphi C and B-recurrentis seen.
Teeth remember, winter forgets,
Thirteen lives, fragment duets.
Cold, hunger, sickness—threads in the net;
Teeth remember, winter forgets.
 
Verse 2 — The discoveries
From a Vilnius grave, thirteen teeth,
Little shards of a buried wreath.
Four with paratyphoid’s trace,
Two with relapsing fever’s face.
Typhus ghosts? Not found here—
But absence isn’t never, dear.

Chorus
Teeth remember, winter forgets,
Old DNA keeps its secrets.
Not the whole story, but part of the scene—
Paratyphi C and B-recurrentis seen.
Teeth remember, winter forgets,
Thirteen lives, two fragment sets
Cold, hunger, sickness—threads in the net;
Teeth remember, winter forgets.
 
Verse 3 — The long-lived lineage
Across two thousand winters’ span,
An ancient Borrelia’s quiet plan—
From Iron Age fields to 1812,
Old branches where its stories dwell.
A lineage lost in modern time,
But singing still in bone and rhyme.
 
Chorus
Teeth remember, winter forgets,
Old DNA keeps its secrets.
Not the whole story, but part of the scene—
Paratyphi C and B-recurrentis seen.
Teeth remember, winter forgets,
Thirteen lives, fragment duets.
Cold, hunger, sickness—threads in the net;
Teeth remember, winter forgets.

Verse 4 — The method (pushing limits)
Tiny fragments, faint and worn,
Post-mortem scars where time has torn.
Filter the noise, confirm what’s true,
Place each piece on the family tree too.
Ultra-low signals, still we see—
Lineage whispers in history.
 
Bridge — The caution
Thirteen souls can’t speak for all,
Nor measure every rise and fall.
Cold, hunger, many ills entwined—
These two pathogens part-defined.
Not the whole cause, but part of the weight,
Threads in a tragic, tangled fate.
 
Final Chorus
Teeth remember, winter forgets,
Old DNA keeps its secrets.
Not the whole story, but part of the scene—
Paratyphi C and B-recurrentis seen.
Teeth remember, winter forgets,
Methods sharpen what time bisects.
Past epidemics, present bets—
Teeth remember, winter forgets.