Abstract
Transition metal oxides possess remarkable electronic properties, such as superconductivity at high critical temperatures (copper oxides), or the Mott metal-insulator transition (vanadium or nickel oxides, for example). After giving an overview of some of these properties and functionalities, I will attempt a state-of-the-art review of the tools available to the physicist to understand them. I will show how some recent theoretical developments bring the physicist's methods closer to the chemist's vision. One of the current challenges is the control of these phenomena, for which the elaboration of heterostructures or the selective control of certain structural degrees of freedom by light pulses are promising avenues.
