Catalog All books
Jean-Pierre Changeux
The Life of Forms and the Forms of Life
Under the editorship of Jean-Pierre Changeux, a brilliant group of scientists and academics tackle the question of form
Christian de Duve
Seven Lives in One Nobel Prize winner's Memoirs
The life of an exceptional Nobel Prize winner, from childhood to scientific recognition and acclaim
Gisèle Gelbert
Speaking, Reading, Writing In Other Words
A completely original approach to aphasic language disorders...
Philippe Jurgensen
The Error of the West In the face of globalization
Philippe Jurgensen shows how the growing economic gap between North and South is responsible for four major threats that, in the short or long term, will endanger the small group of rich nations that possess three-quarters of the worlds wealth. These four threats demographics, health, the environment, strategy are each analysed in turn in a way that is accessible to non-specialists. Jurgensen shows that the current selfish attitude of the West is not only reprehensible but, above all, dangerous and therefore politically untenable. Philippe Jurgensen is a senior official of the French Treasury.
Pierre Buser
The Brain : Yours and Others
This book is both a careful review of the numerous debates that have stirred--and continue to stir--the cognitive sciences, and a personal essay. The author has tried to elaborate an original theory of psychic activity, based, on the one hand, on the cognitive conscious and the cognitive unconscious, and, on the other, on the cognitive unconscious and the affective unconscious. Pierre Buser, a former director of the Institut des neurosciences at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique, is Professor Emeritus at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, and a member of the Académie des Sciences.
Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, François Heisbourg
Strategic and Military Yearbook 2004
As the consequences of U.S. involvement in Iraq are making themselves felt worldwide, and as the U.S. presidential campaign comes to a climax, this book provides a timely survey of the changing strategic and geopolitical landscape. The articles included here, written by some of the top experts in their fields, evaluate the repercussions for all of us of developments in the world's most powerful nation; they also examine the so-called clash of civilisations and consider the real risks of such a clash. This is an indispensable, complete and informed book that will enable readers to understand present and future changes in the global situation. A veritable gold mine of information, the Annuaire stratégique et militaire provides an annual examination of France's defence situation and allows a comparison with France's partners. François Heisbourg, an internationally renowned specialist in international and defence issues, is the director of the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique (FRS) and president of the International Institute of Strategic Studies. He is the author of Hyperterrorisme: la nouvelle guerre (2001) and the editor of Annuaire stratégique et militaire 2002 (English edition: French Strategic and Military Book) and Annuaire stratégique et militaire 2003, all published by Editions Odile Jacob.
Joël Dehasse
Everything About Dog Psychology
Joël Dehasse’s programme combines in varying proportions the six major types of exercise that dogs need daily: feeding activities, motor activities, vocal activities, chewing activities, game playing, and intellectual activities.
Salikoko S. Mufwene , Cécile Vigouroux
Colonisation, Globalisation and the Dynamism of the French Language
The future of the French language in the world, as seen by two internationally renowned experts
Pierre Roubertoux
Existe-t-il des gènes du comportement ?
Recent advances in genetic research have had widespread and far-reaching influences in fields as varied as animal and plant biology and medicine. They have also upset some ethical rules. Genetics today is in a triumphant, seductive phase, but its limits are yet to be defined. In this book, the eminent French geneticist Pierre Roubertoux argues that genetics has strayed too far from its justifiable areas of application. Soon, genetics may even be applied to the mind and to consciousness, just as it is already being applied to behaviour by scientists who contend that each type of conduct has its corresponding gene (this is tantamount to saying a specific gene is responsible for each virtue and each vice). Scientists who defend this theory say that they have discovered genes linked to various degrees of activity in mice and flies. Thus, intemperance and gluttony would be linked to a genetic partiality to alcohol, sugar or fats. Pride could be explained by a gene for dominance which has allegedly been found in mice. Greed, too, could be explained by a gene. The supposed existence of an infidelity gene was much in the news three years ago. This is a sound scientific synthesis which will enable readers to grasp the contribution of genetics to our comprehension of who and what we are. It should also help them resist the temptation of reducing everything to genetics. Pierre Roubertoux is a professor at the University of Aix-Marseille and a research fellow at the Institute of Physiological and Cognitive Neuroscience at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).
Françoise Héritier, Margarita Xanthakou
Body and Affects
The articles gathered here, written by eminent French anthropologists, present a novel angle on the way societies function. The writers argue that because societies are not abstract intellectual constructions, they cannot be dissociated from the physical individuals that constitute them, or from the affects (feelings and emotions) expressed by them. Included here are studies of Western and non-Western societies on such subjects as skin colour, religious rituals involving animals, witchcraft and flying sorcerers, passion in traditional North African cultures, and breast-feeding (both induced lactation to breastfeed infant girls and spontaneous lactation to breastfeed infant boys) in parts of Italy. Françoise Héritier is an anthropologist and teaches at the Collège de France. She is the author of Les Deux Soeurs et leur mère and Masculin/Féminin I and II, published by Editions Odile Jacob. Margarita Xanthakou, an anthropologist, is a research fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).
Philippe Moati
The Future of Large-Scale Distribution
Few phenomena have changed our urban centres as much as the birth of large-scale distribution: our towns ans cities have been transformed, as have our methods of purchasing, and even our places of social interaction have moved. This is perhaps only the beginning. In this book, Philippe Moati reviews the development of large-scale distribution during the three decades of prosperity that followed World War II and the economic crisis that succeeded them. He analyses the problems encountered by large-scale distribution today and examines the development strategies that are currently being put into practice and the revolutions which are perhaps to come. Philippe Moati teaches economics at the University of Paris-VII and is a director of research at CREDOC.