Catalog All books
James Gleick
Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics
Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize winner for his work on the description and calculation of interactions between particles, was a genius of our time. Quantum physics theoretician, enfant terrible of the Manhattan project and ascerbic critic of the investigative committee of the American space shuttle, Feynman left a profound impression on modern physics. James Gleick, a former journalist at The New York Times and author of the best-selling Chaos Theory, tells how Feynman's ideas were formed and how he reinvented particle physics. Through this portrait, Gleick explores the nature of genius itself and provides insight about the fascination that it engenders.
Éric Albert
How to Use Stress to Your Advantage
Stress, which is a product of our busy and agitated societies, does not necessarily occupy our private life. For many of us, stress is part of our professional life. What should we do in order to work better? How is it possible to put into place working and relational methods which favour efficiency and dynamism without exerting undue pressure? How can we avoid falling apart ? Éric Albert, a psychiatrist, explains what we know of stress today and moreover gives us facts which can help us analyze the way we work and how we can improve what can be improved.
Étienne Guyon, Jean-Paul Troadec
From a Bag of Marbles to a Heap of Sand
Why don't sand dunes collapse? How does sand flow in an hourglass? How is it possible to empty a silo of all its wheat? What's a ceramic? The answer to all these questions can be found in the science of the complex organizations of matter, a science which is pluridisciplinary. Étienne Guyon, head of the École Normale Supérieure, and Jean-Paul Troadec, a researcher, present the characteristics of grain matter, the rules by which it is organized (in both crystal and fluid) as well as its movements (in silos as in avalanches).
Jacques Hochmann
Consolation An Essay on Mental Care
This is the testimony of a psychiatrist who reconsiders some of the fundamental texts of his practice, of a psychoanalyst who reflects upon the role and the limits of hospitals and institutions, of a doctor who never ceased asking himself what curing madness meant.
Luc Montagnier
Viruses and Man
Luc Montagnier is the person who, with his team of the Pasteur Institute, discovered in 1983 the virus responsible for AIDS. He tells about the research work which led him to this discovery. He sums up the knowledge we have of this virus, its origin and the way the disease develops. He gives the state of research today and his hopes.
Janine Mossuz-Lavau
The French and Politics An Investigation of a Crisis
Are the French really discouraged and depoliticized? Janine Mossuz-Lavau decided to go into the field, to interview the people and give them a voice. What are they suffering from? What do they want? What do they believe in? These are the questions that she attempts to answer after having questioned men and women of all ages and social backgrounds, from all regions and personal affinities. Political analyst Janine Mossuz-Lavau is a Research Director at CNRS and the National Foundation of Political Science.
Jean-Denis Bredin
A Comedy of Appearance
A beautiful woman fascinated by her body, excludes herself from the world to love herself better... Two lovers tear each other apart after promising to always tell the truth to one another... Both cruel and funny, these short-stories describe the unease of a society, ours, which is dying of appearances, a society where everyone, man and woman, resembles what he she would like to be. Narcissism, lies, selfishness: the foundations of happiness are quite fragile nowadays. Through these acid portrayals, Jean-Denis Bredin, a lawyer and a writer, member of the French Academy, evokes a new era of suspicion.
Jean-Louis André
At the Heart of Urbanity
What should be done about neglected suburbs, the bedroom towns, dehumanized, and deregulated ? When we are faced with buildings in ruins, with wasteland and concrete deserts ? The answer is to stop trying to fix the obvious defects of these surburbs and instead concentrate on the heart of the town, in the common space, which must take on the changes made and symbolise an identity. Jean-Louis André, graduate of the Ecole normale supérieure, is a journalist. He has notably published with Ricardo Bofill, The Spaces of A Life.
Christian Jacob
The Key to Fields Agriculture is no longer what you think
Is our agriculture moribund and our farmers condemned? Not necessarily. Christian Jacob's work tells the story of the path taken by a young farmer, while taking a critical look at both French and European agricultural politics and the snares of GATT. He argues that, rather than protect the rural world, it is necessary above all to help modernize it by providing methods that allow for increased income and sharpened competiveness. Christian Jacobs was the President of the Centre National des Jeunes Agriculteurs. He is currently a deputy in the European Parliament.
Libby Purves
How Not to be a Perfect Mother
Are you one of those perfect mothers or are you a real mother? Perfect mothers always smile, always have immaculate homes, never raise their voices....