Catalog All books
Jacques Testard
Eve, or the Clone ?
It's 2016 in Paris. Not much has changed, except that, now, a huge protective wall separates privileged neighborhoods from the surrounding slums, which are crowded which those of inferior genes. A member of the National Committee for Genetic Evaluation, young Eve observes the world around her without much soul-searching. That is, until the day when a series of strange e-mail messages turn her life upside down. Before his death, her father had discovered how to clone human beings. Has he tried out his discovery on his very own daughter? Part scientific fable, part story of love and suspense, Testart brings up ethical questions posed by the possibility of human cloning. Father of the first French test-tube baby, Jacques Testart is director of the in vitro fertilization laboratory at the Antoine-Béclère Hospital.
Jean-François Deniau
The Office of Lost Secrets
La Rochefoucauld once wrote that "neither the sun nor death can be stared at. " The French moralist could have added that truth also can be blinding. Deniau examines several particularly spectacular cases throughout history and under a variety of political regimes, where leaders in the upper echelons of civil and military power have refused to face the truth. He studies major cases in the fields of espionage and international relations, proposing new interpretations of some of these cases, including of the Dreyfus affair. Jean-François Deniau is the author of numerous best-sellers, and a member of the Académie Française.
Harald Fritzsch
E=mc2 A Formula which Changes the World
An imagined account of a meeting between Einstein and Newton, described as a dream. It provides the occasion for a fascinating discussion between two scientific geniuses and a most effective way to be introduced to the mysteries of physics by those who have themselves revolutionised the field. Professor of physics at the University of Munich, Harald Fritzsch is also an associate professor at the CERN of Geneva, and at the California Institute of Technology of Pasadena, in California.
Irène Théry
Modern Relationships and the Family The response of the law to the transformation of the family and the couple
The melting pot where each individual is formed, but also the nucleus of communal life, the family is today a crucial institution of society. However, the current statistics show less, and later marriages, in addition to an increase in divorces and in reconstructed and one parent families, with young people becoming autonomous later as a consequence of these changes. In the face of this, what points of reference should be taken in order to construct the indispensable family policies needed by our country ? With regard to filiation, parental authority, marriage, divorce, cohabitation, and the inheritance and protection of children, how do we adapt the law to these new social realities ? Irène Théry, a sociologist, and author of Démariage, presents in this work an analysis of the state of the family and of private life today, and puts forward the foundations of a new and ambitious step for France.
Serge Renaud
A Healthy Diet
It is possible to eat in a manner that reconciles the demands of staying slim, good health, and general well being - although the steady stream of unhealthy and sometimes dangerous slimming diets would tend to make us believe otherwise. The new health diet proposed here draws much from traditional Cretan eating habits - which seem to be responsible for the populations tenaciously long life. Crete has the highest life-expectancy rate, and its people have the lowest incidence in the western world of cardiovascular diseases, that scourge of the industrialised nations. Serge Renaud is the scientist who discovered that wine can play a role in protecting against cardiovascular diseases - a finding that has become known as the French paradox. After spending much of his career in the United States, he directed a research unit of INSERM (France) for twenty years.
Antoine Danchin
The Delphic Boat What Genomes Tell Us
What is it that constitutes the unity and identity of a living creature ? This is the fundmental question of biology. The recent sequencing techniques provide a completely new response to this question, notably thanks to the knowledge of whole genomes. Antoine Danchin establishes a clear picture of this important biological discovery. He shows in particular that, just like the boat of Delphi, life is beyond prediction, and at the same time has an infinite capacity to create the unexpected. Antoine Danchin is the director of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the Institut Pasteur.
Aldo Naouri
Girls and their Mothers
According to the author, a powerful current of violence flows between daughters and their mothers.