Science All books
Christian de Duve, Jean Vandenhaute
On Science and Other Matters
In these posthumously published interviews, the late Christian De Duve, Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, gives his views on some of the major issues of our times
Nicolas Gisin
Unthinkable Randomness Non-Locality, Teleportation and Other Quantum Wonders
An indispensable book to finally understand the fascinating world of quantum physics
Mani Saignavongs, Benjamin Baret
Extraordinary Stories (about Brains)
A dozen short stories, which can be read individually, depending on the reader’s inclination, each one illuminating an episode in the life of our brain: how it remembers, how it is afraid, how it sees, how it recognizes, how it speaks…
André Miquel
Two Stories of Love (Work of the Collège de France) From Majnûn to Tristan
How does absolute passion express itself in Middle-Eastern and in Western societies?
Génération Snooze
Snooze
Written by two practitioners of Artificial Intelligence, this book is both very accessible and very concrete.
Alain Connes, Patrick Gautier-Lafaye
In the Shadow of Grothendieck and Lacan An overview of the unconscious
An original insight into the links between the work of a psychoanalyst fascinated by mathematics and a mathematical genius fascinated by the mind.
Stanislas Dehaene
Science Helping Schools
Presented in a concise and clear way, the most important discoveries concerning the brains of the youngest students.
Jacques Arnould
The Earth Under Surveillance
he history of space technology (particularly on the subject of spy or reconnaissance satellites) and the hopes and fears raised by space exploration.
Christian Rémésy
Sustainable Food
The author explains how to establish eating habits that are truly preventive.
Philippe Cury, Daniel Pauly
Eat Your Jellyfish! Human Impact on Nature
An uncompromising picture of overexploitation, especially of marine resources. Examples of certain actions that have been successfully undertaken show (perhaps) that all has not yet been lost.
Claude de Calan, Pierre Etaix
The Clown and the Wise Man
"One of us is an acrobat and a filmmaker who tries to provoke laughter; the other one tries to contribute to the progress of mathematical physics. Yet, we could endlessly throw our ideas back and forth. The surprising closeness of our approaches, the strange fraternity between our two disciplines, which are as far away from each other in their goals as in their techniques, gave us great joy. It is our feeling of wonder that wed like to share here," write Pierre Etaix and Claude de Calan. Sometimes known as the French Buster Keaton, Pierre Etaix is a master of burlesque and the inventor of unequalled visual gags. Claude de Calan is a scientist at the Centre of Theoretical Physics at the Ecole Polytechnique.
Étienne Ghys
Snowflakes: A Wonder of Nature
An introduction to the science of crystals within the reach of non-specialists, with a very clear introduction to the physical and mathematical aspects of the subject.
Rita Levi Montalcini
Your Future A Nobel Prize which speaks to young people
When a great scientist makes a point of getting through to young people and those around them.... When a Nobel prize brings within everyones reach all the key principles of biology.... When an exceptional woman passes down to new generations the values on which she has based her life.... Science with a conscience ! Rita Levi Montalcini recieved the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Born in Turin, but forced from Italy by the Fascism, she has for many years taught in the United States.
Bernard Lechevalier
Mozart's Brain
In this book, the author uses episodes from Mozarts life which illustrate a specific aspect of musical perception. He explores the mechanisms of musical memory - how is it mentally possible to memorise a fifteen-minute musical composition for nine voices, in two choirs? Is this ability due to a listening technique? To an emotionally-based one? What mental operations are at work in musical memory, in general? Bernard Lechevalier is a neurologist specialising in neuropsychology, and a professor of neurology and medicine in teaching hospitals.
Christian de Duve
Listening to the Living
Everything one should know about biology is explained here by a Nobel Prize winner, including the origin of life, its chemical production and reproduction, the history of life, its earliest forms and also human evolution, the brain, the genius of genetics, and extra-terrestrial life. Finally, the author shows that although biology has undermined arguments in favour of the existence of God, religion and faith are a necessary product of nature selection. Christian de Duve is the director of the Brussels-based International Institute on Cellular Pathology. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 for his findings concerning the structural and functional organisation of cells.
François Ansermet, Pierre Magistretti
To Each His Own Brain Biology of the Unconscious
This book is the result of the coming together of psychoanalysis and neuroscience around the shared observation that experience leaves a mark. Although the idea that experience produces psychic imprints - whether conscious or unconscious - has always been central to psychoanalysis, it was not until recently that findings in neurobiology demonstrated that neuronal plasticity existed and that it operated throughout a person's life. This constant remodelling in relation to experience poses certain basic questions about each individual's identity and future. How does psychic life emerge from experience and from what it imprints? What are the respective contributions of external stimuli (the reality behind experience) and of internal stimuli (the imprinted marks)? How do the mechanisms of synaptic plasticity participate in the establishment of an unconscious internal reality? What is the role of the body in this new dynamic organisation? This book provides the foundations for a better understanding of the relations between neuroscience and psychoanalysis and offers an original theory of the unconscious, by combining recent findings in neurobiology with the basic principles of psychoanalysis. Eschewing genetic determinism, it shows that each individual is different and each brain unique. Pierre Magistretti, a physician and neurobiologist, is a professor of physiology and director of the Centre for Psychiatric Neuroscience at the University of Lausanne's medical school. In addition, he is the president of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies. François Ansermet is a psychoanalyst and professor of child and adolescent psychology at the University of Lausanne. He is the co-author, with O. Halfon and B. Pierrehumbert, of Filiations psychiques (Presses Universitaires de France, 2000).
Jean-Pierre Luminet, Élisa Brune
Good News from the Stars
This book describes the current state of knowledge on astronomy, without taking the form of a science lesson.
