Physics, Chemistry All books
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).
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.
Jean-Pierre Pharabod
UFWs Unidentified Flying Weapons
Most reported sightings of UFOs turn out to be errors, optical illusions, hallucinations, and even practical jokes. But five per cent of all reported cases are more difficult to dismiss. According to the author, the unidentified objects may be clandestine terrestrial aircraft prototypes or secret weapons launched by the major industrialised nations, particularly the United States. Should the mysterious sightings be attributed to UFOs or to UFWs (Unidentified Flying Weapons)?