The chaos and harmony / Trinh Xuan Thuan Renowned astrophysicist and French language writer, Trinh Xuan Thuan offers everyone the fruit of scientific research in its field in recent decades thanks to works written in simple language and imagery. After "The secret melody" and "The nostalgia of beginnings", "Chaos and Harmony" has shed light on many issues inherent in the birth and evolution of our Universe. Published in 1998, this book is very informative and exciting new discoveries which have taken place since. It is excellent pedagogy to address all major issues relating to the Universe. TXT told us that Nature is beautiful and it will try in a chapter entitled "Truth and Beauty" to define what beauty in general and science in particular: simplicity, consistency and harmonious order. The shaping of the Real follows two principles: the need to ally determinism and contingency allied to chance. The history of the solar system over billions of years is not immune to these two laws. The sun is born from the death of a star whose remains by the play of the agglomeration will give birth to the solar system. The particular case of the Earth and its satellite is well explained, whether the cause of the round of seasons or of the existence of the Moon. The disappearance of the dinosaurs and the successive glaciations are elucidated clearly. And it appears that we'd never stepped in, us Life if the contingency and randomness did not enter in. The twentieth century has seen new theories overshadowing the determinism of Newton and Laplace. A holistic vision of our world is the only one that tackles new paradigms through the reality of things. This is where the chaos theory: small causes great effect. Hence the impossibility of prediction. This is the French scientist Henri Poincaré who gave rise to this revolutionary theory in 1908. His works were not understood and taken in 1961 by Lorentz and his "butterfly effect" !! Then TXT explains harmony through symmetry in nature: snow crystals, physical laws, etc 'neutrinos, tachyons and antimatter Coulomb work Galvani, Volta, Faraday, Oersted and Maxwell on electricity and magnetism are addressed with simplicity to our perfect understanding. And the highlight Einstein's relativity and its implications on the time and space. Black holes, gravitational lenses, singularities and wormholes are reviewed for the delight of our imagination. Just think: 90% of the mass of the universe is invisible because private radiation! What she? Where is she? In a fantastic journey to the edge of space and time TXT takes us to the scientific adventure. The beginning of the next chapter takes us back to ancient times and reflections of Democritus and Leucippus (460-370 Av JC) on the atom. Brilliant intuition! Only with Gassendi and Boyle in the seventeenth century and é Lavoisier and Dalton eighteenth é that one begins to understand the structure of matter. Mendeleyev, Maxwell, Boltzmann and Gibbs will complete the design of the atomic structure of matter. Thomson in 1897 discovered the electron and the nucleus Rutherford. "A nucleus in an atom is like a grain of rice on a stage football'la material is almost empty. " Bohr in 1913 discovered the spectrum of elements and issues the Planck quantum theory of photons and for understanding all these great discoveries. "The radiant energy is not a continuous quantity, but it has a discontinuous structure. " TXT then explains why the colors exist, mentioning that the electrons can change orbits. The work of Louis de Broglie and Schrödinger will highlight the concept of the electron wave equation, and those of Max Born in 1926 the probability wave. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle, very well and simply explained and ubiquitous particles following the work of Young rounds off this amazing building. Everett goes even further by evoking the "tunnel effect" and parallel universes. At the same time research of Rutherford and Chadwick resulted in the discovery of the neutron by the latter and later the "quarks" by Gell-Mann, author of "octal way" for the transmission of the nuclear force strong. Is discussed in the following hidden dimensions theory developed by Kaluza in 1919 and specified by Klein in 1926. Which remained almost forgotten until 1980. Then brought up to date to try to solve the problem of Grand Unification of Forces electromagnetic and gravitational. After this analysis, the author examines the phenomenon of "LIFE". First, explaining the role of asymmetry in our universe, then showing the limits of Darwinism and neo-Darwinism to explain the complexity of living beings throughout the ages; mutations and natural selection does not explain everything. Great thinkers have given a name to this trend organizer, Bergson and his "life force," Teilhard de Chardin and his "Omega". That's the big question: "Why Nature has she bothered to tinker (François Jacob) more organized and more complex organisms? Why is not she remained at the stage of single-celled organisms? Why the Earth Is not today inhabited only cells from dividing their time furiously? Why is endowed with biodiversity? Darwinism can offer no explanation for this systematic progression towards complexity 'Chance is unable to be changing the engine toward complexity' ' There is a principle of holistic organization, self-organization principle that has guided and still guide the evolution of the biosphere. From an epistemological perspective, the methodology to understand and explain our world has evolved over the ages and still needs to create new paradigms to understand the world in its entirety. Is mentioned as the contrast between the Platonic or realistic conception (world of ideas) and constructivist or formalistic conception to locate the nature of physical laws and therefore the world of mathematics. This is a subject of fascinating epistemological. By philosophy, TXT trying to lead us beyond theorems and laws so that we questioned personally about the emergence of certain types of concepts for better assessment of the true nature of things. Personally I can not help thinking about the methodology of Edgar Morin. But that is another subject, albeit in line with the one treated in this book. Ultimately, the incompleteness theorem Gödel coming oppose the reductionist dream and formalistic Hilbert tempers the enthusiasm of researchers when we know that there are many limitations inherent in the very nature of mathematics and physics. A veil of mystery still extend between man and Nature. And that's just as well. A fascinating book from start to finish leading us in the exploration and discussion on all sides.
