The brainers
Marc Lachièze-Rey – Astrophysicist
Marc Lachièze-Rey is an alumnus of the École normale supérieure (rue d’Ulm) and holds a doctorate in physics. He is currently Director of Research at the CNRS and works at the APC (Astroparticle and Cosmology) laboratory. He specializes in fundamental theoretical physics, and is interested in the relationship between this discipline and mathematics and philosophy. He has written numerous articles and books, including Au-delà de l’espace et du temps : la nouvelle physique (Le Pommier, 2008), Les avatars du vide (Le Pommier, 2005) De l’infini (with J.-P. Luminet, Dunod, 2005), Figures du Ciel (with J.- P. Luminet, Le Seuil / Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, 1998), Initiation à la cosmologie (4th edition, Dunod, 2004), Voyager dans le temps: la physique moderne et la temporalité, (Seuil Sciences Ouvertes 2013) and Einstein à la plage (Dunod, 2015).
This brainer takes part in round-table discussions, offers improvisation sessions and the following solo talks:
The history of sky conceptions
From the Greeks to modern cosmology
The big bang
Description of modern cosmology: “birth of the universe”, formation of galaxies, stars and planets, expansion of the universe, hidden mass, dark energy...
Temporality in physics
Newton's introduction of time into physics, theories of relativity and the disappearance of time, time travel, causality, new conceptions of time.
The celestial journey
The history of voyages to the skies, starting with the imaginary (in the Bible, in literature, etc.), in science fiction, in the development of aeronautics and the conquest of space.
Inventiveness and creativity
An analysis of the great discoveries, with an attempt to decipher the processes of creation and innovation, always at odds with the ideas of the moment.
Mathematics and physics
Pythagoras, Plato, Galileo: arithmetic and geometry are essential to understanding the world. Progress in physics goes hand in hand with progress in mathematics. The mathematics of contemporary physics: new mathematics for a new physics?