The scene takes place in Syracuse, in the third century BC. An enchanting spirit came screaming from her bath “eureka!”. Archimedes had just discovered the law of hydrostatics. The anecdote, reported centuries later by the Roman Vitruvians, was never proven, but its alluring power has driven it for centuries. Find discovery forever with enlightenment. Eureka was to Archimedes like an apple to Newton: a moment of euphoria when suddenly everything became clear. But… nothing “Eureka moment” ! At least, if any, there are exceptions. The award-winning achievement of a colossal work fueled by doubt and sleepless nights, experiences repeated thousands of times, hypotheses shared, discussed, disproved… So science, which often rhymes with patience, goes far beyond the great heroic tales that are happy for him. telling you.
No, Einstein was not the only genius!
‘It’s a slow construction, always collective,reminds us of the philosopher and historian of science Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent at the opening of this edition. And for what every researcher who struggles with a small problem brings his stone” , including the object of research that can make a smile *. No, Einstein was not the only genius! Nothing more than Kepler or Marie Curie… There is no general relativity without mathematicians Bernhard Riemann and Marcel Grossmann – the geometry of the one and the suggestion of the other. As brilliant as he is, the author of an invention belongs to his time, to his laboratory. And builds on the work of its predecessors.
Newton wrote it, and the philosopher Bernard de Chartres long before him: we are dwarves sitting on the shoulders of giants… From atoms to neurons, from black holes to Neanderthals, discoveries – huge – collect in this column which we allow, on closer examination, to understand how science is done. “The scientific method is an ideal that doesn’t exist anywhere, warns historians. Actually, there are some…”Therefore, we choose to ‘classify’ these scientific objects according to the important parameters they can find: here, spectacular improvement of techniques and instruments, there, intuition, change of view or accumulation of data…
“Happiness only favors the prepared mind”
Not forgetting chance, even coincidence: it was Röntgen who happened to discover X-rays; Fleming, the bactericidal properties of a form from which it will extract penicillin. They weren’t surprised by the flash of genius. They are gentle with unexpected phenomena. To illustrate Pasteur’s famous observation: “Happiness only favors the prepared mind”. Let’s change the focus, as Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent invites us to do and observe … The discoveries that paved the way for this new understanding of reality did not eventually emerge as ‘some island of knowledge in an unknown ocean’? Knowledge is infinite… So let us, as we enter a world time which in turn seems to end in many ways, hope: that the conditions for the future creation of Archimedes will always be fulfilled. And may the adventure continue!
* So these works are awarded annually at Harvard by Ig Nobels – a pastiche of the coveted prize – and with that we have sown the subject: their interest… sometimes not so quickly.
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