La lumière

Light binds us to the cosmos. But it is not only essential to the astronomer. We are all his children. The one that comes from the Sun is a source of life. Whether natural or artificial, the light allows us not only to contemplate the world, but also to interact with it and evolve in it. It not only gives us to see, it also gives us to think.

From the most remote times to nowadays, light has always fascinated the minds of men, whether they are scientists, philosophers, artists, or religious. Trinh Xuan Thuan will retrace during this exceptional evening, the epic story of the efforts that men have provided to penetrate in the heart of the kingdom of light and unlock its secrets. He will explore for more than an hour not only the scientific and technological dimensions of light, but also its aesthetic, artistic and spiritual dimensions. This leading astrophysicist and professor at the University of Virginia will present the physics of light, but also his metaphysics.

Facing the size, age and violence of the universe, what does the light tell us? How does light allow us to be human? What links between science and philosophy, religion?

Trinh Xuan Thuan is from Hanoi, Vietnam. He studied at the California Institute of Technology and Princeton University in the United States. Since 1976, he is professor of astrophysics at the University of Virginia. As a specialist in extragalactic astronomy, he has written numerous articles on the evolution of galaxies and on the synthesis of elements in the big bang. He pursues a work of vulgarization, communicating to the general public the scientific vision of the universe and the place of man in the cosmos. He has published, among others, La Mélodie secrète (1991), Le Chaos et l’Harmonie (2000), L’infini dans la paume de la main (2002), Origines (2006), Les voies de la lumière (200), et Voyage au cœur de la lumière (2008).

Le Soir, Premier Cercle™