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"Malicorne is a small village in Puisaye,
the country of Colette, in the north of Burgundy. It's a
lush landscape, green, gently rolling, where you can dispense
with your watch and adapt to the rhythms of nature. There,
I am at peace. Alert to sounds and smells, I wake to the
tranquil presence of the natural world. I feel alive on
the surface of planet Earth at this precise moment in the
evolution of the universe."
In this his most personal book, internationally
acclaimed astrophysicist and author Hubert Reeves investigates
the relationship between science and culture, between what
we know and what we do, between artistic creation and the
unfolding of life in the cosmos.
Gifted with the ability to make complex
ideas easy to understand, Reeves makes a daring attempt
to show how recent scientific developments must affect our
attitudes toward society, the future, and our fellow man.
"Scientific discoveries have profoundly altered our
view of the world," he says, but the shift in consciousness
is often slow."
At a time when the fate of our planet may
depend on just such a shift, Reeves shows us how an adequate
understanding of contemporary science is the best possible
antidote to apathy and how the creative impulse is the natural
extension of the creative force that animates the universe.
Canadian Hubert Reeves received his doctorate
in nuclear astrophysics from Cornell University and now
lives in France, where he is director of research at the
Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris.
He is also associate professor of physics at the University
of Montreal. His books include The Hour of Our Delight
and Atoms of Science.
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