Related papers: Michel Henon, a playfull and simplifying mind
Paper in honour of Michel Henon, based on a talk presented at Institut Henri Poincare, Paris, 5 Decembre 2013.
Short summary of the contribution of Michel Henon to the subject of stellar dynamics.
"Mathematicians, like physicists, are pushed by a strong fascination. Research in mathematics is hard, it is intellectually painful even if it is rewarding, and you would not do it without some strong urge." [D. Ruelle]. We shall give some…
This article reviews Michel Henon's contributions to a diverse set of problems in astrophysical dynamics, including violent relaxation, Saturn's rings, roundoff error in orbit integrations, and planet formation.
This paper is a faithful description of the author's career as a scientist, which often intersected that of Yves Couder. The emphasis of this paper is a true description of how the science that the author has been associated with really…
In this rather popular paper we stress some basics of the theory and the huge amount of applications of the Heun functions, as well as the still existing basic unsolved problems. The point is to attract more attention to this modern…
Rather than offering chronologically ordered encyclopedic knowledge of a lifetime, only some of the most striking events of the existence of this well-known scientist are here pointed out. Sections: Life; Man of laws; Interest in…
A sketch of some of the fundamental notions related to the nature of knowledge is offered, with special focus on the role of mathematics and my own opinions. No single idea exposed here is entirely original; indeed, this topic has been…
The only rational way of educating is to be an example. If one cant help it, a warning example. Albert Einstein. I had the good fortune and privilege of having Michael Fisher as my teacher, supervisor, mentor and friend. During my years as…
I present some reminiscences, both personal and scientific, over a lifetime of admiration of, and friendship with, one of the Grandmasters of our subject.
Isaac Newton, in popular imagination the Ur-scientist, was an outstanding humanist scholar. His researches on, among others, ancient philosophy, are thorough and appear to be connected to and fit within his larger philosophical and…
This paper collects some problems that I have encountered during the years, have puzzled me and which, to the best of my knowledge, are still open. Most of them are well-known and have been first stated by other authors. In this sad season…
Over the past several years, the authors have served as teachers, qualified scientists, mentors, and/or parents on dozens of science projects. These projects ranged from elementary school projects that can be completed in a weekend to high…
Philosophy of science attempts to describe all parts of the scientific process in a general way in order to facilitate the description, execution and improvements of this process. So far, all proposed philosophies have only covered existing…
In this manuscript various components of research are listed and briefly discussed. The topics considered in this write-up cover a part of the research methodology paper of Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) course and Doctor of Philosophy…
Paper has a lot of interesting properties with which quite a lot of standard topics of science education can be turned into hands-on activities. Among others, experiments are presented on elasticity, capillarity, feedback oscillations,…
Science is a crowning glory of the human spirit and its applications remain our best hope for social progress. But there are limitations to current science and perhaps to any science. The general mind-body problem is known to be intractable…
Handedness, or chirality, has been a continuing source of inspiration across a wide range of scientific problems. After a quick review of some important, instructive historical examples, I present three contemporary case studies involving…
The author reflects on the significance of Einstein's brain and the search for what makes it distinct.
This invited memoir looks back on my scientific career that straddles the solar and stellar branches of astrophysics, with sprinklings of historical context and personal opinion. Except for a description of my life up to my Ph.D. phase, the…