Author: Éric Charpentier
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 082184718X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 410
Book Description
Henri Poincare (1854-1912) was one of the greatest scientists of his time, perhaps the last one to have mastered and expanded almost all areas in mathematics and theoretical physics. In this book, twenty world experts present one part of Poincare's extraordinary work. Each chapter treats one theme, presenting Poincare's approach, and achievements.
The Scientific Legacy of Poincare
Author: Éric Charpentier
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 082184718X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 410
Book Description
Henri Poincare (1854-1912) was one of the greatest scientists of his time, perhaps the last one to have mastered and expanded almost all areas in mathematics and theoretical physics. In this book, twenty world experts present one part of Poincare's extraordinary work. Each chapter treats one theme, presenting Poincare's approach, and achievements.
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 082184718X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 410
Book Description
Henri Poincare (1854-1912) was one of the greatest scientists of his time, perhaps the last one to have mastered and expanded almost all areas in mathematics and theoretical physics. In this book, twenty world experts present one part of Poincare's extraordinary work. Each chapter treats one theme, presenting Poincare's approach, and achievements.
Henri Poincaré
Author: Ferdinand Verhulst
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461424070
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
The book describes the life of Henri Poincaré, his work style and in detail most of his unique achievements in mathematics and physics. Apart from biographical details, attention is given to Poincaré's contributions to automorphic functions, differential equations and dynamical systems, celestial mechanics, mathematical physics in particular the theory of the electron and relativity, topology (analysis situs). A chapter on philosophy explains Poincaré's conventionalism in mathematics and his view of conventionalism in physics; the latter has a very different character. In the foundations of mathematics his position is between intuitionism and axiomatics. One of the purposes of the book is to show how Poincaré reached his fundamentally new results in many different fields, how he thought and how one should read him. One of the new aspects is the description of two large fields of his attention: dynamical systems as presented in his book on `new methods for celestial mechanics' and his theoretical physics papers. At the same time it will be made clear how analysis and geometry are intertwined in Poincaré's thinking and work.In dynamical systems this becomes clear in his description of invariant manifolds, his association of differential equation flow with mappings and his fixed points theory. There is no comparable book on Poincaré, presenting such a relatively complete vision of his life and achievements. There exist some older biographies in the French language, but they pay only restricted attention to his actual work. The reader can obtain from this book many insights in the working of a very original mind while at the same time learning about fundamental results for modern science
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461424070
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
The book describes the life of Henri Poincaré, his work style and in detail most of his unique achievements in mathematics and physics. Apart from biographical details, attention is given to Poincaré's contributions to automorphic functions, differential equations and dynamical systems, celestial mechanics, mathematical physics in particular the theory of the electron and relativity, topology (analysis situs). A chapter on philosophy explains Poincaré's conventionalism in mathematics and his view of conventionalism in physics; the latter has a very different character. In the foundations of mathematics his position is between intuitionism and axiomatics. One of the purposes of the book is to show how Poincaré reached his fundamentally new results in many different fields, how he thought and how one should read him. One of the new aspects is the description of two large fields of his attention: dynamical systems as presented in his book on `new methods for celestial mechanics' and his theoretical physics papers. At the same time it will be made clear how analysis and geometry are intertwined in Poincaré's thinking and work.In dynamical systems this becomes clear in his description of invariant manifolds, his association of differential equation flow with mappings and his fixed points theory. There is no comparable book on Poincaré, presenting such a relatively complete vision of his life and achievements. There exist some older biographies in the French language, but they pay only restricted attention to his actual work. The reader can obtain from this book many insights in the working of a very original mind while at the same time learning about fundamental results for modern science
Henri Poincaré
Author: Jeremy Gray
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691242038
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 608
Book Description
A comprehensive look at the mathematics, physics, and philosophy of Henri Poincaré Henri Poincaré (1854–1912) was not just one of the most inventive, versatile, and productive mathematicians of all time—he was also a leading physicist who almost won a Nobel Prize for physics and a prominent philosopher of science whose fresh and surprising essays are still in print a century later. The first in-depth and comprehensive look at his many accomplishments, Henri Poincaré explores all the fields that Poincaré touched, the debates sparked by his original investigations, and how his discoveries still contribute to society today. Math historian Jeremy Gray shows that Poincaré's influence was wide-ranging and permanent. His novel interpretation of non-Euclidean geometry challenged contemporary ideas about space, stirred heated discussion, and led to flourishing research. His work in topology began the modern study of the subject, recently highlighted by the successful resolution of the famous Poincaré conjecture. And Poincaré's reformulation of celestial mechanics and discovery of chaotic motion started the modern theory of dynamical systems. In physics, his insights on the Lorentz group preceded Einstein's, and he was the first to indicate that space and time might be fundamentally atomic. Poincaré the public intellectual did not shy away from scientific controversy, and he defended mathematics against the attacks of logicians such as Bertrand Russell, opposed the views of Catholic apologists, and served as an expert witness in probability for the notorious Dreyfus case that polarized France. Richly informed by letters and documents, Henri Poincaré demonstrates how one man's work revolutionized math, science, and the greater world.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691242038
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 608
Book Description
A comprehensive look at the mathematics, physics, and philosophy of Henri Poincaré Henri Poincaré (1854–1912) was not just one of the most inventive, versatile, and productive mathematicians of all time—he was also a leading physicist who almost won a Nobel Prize for physics and a prominent philosopher of science whose fresh and surprising essays are still in print a century later. The first in-depth and comprehensive look at his many accomplishments, Henri Poincaré explores all the fields that Poincaré touched, the debates sparked by his original investigations, and how his discoveries still contribute to society today. Math historian Jeremy Gray shows that Poincaré's influence was wide-ranging and permanent. His novel interpretation of non-Euclidean geometry challenged contemporary ideas about space, stirred heated discussion, and led to flourishing research. His work in topology began the modern study of the subject, recently highlighted by the successful resolution of the famous Poincaré conjecture. And Poincaré's reformulation of celestial mechanics and discovery of chaotic motion started the modern theory of dynamical systems. In physics, his insights on the Lorentz group preceded Einstein's, and he was the first to indicate that space and time might be fundamentally atomic. Poincaré the public intellectual did not shy away from scientific controversy, and he defended mathematics against the attacks of logicians such as Bertrand Russell, opposed the views of Catholic apologists, and served as an expert witness in probability for the notorious Dreyfus case that polarized France. Richly informed by letters and documents, Henri Poincaré demonstrates how one man's work revolutionized math, science, and the greater world.
Henri Poincare: A Biography Through The Daily Papers
Author: Jean-marc Ginoux
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814556637
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261
Book Description
On July 17, 2012, the centenary of Henri Poincaré's death was commemorated; his name being associated with so many fields of knowledge that he was considered as the Last Universalist. In Pure and Applied Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Engineering and Philosophy, his works have had a great impact all over the world. Poincaré acquired in his lifetime such a reputation that, both nationally and internationally, his life and career were made the object of various articles in the daily papers not only in France, but also in the USA. Some of his philosophical concepts have even caused sharp controversies in the Press (as we will discover in this book).This work presents an original portrait of Henri Poincaré based on various press cuttings from The New York Times, The San Francisco Sunday Call, The Times, The Sun, The Washington Post that chronicled unknown anecdotes of his life (for example, his first name was actually not Henri, but Henry; he obtained his high school diploma in sciences with a zero in mathematics, etc.). Such an approach enables the discovering of many forgotten or unknown aspects of his scientific and philosophical works as well as his important role in the public sphere.
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814556637
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261
Book Description
On July 17, 2012, the centenary of Henri Poincaré's death was commemorated; his name being associated with so many fields of knowledge that he was considered as the Last Universalist. In Pure and Applied Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Engineering and Philosophy, his works have had a great impact all over the world. Poincaré acquired in his lifetime such a reputation that, both nationally and internationally, his life and career were made the object of various articles in the daily papers not only in France, but also in the USA. Some of his philosophical concepts have even caused sharp controversies in the Press (as we will discover in this book).This work presents an original portrait of Henri Poincaré based on various press cuttings from The New York Times, The San Francisco Sunday Call, The Times, The Sun, The Washington Post that chronicled unknown anecdotes of his life (for example, his first name was actually not Henri, but Henry; he obtained his high school diploma in sciences with a zero in mathematics, etc.). Such an approach enables the discovering of many forgotten or unknown aspects of his scientific and philosophical works as well as his important role in the public sphere.
Henri Poincaré, 1912–2012
Author: Bertrand Duplantier
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3034808348
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
This thirteenth volume of the Poincaré Seminar Series, Henri Poincaré, 1912-2012, is published on the occasion of the centennial of the death of Henri Poincaré in 1912. It presents a scholarly approach to Poincaré’s genius and creativity in mathematical physics and mathematics. Its five articles are also highly pedagogical, as befits their origin in lectures to a broad scientific audience. Highlights include “Poincaré’s Light” by Olivier Darrigol, a leading historian of science, who uses light as a guiding thread through much of Poincaré ’s physics and philosophy, from the application of his superior mathematical skills and the theory of diffraction to his subsequent reflections on the foundations of electromagnetism and the electrodynamics of moving bodies; the authoritative “Poincaré and the Three-Body Problem” by Alain Chenciner, who offers an exquisitely detailed, hundred-page perspective, peppered with vivid excerpts from citations, on the monumental work of Poincaré on this subject, from the famous (King Oscar’s) 1889 memoir to the foundations of the modern theory of chaos in “Les méthodes nouvelles de la mécanique céleste.” A profoundly original and scholarly presentation of the work by Poincaré on probability theory is given by Laurent Mazliak in “Poincaré’s Odds,” from the incidental first appearance of the word “probability” in Poincaré’s famous 1890 theorem of recurrence for dynamical systems, to his later acceptance of the unavoidability of probability calculus in Science, as developed to a great extent by Emile Borel, Poincaré’s main direct disciple; the article by Francois Béguin, “Henri Poincaré and the Uniformization of Riemann Surfaces,” takes us on a fascinating journey through the six successive versions in twenty-six years of the celebrated uniformization theorem, which exemplifies the Master’s distinctive signature in the foundational fusion of mathematics and physics, on which conformal field theory, string theory and quantum gravity so much depend nowadays; the final chapter, “Harmony and Chaos, On the Figure of Henri Poincaré” by the filmmaker Philippe Worms, describes the homonymous poetical film in which eminent scientists, through mathematical scenes and physical experiments, display their emotional relationship to the often elusive scientific truth and universal “harmony and chaos” in Poincaré’s legacy. This book will be of broad general interest to physicists, mathematicians, philosophers of science and historians.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3034808348
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
This thirteenth volume of the Poincaré Seminar Series, Henri Poincaré, 1912-2012, is published on the occasion of the centennial of the death of Henri Poincaré in 1912. It presents a scholarly approach to Poincaré’s genius and creativity in mathematical physics and mathematics. Its five articles are also highly pedagogical, as befits their origin in lectures to a broad scientific audience. Highlights include “Poincaré’s Light” by Olivier Darrigol, a leading historian of science, who uses light as a guiding thread through much of Poincaré ’s physics and philosophy, from the application of his superior mathematical skills and the theory of diffraction to his subsequent reflections on the foundations of electromagnetism and the electrodynamics of moving bodies; the authoritative “Poincaré and the Three-Body Problem” by Alain Chenciner, who offers an exquisitely detailed, hundred-page perspective, peppered with vivid excerpts from citations, on the monumental work of Poincaré on this subject, from the famous (King Oscar’s) 1889 memoir to the foundations of the modern theory of chaos in “Les méthodes nouvelles de la mécanique céleste.” A profoundly original and scholarly presentation of the work by Poincaré on probability theory is given by Laurent Mazliak in “Poincaré’s Odds,” from the incidental first appearance of the word “probability” in Poincaré’s famous 1890 theorem of recurrence for dynamical systems, to his later acceptance of the unavoidability of probability calculus in Science, as developed to a great extent by Emile Borel, Poincaré’s main direct disciple; the article by Francois Béguin, “Henri Poincaré and the Uniformization of Riemann Surfaces,” takes us on a fascinating journey through the six successive versions in twenty-six years of the celebrated uniformization theorem, which exemplifies the Master’s distinctive signature in the foundational fusion of mathematics and physics, on which conformal field theory, string theory and quantum gravity so much depend nowadays; the final chapter, “Harmony and Chaos, On the Figure of Henri Poincaré” by the filmmaker Philippe Worms, describes the homonymous poetical film in which eminent scientists, through mathematical scenes and physical experiments, display their emotional relationship to the often elusive scientific truth and universal “harmony and chaos” in Poincaré’s legacy. This book will be of broad general interest to physicists, mathematicians, philosophers of science and historians.
Ether and Modernity
Author: Jaume Navarro
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192517791
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
Ether and Modernity offers a snapshot of the status of an epistemic object, the "ether" (or "aether"), in the early twentieth century. The contributed papers show that the ether was often regarded as one of the objects of modernity, hand in hand with the electron, radioactivity or X-rays, and not simply as the stubborn residue of an old-fashioned, long-discarded science. The prestige and authority of scientists and popularisers like Oliver Lodge and Arthur Eddington in Britain, Phillip Lenard in Germany or Dayton C. Miller in the USA was instrumental in the preservation, defence or even re-emergence of the ether in the 1920s. Moreover, the consolidation of wireless communications and radio broadcasting, indeed a very modern technology, brought the ether into audiences that would otherwise never have heard about such an esoteric entity. The ether also played a pivotal role among some artists in the early twentieth century: the values of modernism found in the complexities and contradictions of modern physics, such as wireless action or wave-particle puzzles, a fertile ground for the development of new artistic languages; in literature as much as in the pictorial and performing arts. Essays on the intellectual foundations of Umberto Boccioni's art, the linguistic techniques of Lodge, and Ernst Mach's considerations on aesthetics and physics witness to the imbricate relationship between the ether and modernism. Last but not least, the ether played a fundamental part in the resurgence of modern spiritualism in the aftermath of the Great War. This book examines the complex array of meanings, strategies and milieus that enabled the ether to remain an active part in scientific and cultural debates well into the 1930s, but not beyond. This portrait may be easily regarded as the swan song of an epistemic object that was soon to fade away as shown by Paul Dirac's unsuccessful attempt to resuscitate some kind of aether in 1951, with which this book finishes.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192517791
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
Ether and Modernity offers a snapshot of the status of an epistemic object, the "ether" (or "aether"), in the early twentieth century. The contributed papers show that the ether was often regarded as one of the objects of modernity, hand in hand with the electron, radioactivity or X-rays, and not simply as the stubborn residue of an old-fashioned, long-discarded science. The prestige and authority of scientists and popularisers like Oliver Lodge and Arthur Eddington in Britain, Phillip Lenard in Germany or Dayton C. Miller in the USA was instrumental in the preservation, defence or even re-emergence of the ether in the 1920s. Moreover, the consolidation of wireless communications and radio broadcasting, indeed a very modern technology, brought the ether into audiences that would otherwise never have heard about such an esoteric entity. The ether also played a pivotal role among some artists in the early twentieth century: the values of modernism found in the complexities and contradictions of modern physics, such as wireless action or wave-particle puzzles, a fertile ground for the development of new artistic languages; in literature as much as in the pictorial and performing arts. Essays on the intellectual foundations of Umberto Boccioni's art, the linguistic techniques of Lodge, and Ernst Mach's considerations on aesthetics and physics witness to the imbricate relationship between the ether and modernism. Last but not least, the ether played a fundamental part in the resurgence of modern spiritualism in the aftermath of the Great War. This book examines the complex array of meanings, strategies and milieus that enabled the ether to remain an active part in scientific and cultural debates well into the 1930s, but not beyond. This portrait may be easily regarded as the swan song of an epistemic object that was soon to fade away as shown by Paul Dirac's unsuccessful attempt to resuscitate some kind of aether in 1951, with which this book finishes.
IUTAM Symposium on Exploiting Nonlinear Dynamics for Engineering Systems
Author: Ivana Kovacic
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030236927
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 311
Book Description
This is the proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium on Exploiting Nonlinear Dynamics for Engineering Systems that was held in Novi Sad, Serbia, from July 15th to 19th, 2018. The appearance of nonlinear phenomena used to be perceived as dangerous, with a general tendency to avoid them or control them. This perception has led to intensive research using various approaches and tailor-made tools developed over decades. However, the Nonlinear Dynamics of today is experiencing a profound shift of paradigm since recent investigations rely on a different strategy which brings good effects of nonlinear phenomena to the forefront. This strategy has a positive impact on different fields in science and engineering, such as vibration isolation, energy harvesting, micro/nano-electro-mechanical systems, etc. Therefore, the ENOLIDES Symposium was devoted to demonstrate the benefits and to unlock the potential of exploiting nonlinear dynamical behaviour in these but also in other emerging fields of science and engineering. This proceedings is useful for researchers in the fields of nonlinear dynamics of mechanical systems and structures, and in Mechanical and Civil Engineering.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030236927
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 311
Book Description
This is the proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium on Exploiting Nonlinear Dynamics for Engineering Systems that was held in Novi Sad, Serbia, from July 15th to 19th, 2018. The appearance of nonlinear phenomena used to be perceived as dangerous, with a general tendency to avoid them or control them. This perception has led to intensive research using various approaches and tailor-made tools developed over decades. However, the Nonlinear Dynamics of today is experiencing a profound shift of paradigm since recent investigations rely on a different strategy which brings good effects of nonlinear phenomena to the forefront. This strategy has a positive impact on different fields in science and engineering, such as vibration isolation, energy harvesting, micro/nano-electro-mechanical systems, etc. Therefore, the ENOLIDES Symposium was devoted to demonstrate the benefits and to unlock the potential of exploiting nonlinear dynamical behaviour in these but also in other emerging fields of science and engineering. This proceedings is useful for researchers in the fields of nonlinear dynamics of mechanical systems and structures, and in Mechanical and Civil Engineering.
Scientific Legacy Of Professor Zbigniew Oziewicz: Selected Papers From The International Conference "Applied Category Theory Graph-operad-logic"
Author: Hilda Maria Colin Garcia
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 981127116X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 771
Book Description
Dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Zbigniew Oziewicz from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the book consists of papers on a wide variety of topics related to the work of Professor Oziewicz, which were presented at the special conference on Graph-Operads-Logic (GOL 2021), selected through peer review to promote his scientific legacy.Professor Oziewicz was a great enthusiast and supporter of category theory and its applications in physics, as well as in various areas of mathematics (topology, noncommutative geometry, etc.). In particular, he made significant contributions to the theory of Frobenius algebras, which now are becoming more important due to their connection with topological quantum field theories that are used in mathematical physics and in quantum topology. Professor Oziewicz was a great and very generous teacher, who immersed his students in the beautiful ideas of category theory as well as mathematical physics and computation. It was his idea to start a series of conferences under the title Graphs-Operads-Logic, most of them held in Mexico, with some of them in the USA, which were a great platform to discuss various ideas connected with category theory and its various applications, and to make friends with other scientists. Despite his passing, the GOL 2021 conference is included in this series to pay tribute to his many contributions to diverse areas of science.The book is laid out in twelve main topics where we can find relevant works from distinguished experts.
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 981127116X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 771
Book Description
Dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Zbigniew Oziewicz from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the book consists of papers on a wide variety of topics related to the work of Professor Oziewicz, which were presented at the special conference on Graph-Operads-Logic (GOL 2021), selected through peer review to promote his scientific legacy.Professor Oziewicz was a great enthusiast and supporter of category theory and its applications in physics, as well as in various areas of mathematics (topology, noncommutative geometry, etc.). In particular, he made significant contributions to the theory of Frobenius algebras, which now are becoming more important due to their connection with topological quantum field theories that are used in mathematical physics and in quantum topology. Professor Oziewicz was a great and very generous teacher, who immersed his students in the beautiful ideas of category theory as well as mathematical physics and computation. It was his idea to start a series of conferences under the title Graphs-Operads-Logic, most of them held in Mexico, with some of them in the USA, which were a great platform to discuss various ideas connected with category theory and its various applications, and to make friends with other scientists. Despite his passing, the GOL 2021 conference is included in this series to pay tribute to his many contributions to diverse areas of science.The book is laid out in twelve main topics where we can find relevant works from distinguished experts.
The Scientific Legacy of Poincaré
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781470418076
Category : Chaotic behavior in systems
Languages : en
Pages : 391
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781470418076
Category : Chaotic behavior in systems
Languages : en
Pages : 391
Book Description
Henri Poincaré
Author: Jeremy Gray
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691152713
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 608
Book Description
A comprehensive look at the mathematics, physics, and philosophy of Henri Poincaré Henri Poincaré (1854–1912) was not just one of the most inventive, versatile, and productive mathematicians of all time—he was also a leading physicist who almost won a Nobel Prize for physics and a prominent philosopher of science whose fresh and surprising essays are still in print a century later. The first in-depth and comprehensive look at his many accomplishments, Henri Poincaré explores all the fields that Poincaré touched, the debates sparked by his original investigations, and how his discoveries still contribute to society today. Math historian Jeremy Gray shows that Poincaré's influence was wide-ranging and permanent. His novel interpretation of non-Euclidean geometry challenged contemporary ideas about space, stirred heated discussion, and led to flourishing research. His work in topology began the modern study of the subject, recently highlighted by the successful resolution of the famous Poincaré conjecture. And Poincaré's reformulation of celestial mechanics and discovery of chaotic motion started the modern theory of dynamical systems. In physics, his insights on the Lorentz group preceded Einstein's, and he was the first to indicate that space and time might be fundamentally atomic. Poincaré the public intellectual did not shy away from scientific controversy, and he defended mathematics against the attacks of logicians such as Bertrand Russell, opposed the views of Catholic apologists, and served as an expert witness in probability for the notorious Dreyfus case that polarized France. Richly informed by letters and documents, Henri Poincaré demonstrates how one man's work revolutionized math, science, and the greater world.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691152713
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 608
Book Description
A comprehensive look at the mathematics, physics, and philosophy of Henri Poincaré Henri Poincaré (1854–1912) was not just one of the most inventive, versatile, and productive mathematicians of all time—he was also a leading physicist who almost won a Nobel Prize for physics and a prominent philosopher of science whose fresh and surprising essays are still in print a century later. The first in-depth and comprehensive look at his many accomplishments, Henri Poincaré explores all the fields that Poincaré touched, the debates sparked by his original investigations, and how his discoveries still contribute to society today. Math historian Jeremy Gray shows that Poincaré's influence was wide-ranging and permanent. His novel interpretation of non-Euclidean geometry challenged contemporary ideas about space, stirred heated discussion, and led to flourishing research. His work in topology began the modern study of the subject, recently highlighted by the successful resolution of the famous Poincaré conjecture. And Poincaré's reformulation of celestial mechanics and discovery of chaotic motion started the modern theory of dynamical systems. In physics, his insights on the Lorentz group preceded Einstein's, and he was the first to indicate that space and time might be fundamentally atomic. Poincaré the public intellectual did not shy away from scientific controversy, and he defended mathematics against the attacks of logicians such as Bertrand Russell, opposed the views of Catholic apologists, and served as an expert witness in probability for the notorious Dreyfus case that polarized France. Richly informed by letters and documents, Henri Poincaré demonstrates how one man's work revolutionized math, science, and the greater world.