André Brahic: the astronomer who could speak in the ears of Earthlings – The Point

The enthusiasm! This is the first word that requires thinking André Brahic. He was a passionate being who seemed immortal. We met last year in his office at CEA Saclay. He was 72, and yet it seemed a boy of ten years full of dreams and projects. It was the passion in its purest form. And a chat! Impossible to stop after the first question. He was off in a deluge of explanations, jokes and kindness. Three hours later, we left his office with the feeling to have everything including the sky and the stars.

The first act of glory Brahic, Astrophysicist at CEA and professor at the University Paris-Diderot , is the establishment of the dynamic model of Saturn’s rings, which, before him, the greatest scientists like Henri Poincaré, James Maxwell and Pierre-Simon Laplace, had broken teeth. The second was to have discovered in 1984 the existence of rings and arcs of Neptune, he named Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. It is the pioneer of French planetology. In 1991, Americans have come to seek to embark on the program of the Cassini spacecraft, launched toward Saturn. Although many American universities have made him gold bridges, he remained deeply attached to his old France, gastronomy homeland and love.

He believed so much in science that believed capable of solving all: violence as the ecological crisis or human overpopulation. He also believed eternal. Retirement ? Unknown. He liked to repeat, laughing: “I campaign for the abolition of retirement. I wanted to make a demonstration: I was alone in the street. “Despite his 74 years, he continued his infernal dance around the world to continue its work, collaborating with many universities, give lectures in which he excelled. Attending a show Brahic worth all one man show. Nobody like him to tell the world with a hilarious anecdotes flood. It was Louis de Funes telling the stars. The audience was laughing folded and out again having finally understood the mystery of the universe. He was a genius, but a genius opened on others. So when the news of his death fell on us Sunday impossible to believe. Not him. No man so alive, so passionate, saying even have a job until 2057. Fucking cancer.

In February 2015, André we spoke Brahic youth, science, life. Exciting

Le Point . What advice give all these young people who want to start a scientific career

André Brahic: When I was young, I had an extraordinary opportunity to meet scientists possessed by a passion for research that were able to communicate to me. They had an extraordinary charisma. So, I want to tell young people to do the same: meet extraordinary people who have a lot of charisma. This is true in science, but also in all disciplines: sport, music, journalism … The meeting people you infusing passion is fundamental. Then, do not hesitate to join the best in his discipline. It’s like tennis, if you play with the best players you, it’s hard for your ego, but you progress. A chance of my life was to see the world’s best in my field, those who broke the law.

It’s to say?

By nature, all people are conservatives. Basically, you were taught things as a child, it is extremely difficult to get rid of. We tend to keep the ideas we have had young, or on the contrary to rebel against. But anyway, it is not neutral in relation to it. It’s the same in science. There is nothing more painful than to question what you were taught, because it destabilizes. Now, I am struck that for two millennia, all great discoveries of mankind were made against the majority opinion. For example, when Democritus said: The world is made of atoms that turn , he is contesting by his contemporaries. It remains a minority. When Aristarchus says that the Earth revolves around the Sun, it is considered a moron. Besides, we put 1500 years to regain the same idea. When Galileo ensures that the Earth rotates, when Giordano Bruno writes that the stars are distant suns, it burns. When Darwin said that man was not born as such, but is changing, that’s scandalous.

Simply being against for being right?

I’m not saying that the minority always right. But be aware that every great discovery, all the advanced occurred against a general consensus. The image I have of science is this: imagine hence explorers discover a new land. There they are in front of a jungle. Each has a machete, and each hand in one direction. They explore. The first spends years in the jungle to end in a stalemate. He turns around and puts an exit sign where it reads “This is not the right direction. Do not try, I did it, it does not work. “The same goes for most other explorers also are collected. And then, occasionally, there is a man who manages to cross the jungle and find the desired land. That one is called Galileo, Einstein or Darwin.

What hinders French research?

In France, problem of the research is that less funding than the bureaucracy. What I missed most in life is time, not money. Currently, time researchers is eaten by bureaucratic tasks. You must fill kilos of records. The big mistake of France and some other countries is the establishment of a colossal bureaucratic machine to ensure that taxpayers’ money has been spent. Each lab spends too much time finding credit. Furthermore, committees that distribute the money are made up of scientists who generally rather successful, so that did not want that other researchers are upsetting knowledge. The consequence is that to win money, the scientist sometimes tends to simply push a little further the work of his predecessors, and not to embark on an innovative way too. In other words, the current system guarantees they will not make any discovery.

I had fun taking the file of some colleagues who were successful as Galileo and Einstein. If today these two had asked Europe, to France, to a university or CNRS finance, their request was of course rejected. For two reasons: insufficient publication and subject too risky. Currently, I claim that French researchers do more research, they make the paper. Currently, there are committees that will judge a researcher at the number of articles published. Yet they are full of mistakes, but who cares. It’s like giving the Nobel Prize to the authors of the airport novel (or rose water). It is an aberration.

Let us return to the training of young French researchers. Again, you are critical.

Suppose you are a brilliant student. After your bachelor’s, you will spend about five years in preparation for a great school. At +8, you will support your thesis. As there will be no job for you, we will send you a postdoc. Probably the USA, England and China. Three or four years. At +11, you have always lived as expedients. You wear you then a candidate for a research position. Imagine that you are able to seize the beard twenty other brightest. Well, you are hired with a salary that the minimum wage is 5%. So, many bright young people give up looking for a job in the industry. I also see many from the United States where they earn three times more than me. Currently France finance science worldwide. As for me, I’ve always really liked the French gastronomy to exile me (laughter). Anyway, so today I was 22, I would never become a researcher.

Yet there is no one more excited than you.

that’s right, I practice the best job in the world, since science seeks to answer fundamental philosophical questions: what are we doing here? Are there other life in the universe? How it all started? I try to contribute. I bring some answers. I’m a teacher. If you are a researcher without teaching, you become autistic. You have a language that is understood by four people in the world.