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.
