Henri Poincare: a biography through the daily papers

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 contro

Foreword; Note from the translator; Preface; Acknowledgments; Contents; List of Figures; The early years; 1. The Poincare Family; 1.1 The Grandfather: Jacques-Nicolas Poincare; 1.2 The Uncle: Antoni Poincare; 1.3 The Father: Leon Poincare; 1.4 Origin of the Name Poincare; 2. Childhood and Studies; 2.1 An Almost Peaceful Golden Childhood; 2.2 Zero at the Math Test of the Baccalaureate; 2.3 "Poincarre" at The Ecole Polytechnique; 2.4 The Ecole Des Mines - The Thesis; 3. Inspector of Mines in Vesoul; The Professor and the Savant; 4. From the University of Caen to the Sorbonne

4.1 The Discovery of the Fuchsian Functions5. From the Sorbonne to the Academie; 5.1 The Discovery of a Terra Incognita; 6. The Prize of King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway; 6.1 From Success to Triumph; 6.2 A Fruitful Mistake; 6.3 A Secret Not So Well Kept; 6.4 Winning Recognition; The Universal Thinker and The Public Figure; 7. French Geodesy and the Fight over the Meridian; 7.1 The Fight over the Meridian; 7.2 The Geodesic Mission and the French Geodesy; 8. The Controversy over the Rotation of the Earth; 8.1 The Origin of the Controversy; 8.2 Moving the Foucault Pendulum to the Pantheon

8.3 Science and Hypothesis8.4 The Skeptical Polytechnician; 8.5 Mach's Mechanics; 8.6 Does the Earth Rotate?; 9. The Philosophical Work and its Impact; 9.1 Science and Hypothesis: "Latin without Crying or Greek without Tears"; 9.2 The Value of Science. The "Strangest Interpretations"; 9.3 Science and Method: The "Granitic Rationalism"; 9.4 Last Essays: "A Certain Embarrassment"; 9.5 Poincarism, Opportunism, Commodism, etc; The Committed Man; 10. The Dreyfus Affair; 10.1 The First Dreyfus Affair: A Brief Overview; 10.2 Three Other Trials

10.3 The Second Dreyfus Affair: The Rennes Trial and the Intervention of Mathematicians10.4 The Third Trial: "Wise Men in a Shed"; 11. The Role Model - The Immortal; 11.1 Poincare and the End of the World; 11.2 Poincare and Science in the Twentieth Century; 11.3 Poincare and the Martingale Strategy; 11.4 Poincare Cited as a Role Model; 11.5 Poincare at the Academie Francaise; 11.6 The Price of Immortality; 11.7 The Reception at the Academy; 12. Last Commitments, Last Works; 12.1 The Press and Poincare's Lectures at the Faculty of Science; 12.2 Defense of the Humanities; 12.3 The New Mechanics

12.4 An Educational Commitment: "What Things Say"13. To Conclude: the Poet of Mathematics; Bibliography; Name Index; Subject Index