Les mathématiques dans le monde scientifique contemporain / Jean-Christophe Yoccoz

This is a collective work about some aspects of the connections between mathematics, on the one hand, and natural and social sciences, on the other hand. The book is organized in an introduction (unsigned, but probably belonging to the coordinator J.-C. Yoccoz), six parts, some critical reactions to them and a final presentation by Alain Connes. Part I includes two chapters: “Mathematics and Physics” by Roger Balian and Jean Zinn-Justin and “Astronomy and Mathematics” by Albert Bijaoui. Part II, by Mireille Defranceschi, Denis Gratias, Hervé Toulhoat and Christian Vidal: “Mathematics and Chemical Sciences”. Part III, concerning life sciences, includes four chapters: the role of mathematics in biology and medicine is examined by Pierre Anger, Jacques Demongeot, Jim Murray and Michel Thellier; other connections between them are presented by Jean-Pierre Francoise; Régis Ferrière discusses some mathematical models in biology and ecology; Alain Berthoz focuses on the links between mathematics and neuron sciences. Part IV, by Gérard Huet and Philippe Flajolet, is about mathematics and informatics mathematical models in economy are analysed in Part V by Ivar Ekeland and Elyès Jonini. Part VI, by Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, is about mathematics and society. Critical reactions are mainly from some professional associations. (Zentralblatt)

Notes bibliogr.