Rene Thom

Le nom de René Thom est apparu dans une discussion il y a un ou deux jours. J'ai gardé un très vague souvenir de son bouquin sur la morphogenèse en biolo, qui se résumerait par : "le mec n'a pas dû lire le bouquin comme il faut". Comme j'en ai parlé récemment je suis parti faire une virée sur le Net avec comme mot clé René Thom. Je ne le savait pas mort (depuis peu en fait, octobre 2002). Le morceau que j'ai récolté est de Francis Crick :

Many mathematicians developed the catastrophe theory, but it never had the success achieved later by chaos theory because it failed to live up to its promise of useful predictions. Nevertheless, catastrophe theory was inspired by Thom's passion to understand the world geometrically. Late in his career, Salvador Dali painted Topological Abduction Of Europe: Homage To René Thom (1983), an aerial view of a seismically fractured landscape juxtaposed with the equation that strives to explain it.

Thom's contributions to other fields did not always sit comfortably with colleagues. In his book What Mad Pursuit, Francis Crick, the Nobel prizewinner who was a co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, recounted a meeting with him where scientists were discussing progress in cracking the genetic code. Thom suggested that some of Crick's recent research might be wrong because, though supported experimentally, it did not comport with mathematical theory. Crick opined that Thom did not understand how science worked: "what he did understand he didn't like, and referred to it disparagingly as 'Anglo-Saxon'."

[source]

Bon, suis pas le seul à le trouver nul et à préférer la théorie du chaos. Thom suggested that some of Crick's recent research might be wrong because, though supported experimentally, it did not comport with mathematical theory. Le mec qui laisse tomber l'évidence expérimentale au profit de son modèle mathématique au lieu de tout effacer et essayer d'écrire un meilleur, pouvez-vous le prendre au sérieux après ? Moi pas !