by Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (Nobel Laureate in Physics, 1991)

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1991. He is a professor at the Collège de France, and also works in biophysics at the Institut Curie. He had a double university education, in biology and physics. He studied magnets, superconductivity of metals, polymers and liquid crystals. He also delved into problems of adhesion and friction, which were first studied by the inventive engineer Leonardo Da Vinci. Professor de Gennes produced a thesis at Saclay, and spent some time first at Berkeley and later at the Université d'Orsay. He was elected to the Collège de France in 1971 as the Chair of Physics on condensed matter and was director of the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie (a selective university for physics and chemistry studies) in Paris from 1976 to 2002. He has written several classic texts, such as Superconductivity of Metals and Alloys, The Physics of Liquid Crystals, Introduction to Polymer Dynamics, and Simple Views on Condensed Matter (World Scientific).
 

In this fascinating book, Nobel Prize winner Pierre-Gilles de Gennes wittily captures the lives of personalities from both the academic and the industrial world in delightful bite-size stories. Most of the characters in this collection are like those in Aesop's fables, but in modern-day research settings. The book provides a critical account of aberrations (fortunately rare) of the scientific community. Many lessons can be drawn from the stories. For the young researcher, this book is like a telescope: for seeing other human beings beyond his or her laboratory. For the administrator, this book is like a microscope: for seeing inside the human beings huge and complex structures. However, like Aesop's fables, you would not offer the book as a gift to anyone other than a close and wise friend.

Petit Point is not a book to be devoured in a single sitting. It is one to be savored and reflected upon — it shows what the world may be like and what we ourselves may become. It is like a mirror — to be visited from time to time.