Frédéric Flamant, a biologist at the Institute of functional genomics in Lyon (IGFL), has just published through Seuil, his work entitled "La science insolite de l'asymétrie : de la ola au neutrino" ("The unusual science of asymmetry"). Left-right asymmetry is a recurring theme in many scientific disciplines (social sciences, fundamental physics, neuro-sciences, astronomy, development biology etc.), both on a macroscopic scale as well as on elementary particles. His book looks at the various attempts to explain this phenomenon. We learn for example that thieves, like horses in the past, escape to the left!
Frédéric Flamant in a few words
He’s a tall, sporty guy. Very calm, observant, Frédéric Flamant is passionate about the mountains. And he knows how to put pen to paper to convey his passions.
You can find his book in big bookstores in Lyon, in the "Philosophy of Mathematics" section. Yet, Frédéric Flamant is not a philosopher, or a mathematician, he’s just a scientific, rigorous guy, used to writing for the general public. For several years, he was the project leader in his lab for the Festival of Science at ENS Lyon. Today he has passed the torch onto a member of his team. Writing popular science is "a pretext to read something other than his speciality" and not get stuck in a rut.
After a post-doc in Virology at San Diego Scripps Clinic; Frédéric Flamant was recruited by INRA. He joined the ENS of Lyon in 1990, first with the LBMC then IGFL. As a research director, he led a team of 7 people interested in the functional genomics of thyroid malfunctioning. In 2001, he published with the support of the publisher Belin, «the egg and the chicken», an introduction to the molecular biology of embryonic development. In 2008, he chose not to write a book about popular science, but one about the most beautiful areas to climb in the world. Guerin, the publisher in Chamonix, specialists in mountain literature, commented on the book describing it as: "a gratifying exercise and a remarkable history of mountaineering".
References:
La science insolite de l'asymétrie : de la ola au neutrino - 260 pages - Editions Seuil, Science Ouverte Collection. Frédéric Flamant, November 2016.