2023-10-16 08:10:11
Hubert Reeves, in 2016 in Nantes, during a performance of the show “Cosmophonies”. LOIC VENANCE / AFP
In his memoirs entitled I will not have time (Seuil, 2008), Hubert Reeves, died on October 13, recounted how he came, somewhat by chance, to popularize it for the general public. Extract.
“Never, during my studies or during my first years as a professor, did I think of becoming a science popularizer. I saw my future associated with a laboratory, in which I would do research, at the same time supervise theses and, above all, teach at a university level.
It was during public debates on various scientific subjects that I began my media career. I particularly remember a round table on the theme “Nuclear energy as a source of energy for humanity”! (…)
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However, it was during a vacation in a VVF (Family Holiday Villages) “Les Cigales”, in Carry-le-Rouet, near Marseille, that my involvement in the field of extension really began. Once the children went to bed, the parents got into the habit of getting together to talk about their jobs. I quickly felt a keen interest in astronomy among them. The questions abounded and, when the night was clear, I illustrated my remarks on the starry sky, pointing in turn to the Milky Way, the constellations and the planets visible at that moment. The session sometimes lasted until the stars disappeared in the light of dawn.
To illustrate the events that accompanied the birth, life and death of stars, I began to project slides of galaxies and nebulae on the white walls of the cafeteria – what my 3-year-old granddaughter Emmanuelle called “Grandpa Hubert’s pestacle”. We then talked about black holes, white fountains, extraterrestrial civilizations, religions, metaphysics, etc., everything was there!
One day, at the end of one of these sessions, a friend said to me: “Observe the curiosity that these subjects arouse! You should write all of this down.” »
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