E-Luminesciences: the blog of Jean-Pierre Luminet

Jean-Pierre Luminet is the author of the blog e-Luminesciences. But not only: he is also an astrophysicist, cnrs research director at the Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Marseille, as well as at the Laboratoire Univers et théorie. But not only: he also has scientific popularisation and cultural activities. His blog presents all of these activities. This blog has an English version.

Among his notable works, he is a pioneer in black holes realistic representations. As early as 1979¹Jean-Pierre Luminet, 1979. Image of a Spherical Black Hole with Thin Accretion Disk, Astronomy and Astrophysics, n° 75, pp. 228 – 235. Available on line., he proposed a more realistic and accurate one than the one presented in Interstellar²Christopher Nolan, 2014. Interstellar, Syncopy Films and Lynda Obst Productions.. He also worked on the form – actually, its topology – of the Universe, which led him to introduce the concept of Wraparound Universe³Jean-Pierre Luminet, 2008. The Wraparound Universe, AK Peters Ltd..

Rather than going all by yourself, it is always good to have some references which helps you to avoid a lot of pitfalls. Considering scientists presenting their works to a wide audience, I have two main references: Étienne Klein and Jean-Pierre Luminet. If I take them as references, it is because I consider their works in this area being among the best ones. So, of course I recommend you take a tour on Jean-Pierre Luminet’s website: several themes are discussed in depth and rigorously, all in a form that is, in my opinion, very accessible. Also, I have already mentioned Jean-Pierre Luminet in my journal, so it is only logical that I take a little time to present him to you.

When presenting e-Penser, I indicated that we all have our limits, me included. This implies that Jean-Pierre Luminet has also his ones. I have to say, regarding his scientific popularisation work, I am not really able to bring out a lot. I can mention, for example, that he calls the law of parsimony “law of simplicity,” which can lead to believe it is about preferring the simplest explanation, while it is about preferring explanations requiring fewer assumptions (as he explains in his article). Granted, this is but a detail ...

Anyway, you can read my presentation of the law of parsimony.

Then again, one can always question the balance between detailing a topic and remain accessible. I consider the balance Jean-Pierre Luminet has found to be good, and I always try to question the one of my own articles.