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Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
Author : Catherine Bréchignac
Professor, Ambassador Delegate of France for Science, Technology and Innovation, Perpetual Secretary
of the Academy of Sciences of France
I'm not a nuclear physicist although I do have a disser-
tation on atomic physics, on the movement of isotopes.
But atom doesn't mean nucleus.
Most of my work has been nano research. Specifically,
I've studied tiny particles of metals, particles of sizes
where literally each atom affects the overall picture and
the properties of an object change when its size
changes. To make it clearer, in studying gold atoms, for
example, it transpired that gold can oxidize at nano level
though oxidization would stop if gold increases in mass.
The atomic nucleus conceals powerful energy, and it would be a shame not to make use of it.
The energy commission of the French Academy of Sciences has just finished a report that clearly
demonstrates advantages of a comprehensive way of dealing with the issue of providing society
with energy, with the compulsory inclusion of atomic energy in order to avoid excessive emis-
sions of carbon monoxide into the atmosphere during the burning of fossil fuels. France and
Russia would be able to cooperate fruitfully in recycling nuclear waste.
Russia should also be attractive because it isn't enough to educate your fellow citizens and raise
your own young generation of scientists - the country should also attract researchers from other
nations.
There is a public atmosphere of mistrust of science, and we should obviously react to it in some
way. This atmosphere results from lack of information, which is something that scientists them-
selves are to blame for, and from increasing obscurantism that is propagated by the media and
inculcated by some ideologues.
I'm pleased to state that the situation in Russia is much better today than it was in the 1990s.
Today, scientific research and engineering are professions that are regaining a prestige that they
should never have lost. Because of that loss of a whole generation of researchers, our Russian
counterparts normally belong to opposite age groups - some are very young and the others, on
the contrary, are of quite venerable age. One has the impression that intermediate generations
have disappeared.
The humanities need a more comprehensive approach than the exact sciences because knowledge
of a foreign language is essential there.
"It Is the Duty of Russia to Remain a Great Nation of Scientific
Discoverers Because the Entire World Needs This"