Séminaire du laboratoire PhLAM : Vincent BOUDON (Laboratoire ICB, Dijon), Using light to probe the Universe

Dr. Vincent BOUDON (Laboratoire ICB)

Titre:  Using Light to probe the Universe

Résumé:

Light has always played a fundamental role for mankind. From the first hominids to the modern era, it showed the way of evolution and civilization. If, for some, light is today synonymous with modernity and comfort, it is above all the universal messenger of nature. Nowadays, scientists are able to understand the world around them by analyzing its light. No need to approach or touch an object to know its composition: light conveys a whole lot of information that we have learned to decipher in several centuries of cultural and scientific evolution. Increasingly complex, more precise but also more expensive instruments have been built to answer humanity’s simplest questions: where do we come from? Where are we going? Are we alone in the Universe?

On the occasion of the upcoming release of a popular book entitled « La lumière pour sonder le monde : la spectroscopie et ses applications » co-written by Vincent Boudon, Arnaud Cuisset from the LPCA in Dunkerque, Cyril Richard of the ICB of Dijon and Maud Rotger of the GSMA in Reims and prefaced by the Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 Anne L'Huillier, it will trace the origins of spectroscopy and show how this discipline took place in our daily life through its many applications and contributed to the knowledge of our universe.