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Published in the Bulgarian press ПУБЛИКАЦИЯ В ПРЕСАТА
Published in the Web press ( references : ) http://kulturni-novini.info/news.php?page=news_show&nid=7519&sid=4
Translation of this article A Frenchman creates comics for young and adult readers The astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Petit is the creator of a new genre – the scientific comic book THE EVENT The comics created by the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Petit, the creator of the scientific comic genre, can now be read in Bulgarian. His albums are distributed free of charge through the website of the association “Knowledge without Borders,” founded by the author and Gilles d’Agostini, the association’s treasurer. The comics can be freely downloaded and reproduced, in whole or in part, provided that these operations are not for profit. They can be useful to students, teachers in schools, and even universities, as they can be integrated into educational programs. The albums can be made available in municipal, school, and university libraries, either in printed form or via Intranet-type networks. They can interest any curious reader and fan of “comic culture,” as well as professionals in the scientific field. The comics are available in Bulgarian at: http://www.savoir-sans-frontieres.com. They can be found directly in the “New Releases” section of the page: http://www.savoir-sans-frontieres.com/JPP/telechargeables/znouveautes/nouveautes.htm THE AUTHOR Jean-Pierre Petit is a scientist known worldwide – a physicist (theorist and experimentalist), mathematician, and author of in-depth works in the fields of magnetohydrodynamics, plasma physics, and astrophysics – the theory of galaxy formation and the Universe. He served as a research director at the National Center for Scientific Research in France. Jean-Pierre Petit founded the association “Knowledge without Borders” in 2005 with his friend Gilles d’Agostini, with the goal of distributing knowledge, including scientific and technical knowledge, freely around the world. His comics cover various scientific themes – astrophysics, aerodynamics, electrical engineering, computer science, cybernetics, economics, history… THE COMICS The main characters in Jean-Pierre Petit’s comics are Anselme Lanturlu – a young inventor with a curious spirit who loves scientific experiments, his friend Sophie – beautiful and intelligent, Leon the pelican, and Tiresias the snail. Through the adventures of Anselme and his companions, Jean-Pierre Petit explains serious scientific ideas and concepts to readers, infusing the dialogues with a good sense of humor. Apart from the comics devoted to scientific themes (“Cosmic Story,” “Around the World in Eighty Minutes,” “What Robots Dream Of,” “The Black Hole,” “Everything is Relative,” and others), there are other albums with more amusing and “lighter” themes, such as “Cinderella 2000” and “The Little Lizard Who Learned to Fly.” The comic “Economicon,” which explains the origins and laws of economics in a fun and ironic way, is very relevant today, given the global economic situation. The number of translated albums grows every day. Currently, on the association’s page, one can find and download 251 comics in 33 languages for free, including one of the official languages of Rwanda and Indonesian. The author has undertaken to complete and enrich his collection with simpler albums first, aimed at 12-year-old readers. “Talking” albums for the illiterate and “bilingual” albums for learning languages starting from one’s native tongue are also under development. Elena Vladova, translator Published in the cultural bulletin “Cultural News,” 17.03.2009 http://kulturni-novini.info Translation of this paper A Frenchman creates comics for little and adult readers. The astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Petit is the creator of a new genre- the scientific comic book. THE CONTEXT Comic books created by the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Petit, inventor of the scientific comic book, can now be read in Bulgarian. His albums are distributed freely at the website of the association “Savoir sans Frontières” (“Knowledge without Borders”), founded by the author himself and by Gilles d’Agostini, treasurer. Comic books are freely accessible and anyone is free to duplicate them, provided that this operation does not derive in any profit. They are suitable for students, professors of high schools and even bachelors, and they could be incorporated as well into academic programs. The books can be placed on public libraries, in schools and universities, either in digital form or in the form of printed copies, or in line in the computer networks of Intranet type of school and university libraries. They are perfect for the curious reader who cares about the “comic culture”, and also for professionals of the scientific community. The scientific comic books are accessible in Bulgarian at the website: http://www.savoir-sans-frontieres.com They are downloadable directly from the link “New Releases” at the URL: http://www.savoir-sans-frontieres.com/JPP/telechargeables/znouveautes/nouveautes.htm THE AUTHOR Jean-Pierre Petit is a well-known scientist – a physicist (theoretical and experimentalist), mathematician, author of thorough work in magnetohydrodynamics, plasma physics and astrophysics – the formation of galaxies and the Universe as a whole. He has acted as a research director at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France. In 2005, with his friend Gilles d’Agostini, he created the Association “Savoir sans Frontières” (“Knowledge without Borders”), which aims at spreading freely scientific and technical knowledge all over the world. His comic books touch several major scientific topics – astrophysics, aerodynamics, electrotechnics, informatics, cybernetics, economy, history… THE COMIC BOOKS The main characters in the comic books of Jean-Pierre Petit are Anselme Lanturlu (Archibald Higgins in the English versions) –a young inventor with a curious spirit and who loves scientific experiments-, his friend Sophie –beautiful and intelligent–, Leon the pelican (Lenny in some English translations), Tiresias the snail, and Maz the bird. Following Anselme and company’s adventures, Jean-Pierre Petit explains to readers great scientific ideas and notions, and with a nice sense of humour. Apart from the comic books devoted to scientific topics (“Cosmic story”, “Around the world in 80 minutes”, “Run, robot, run”, “The black hole”, “Everything is relative”, among them), there are some other books much “simpler” and “easy-to-read” such as “Cinderella 2000” and “The story of a little lizard that one day learnt to fly”. The comic book on the economy, “The Economicon”, explains in a funny and ironic way the origin and the laws of economy; it is very pertinent in our days, given the economic situation of the present world. The number of translated albums grows every day. In the Association’s website one can find and download right now 251 comic books in 33 languages, including Kinyarwanda (Rwandan) and Indonesian. The author is working to enrich and complete his collection with more basic albums, addressed to 12-year readers. He is also working on “speaking” albums for the illiterate and on “bilingual” ones for learning languages starting from native tongues. Elena Vladova, translator This article appeared in the cultural bulletin “Cultural News”, 17.03.2009. http://kulturni-novini.info
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Translation of this article Jean-Pierre Petit Tell Me in Pictures Some of the comics created by the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Petit, the creator of the scientific comic genre, can recently be read in Bulgarian. His albums are distributed free of charge through the website of the association “Knowledge without Borders”(www.savoir-sans-frontieres.com)**, founded by the author and Gilles d’Agostini. The comics can be freely downloaded and reproduced, in whole or in part, provided that these operations are not for profit. They can be useful to students, teachers in schools, and even universities, as they can be integrated into educational programs. But who is Jean-Pierre Petit? He is a scientist known worldwide – a physicist, mathematician, and author of in-depth works in the fields of magnetohydrodynamics, plasma physics, and astrophysics – the theory of galaxy formation and the Universe. He served as a research director at the National Center for Scientific Research in France. He says that besides his scientific research, he is also a researcher at heart. He also says that if the French Ministry of Education had allowed him to do so, he could have transformed a large part of the material included in textbooks into fairy tales and suspense novels. He recommends this method to everyone in the world. - How did you start creating comics? For a scientist like you, this is a completely different field. - I started making comics in 1965 for a youth magazine, Le Journal de Spirou. At the time, I was a PhD student and needed money. I made two albums, which were fiction and had nothing to do with science. - You are the creator of the scientific comic genre. How did this idea come to you? - I was asked to teach science to students in the philosophy department of the Faculty of Letters in Aix-en-Provence. I faced a real language barrier. For my scientific colleagues, it was a mission impossible. I then thought that images, geometry, and analogy were languages that allowed scientific concepts to be conveyed to non-scientists. The operation was a great success and I had many students. In fact, these philosophy students were very interested in science. At the time, I was also teaching in a science faculty and I was surprised by how little perspective the students had regarding what they were being taught. Conversely, the philosophy students thought much more deeply, and I learned a lot from interacting with them. I discovered, among other things, that the knowledge I was supposed to transmit was relatively recent, and sometimes uncertain. A science student would never ask the question, "Why do we consider a universe with only four dimensions, and not five, or more?" However, philosophy students would immediately say that. Arriving at class with what I thought were answers, I left with a set of questions. This experience gave birth to a new genre – the scientific comic, which is both a comic and a course where real knowledge is transmitted. I wanted to see how high I could go using this technique. Topologicon, for example, is actually a real course in topology, one of the most advanced branches of mathematics. - How many albums have you made? There may be others that are not available on the Association’s website. - Over the years, I have covered more than thirty different subjects. I was competent enough in a certain number of fields. For the others, I questioned colleagues and played the role of "translator" by converting this knowledge, these ideas into scripts, into gags. I am glad that the comics are already translated into 32 languages. - How did you create the character of Anselme Lanturlu? - One day my son came home from school where he had learned a popular French nursery rhyme. It is The black hen in the garden Cried like a madwoman The farmers came to see her She said it was going to rain They didn’t believe her, Lanturlu And my beautiful hat is lost. . I then created the character of Lanturlu, with his beautiful hat, to tell him stories before he fell asleep. Sophie is a beautiful young woman whom I loved a long time ago, who was a doctor in Africa and died there during an epidemic. - Do you currently continue to do both things at once – scientific research and comics? - Yes, as always. I will present my work on cosmology at a mathematical physics colloquium in September at a conference on "variational" mathematical techniques, and on hypersonic fluid mechanics at another one, in Bremen, Germany, in October 2009. Currently, I am finishing an album on biology, which is not easy work, as it seems to me that this is a science that, over time, produces more questions than answers. Of course, I have many albums in draft form, in my drawers. Only time is lacking. - You have the idea of making "talking" and "bilingual" albums for learning languages starting from the native language. How is this project developing? - I think that the technique of "talking bubbles" could lead to a very effective method of language learning, and even literacy. At a time when, in all countries, spelling tends to degrade significantly, this might encourage more young people to read, or to continue reading. To develop this project, we would need people and money. Our association “Knowledge without Borders” operates with only two people – my old friend Gilles d’Agostini and myself. We are volunteers, and the money comes only from donations. But to develop this project, the National Ministry of Education would need to take this idea to heart because what I do is educational activity. Unfortunately, I doubt that this institutional dinosaur will ever react. Another project I have is to make albums for very young children, to help them understand what energy, heat, inertia, etc. are. Another useful product would be to collaborate with textbook editors by adding gags and humor at the end, while maintaining the tone of the book’s discourse. When I was a child, and then a student, the things that marked me most were presented by teachers who had humor. Making people laugh is a good way to teach. - What worries you most in the scientific field? - I am concerned about the dangerous flirtation between science and the world of weapons. This is the theme of the album Joyful Apocalypse. I believe it is getting worse and worse. Robotics, which is so fun, gives us combat drones, unmanned bombers, and soon fully mechanized, "intelligent" fighters. How will humans decide to exploit the new fusion pathways opened by experiments conducted on the Z-machine at Sandia Laboratories in the United States? In our world, it is "bombs first, energy later." This worries me the most, and I presented my ideas on this theme during a scientific colloquium on one of my specialties, magnetohydrodynamics, in which I participated in September 2008, in Vilnius. Elena Vladova The magazine Za horata (www.zahorata.com) May 9, 2009

November 2010 :

On this page of Elena’s site
Helena’s blog

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