Abstract

part of the article will appear in the next issue of the Notices. Et toute science, quand nous l’entendons non comme un instrument de pouvoir et de domination, mais comme aventure de connaissance de notre espèce à travers les âges, n’est autre chose que cette harmonie, plus ou moins vaste et plus ou moins riche d’une époque à l’autre, qui se déploie au cours des générations et des siècles, par le délicat contrepoint de tous les thèmes apparus tour à tour, comme appelés du néant. And every science, when we understand it not as an instrument of power and domination but as an adventure in knowledge pursued by our species across the ages, is nothing but this harmony, more or less vast, more or less rich from one epoch to another, which unfurls over the course of generations and centuries, by the delicate counterpoint of all the themes appearing in turn, as if summoned from the void. —Récoltes et Semailles, page P20 Alexandre Grothendieck is a mathematician of immense sensitivity to things mathematical, of profound perception of the intricate and elegant lines of their architecture. A couple of high points from his biography—he was a founding member of Allyn Jackson is senior writer and deputy editor of the Notices. Her email address is axj@ams.org. the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS)

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