Hubert Reeves

Biography

Hubert Reeves is an astrophysicist. He is a graduate of the Universities of Montreal, McGill University and Cornell University. He was scientific advisor to the NASA Institute for Space Studies in New York from 1960 to 1964. In 1965, he was appointed Director of Research at the CNRS in Paris. His research topics at the Saclay astrophysics department include the origin of chemical elements, the origin of the solar system, the origin of the Universe, nuclear astrophysics and cosmology. He is also Associate Professor in the Physics Department at the Université de Montréal. He is Honorary President of the Humanité et Biodiversité association. He is the author of numerous books, including Poussières d’étoiles.

Conference: How has our vision of freedom changed over time?

In most ancient traditions, there’s the idea that the Universe didn’t always exist. At some point, there would have been an act of creation that was the beginning of its history. In the Bible, for example, God created the heavens and the earth, while among the Indians of western Canada, this role is assigned to a mythical raven. This vision of the world requires an analysis of the notion of time, if we are to compare it with our contemporary scientific knowledge. The first question is: what proof do we have that there was a period of time during which there was no universe, and for which the act of creation would represent the end? In other words, has there always been time? Or how long has there been time?