chapters 7-8 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 7: The Experimenter: Helium in a Small Box; "Insolid billowing of the solid"; Flow and form in nature; Albert Libchaber's delicate triumph; Experiment joins theory; From one dimension to many.

"It's an experience like no other experience I can describe, the best thing that can happen to a scientist, realizing that something that's happened in his or her mind exactly corresponds to something that happens in nature." (Leo Kadanoff, Chap. 7, p. 189).

The life and work of Albert Libchaber is examined. Libchaber had a similar background to Mandelbrot, living as a refugee during World War II. Libchaber was recognized at the Ecole Normale Superieure as becoming a mature scientist. Libchaber had become a relatively well known low temperature physicist, focusing on the study of quantum behavior of superfluid helium. Through this work, Libchaber invented what he referred to as Helium...