Launched for the CNRS Year of Physics, the French edition opened with a geometer and an astrophysicist.
The Prix Cosmos came to France in 2024, as part of the CNRS Year of Physics. Its first ceremony took place on 10 June at the Institut de France in Paris.
High-school students, from lycées in France as well as schools in Switzerland and Belgium, chose Voyage sur les flots de galaxies by astrophysicist Hélène Courtois, who mapped the vast flows of galaxies around our own. The scientific committee chose Formes by mathematician Jordan Ellenberg, on the hidden geometry behind biology, strategy and democracy.
Students did more than vote: they questioned the authors directly, from the floor.
The winning books
- Cosmos des lycéens: Voyage sur les flots de galaxies. Laniakea, et au-delà, Hélène Courtois (Dunod)
- Prix Cosmos du comité: Formes. La géométrie cachée de l’information, de la biologie, de la stratégie, de la démocratie et de tout le reste, Jordan Ellenberg, translated by Françoise Bouillot (Cassini)
Also shortlisted: Arnaud Cassan, Hawking à la plage (Dunod); Étienne Ghys, La Petite Histoire du ballon de foot (Odile Jacob); François Hammer, Voyage de la Terre aux confins de l’Univers (Odile Jacob); Patrick Michel, À la rencontre des astéroïdes (Odile Jacob); Aurélien Barrau, Anomalies cosmiques (Dunod); Olivier Berné, Destination Orion (Dunod); Thomas Hertog, L’origine du temps, translated by Marcel Filoche (Odile Jacob); Alice Le Gall and co-authors, Les mondes de Saturne (Belin); Ludovic Orlando, La Conquête du cheval (Odile Jacob).
Students, authors and guests at the ceremony. Photo: [credit]
