Quoting the work of a deceased artist in his eulogy is quite conventional. With Hubert Reeves, the most popular of science popularizers who died on Friday, October13 at the age of 91, it is impossible to resist the temptation as his work is so full of metaphysical formulas: once again becoming one of the "Stardust" that propelled him into the spotlight in 1984, the poet of the timeless "Patience dans l'azur" (1981) is therefore in heaven, the whistleblower in "Mal de Terre" (2003) has left it, the child who meditated in "I Won't Have Time" (2008) has finally exhausted his, in short, the one who, in 2020, invited us to contemplate the world and his "Fury of Life" has died.
But rather than his flag-waving phrases, which immediately comes to mind when we think of Hubert Reeves, he may be a "face." A few hairs in a mess around a bald head, an abundant white beard and, in the middle, a discreet smile that surrounds with wrinkles two small translucent eyes that, for nearly a century, have pierced the mysteries of the cosmos.
The universe, the quest of a lifetime
This "face" is above all that of a scientist obsessed with the meaning of the universe, the great business of his life. Born in Montreal in 1932, the young Reeves obtained his doctorate in nuclear astrophysics in the United States, rubbing shoulders with legends of the discipline, from Ed Salpeter to Richard Feynman.
In the mid-1960s, fascinated by Europe, he took a sabbatical year in Belgium, then a second in Paris... where the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) immediately "drafts" it.
Between Paris and Saclay, Reeves became interested in the origin of the chemical elements that make up matter, and, in particular, light elements such as lithium, beryllium and boron, which are too fragile to come from the burning cores of stars. In 1971, he and two of his students published a seminal paper on stellar nucleosynthesis, and another a year later on the origin of deuterium and helium-3. But that's not the point...
Transmitter of knowledge turned into environmental activist
Because Reeves' reel is also that of the benevolent grandfather, the storyteller, in short, the real transmitter of knowledge that he became from 1977 and the publication of his first popular book: "Soleil". This was followed by "Patience dans l'azur", a poetic account of the formation of the universe, "Poussières d'étoiles" and about fifteen others, some of which were co-written. Its goal? "To nourish reflections on the great and tragic mystery of our existence."
It was a huge success, with a succession of reprints, as well as translations into many languages. A good customer, he runs on TV to preach the good word of science, and launches into a series of conferences to talk about astronomy... and the environment.
Because Hubert Reeves' face, finally, is also and ultimately that of a gentle hippie, a contemplative, witty old sage, a lover of nature and transformed into an ecological activist, the last fight of his life. With his head in the stars but his feet firmly on the ground, his land, that of Malicorne, a small Burgundian village that inspired him to write two meditative essays separated by a quarter of a century, "Reflections of an observer of nature" (1991) and "I saw a wild flower" (2017). Between the two, "Mal de Terre", a serious, witty and pioneering book on climate peril, written in 2003 with Frédéric Lenoir, contrasts with the eternal optimism of the wise old man, who in 2016 became honorary president of the brand new French biodiversity agency.
This is probably the only criticism that has ever been levelled at him: being too positive. To his detractors, he replied in 1986 in an essay on the Cold War and the nuclear threat with his few words that are still relevant today: "Intelligence is not necessarily a poisoned gift. The absurd is still avoidable. The awakening of jubilation is, perhaps, the most effective antidote. Name of the book: "The Time to Get Drunk - Does the Universe Make Sense? ». Thirty-five years later, the question remains unanswered, but we like to toast the memory of Mr. Reeves.