Mathematics fo Bats - Cedric Villani (Universite’ de Lyon, Paris)

“It is often said that mathematics is the language of the Universe, present everywhere around us. To skeptical ears this may appear to be just rhetoric, but I shall explain how mathematics helps us to understand the behavior of familiar beings, namely bats which float around at night in the countryside, hunting for insects in apparently erratic motion. This will be an opportunity to evoke in simple words some of the fascinating conquests of the human mind -- the understanding of fluids and sounds, and how computers help us in this task.“