Parallel Universes Research Articles

The Astrophysical Phenomenon of Dark Matter and Dark Energy Proves the Existence of the Hidden Multiverse

A hypothesis of the hidden Multiverse is suggested. The Multiverse is referred to as hidden, since all parallel universes forming it are invisible to the inhabitants of other parallel universes, except for their own. The nature of mutual invisibility of parallel Universes is explained. It is argued that the structure of the Multiverse proposed herein explains the dark matter /dark energy phenomena, which, in turn, confirm the existence of the hidden Multiverse. The validity of the suggested hypothesis is verified by the data obtained by the WMAP and Planck spacecraft. The hypothesis can also be supported by investigation of portals found on the planet Earth and by people visiting trans-portal areas.

Parallel Universes, Vertical Worlds, and the Nation as Palimpsest in Murakami Ryū's <em>The World Five Minutes from Now</em>

Parallel Universes, Vertical Worlds, and the Nation as Palimpsest in Murakami Ryū's <em>The World Five Minutes from Now</em>

Principles and Structure of the Real Multiverse: Explanation of Dark Matter and Dark Energy Phenomena

Many hypotheses of the Multiverse have been suggested; however, they are so extraordinary that the Universes they include will never – even in the most distant future – be accessible for people. That is, they will always remain non-existent. Therefore, the hypothesis of the real Multiverse is suggested, where parallel Universes comply with the similarity principle, that is, the laws of nature governing them have much in common. This circumstance enables the inhabitants of this Multiverse to visit parallel Universes. The suggested Multiverse hypothesis relies on the adjusted special theory of relativity (the STR), where the ambiguity of the second postulate is eliminated by removing the statements on the unbreakable light speed barrier and on imaginary numbers having no physical meaning. The fact that imaginary numbers have physical meaning is supported by a theoretical and experimental investigation of oscillation processes in linear electric circuits. Since mathematics is a common and unambiguous language of science, the principle of the physical reality of imaginary numbers must be accepted as the general scientific one, true, in particular, for the STR. It is demonstrated that the Multiverse hypothesis suggested herein explains the phenomenon of the dark matter and the dark energy.

Review of Electrogravitics & Electrokinetics Propulsion

Electrogravitics and electrokinetics can be traced to T. Townsend Brown’s first article “How I Control Gravity” (Science and Invention, 1929) with the unexplained alignment of the “molecular gravitors”. Brown reported that the dielectrics had high propulsive force when the “differently charged elements” were aligned with the voltage source. Perhaps electrogravitics was also revealed in the article “Gravity Nullified: Quartz Crystals Charged by High Frequency Currents Lose Their Weight” which appeared two years earlier in the same magazine in September of 1927. The editors had a change of heart however, in the following issue, they rescinded the article. Much of what we know about T. T. Brown is from his numerous patents and articles, reprinted inElectrogravitics Systems Volume I, by this author who was fortunate to correspond with him in 1981 when he was at the University of Florida. A sample of his detailed correspondence is contained in the out-of-print book, Ether-Technology: A Rational Approach to Gravity-Control by Rho Sigma (1977) and in the recent Defying Gravity: The Parallel Universe of T. Townsend Brown, Paul Schatzkin, (2009, Embassy Books). Also, a five-minute Brown-Bahnson Lab video online shows many of the experimental models that Brown developed toward 1960 with colleague Agnew Bahnson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp4hygoD3RU).

Matter power spectrum covariance matrix from the DEUS-PUR ΛCDM simulations: mass resolution and non-Gaussian errors

The upcoming generation of galaxy surveys will probe the distribution of matter in the universe with unprecedented accuracy. Measurements of the matter power spectrum at different scales and redshifts will provide stringent constraints on the cosmological parameters. However, on non-linear scales this will require an accurate evaluation of the covariance matrix. Here, we compute the covariance matrix of the 3D matter density power spectrum for the concordance $\Lambda$CDM cosmology from an ensemble of N-body simulations of the Dark Energy Universe Simulation - Parallel Universe Runs (DEUS-PUR). This consists of 12288 realisations of a $(656\,h^{-1}\,\textrm{Mpc})^3$ simulation box with $256^3$ particles. We combine this set with an auxiliary sample of 96 simulations of the same volume with $1024^3$ particles. We find N-body mass resolution effect to be an important source of systematic errors on the covariance at high redshift and small intermediate scales. We correct for this effect by introducing an empirical statistical method which provide an accurate determination of the covariance matrix over a wide range of scales including the Baryon Oscillations interval. Contrary to previous studies that used smaller N-body ensembles, we find the power spectrum distribution to significantly deviate from expectations of a Gaussian random density field at $k\gtrsim 0.25\,h\,\textrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ and $z<0.5$. This suggests that in the case of finite volume surveys an unbiased estimate of the ensemble averaged band power at these scales and redshifts may require a careful assessment of non-Gaussian errors more than previously considered.

The 'exhaustion approach' to trade mark protection: a parallel universe or a better way?

The 'exhaustion approach' to trade mark protection: a parallel universe or a better way?

A parallel universe – competing interpretations of Zimbabwe's crisis

This article examines competing interpretations of the nature and cause of Zimbabwe’s contemporary crisis. It finds that while neoliberal macroeconomic policies promoted by international financial institutions helped to provide a structural basis for the crisis, arguments attributing blame to Britain and to wider Western sanctions are overblown and inaccurate. Similarly, although Western reactions to Zimbabwe’s land reform have had a racist tinge, these paled in comparison with the explicit racist intent of policies adopted by the Zimbabwean Government. The claim that Zimbabwe is undergoing a process of progressive transformation must be weighed against the nature of state power, the intensification of class divisions, a precipitous economic decline, a problematic development strategy and the extreme abuse of human, civil and political rights.

The loneliest doctor.

The loneliest doctor.

Crystal Spheres as the World

A geometric concept of the world (W ) is considered where the manifold W is identified with a locally trivial fibre bundle pr: W ! U of so–called crystal spheres over a manifold U called the universal time. For every point p 2 U, Mn = pr 1 (p) is a n–dimensional crystal sphere and close crystal spheres are called the parallel universes. There exists a geometric black hole on the smooth manifold M n. Tensor fields, fibre bundles, operators (physical structures and equations) can be deformed towards the black hole into continuous and sectionally smooth those, further, they can be retracted together with the black hole into a small black ball to initiate the Big Bang.

Stress, condition, and ornamentation.

In the latter half of the twentieth century, biologists interested in explaining the mechanisms for how vertebrates respond to stressful environmental circumstances created a conceptual framework based primarily on physiological measures. This field of stress responsiveness became the domain primarily of neuroendocrinologists, and researchers in this field focused on the physiological actions of the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal glands (the HPA axis) (Herman and Cullinan 1997; Sapolsky et al. 2000; Romero 2004). Great advances were made in demonstrating how the HPA serves as a key mediator of the responsiveness of vertebrates to environmental perturbations by regulating physiology and behavior (e.g., Wingfield et al. 1997; Reeder and Kramer 2005; Breuner et al. 2008). Glucocorticoids, particularly cortisol and corticosterone, were identified as important signaling molecules that link external stressors to internal physiological responses—particularly immune and metabolic responses—in vertebrates (Wingfield et al. 1998; Buchanan 2000; Sapolsky et al. 2000). The mechanisms by which individuals cope with stress became a major area of study in physiological ecology. In a parallel universe that sometimes co-existed within the same laboratory group studying responsiveness to stress, a theory of condition-dependent signaling emerged to explain why female animals use males’ ornamentation as a criterion in mate choice. This theory of sexual signaling began by invoking the costs of ornamentation as necessary to maintain honesty (Zahavi 1975; updated in Kotiaho [2001]). Initially, discussions of costs were focused on the maintenance of ornamentation, and display traits were viewed as potential handicaps to survival with direct negative effects on fitness (MaynardSmith 1976, 1978; Zahavi 1977; Nur and Hasson 1984). As theory developed, explanations for honest signaling shifted to the costs of production and particularly to the challenges of allocating energy away from body maintenance to ornamentation (KodricBrown and Brown 1984; Rowe and Houle 1996; Morehouse 2014, this issue). More recently, it has been proposed that no fitness costs or tradeoffs of resources are required for honest signaling, so long as the production of ornaments is inexorably linked to system function through shared biochemical pathways (Hill 2011, 2014, this issue). The union of the theory of stress responsiveness with concepts of condition-dependent signaling was inevitable because the connections between stress, condition, and ornamentation are inescapable. By definition, environmental stressors are expected to reduce the condition of individuals (Badyaev 2005; Charmandari et al. 2005; Careau et al. 2014). Moreover, ornaments are proposed to be sensitive signals of individual condition (Cotton et al. 2004; Hill 2011) and hence should reflect the degree to which an individual is impacted by stressors such as parasites or poor nutrition (Andersson 1994; Peters et al. 2014, this issue; Schmidt et al. 2014, this issue). Thus, for decades, ornamental traits have been viewed as signals of either the ability to avoid stressors (e.g., Hamilton and Zuk 1982; Balenger and Zuk 2014, this issue) or the ability to cope with stressors (Westneat and Birkhead 1998; Bortolotti et al. 2009), but discussions of honest signaling typically have not integrated known pathways and conceptual frameworks about mechanisms for responding to stress. Integrative and Comparative Biology

Judges and Rule of Law in Times of Political Change and Transitions

Political change, or transition, coming after conflict and repression, raises a multitude of challenges such as how to deal with the past while seeking to build a future of more than just hopes for peace, prosperity and a good life for all. This requires social change. The herculean task of making that change positive and far reaching requires the concerted effort of many institutions of governance, civil society and private citizens. Judges are among those with a critical role in processes of dealing with the past to take a country forward. As will be shown in this paper, judges can, and do, assume a range of functions during transitions and beyond. The end game for the judges should always be about justice and rule of law; social engineering has never been their concern. However, as we know, law and society do not operate in parallel universes, and what happens in a legal process can have major ramifications beyond the parties and the immediate issue. We also know that the law needs to fulfil certain needs of a society in order to have legitimacy. As this paper demonstrates, in times of political change or transition, the traditional judicial role can morph and extend into work that relates to wider projects for establishing or re-establishing rule of law and respect for law. This paper, using a comparative international approach, aims to address the role of judges in dealing with the baggage of armed conflict, repression and human rights violations, and to focus on the judicial contribution to rule of law. We begin with a general consideration of rule of law, moving on to the role of judges in a changing society. Bearing in mind our understanding of rule of law, we address the primary ways that judges engage in dealing with the past, ranging from fact-finding to legal proceedings and then to vetting and lustration. This is about judges being instruments of wider social change, vehicles of transformation. Our next section considers the issue of judges as subjects for change, where they themselves come under scrutiny. Finally, we sum up with an overall analysis of what judges can offer to rule of law and wider society in these situations, and how the concept of rule of law itself evolves in these unusual times. Our focus is on judges as judges, so we will not be studying their role as victims or in their private capacity.

Debating Indonesia’s Reformasi: Bridging “Parallel Universes”

Fifteen years after the fall of Suharto in Indonesia, scholars still continue to disagree over why he fell and what the subsequent process of political transition has actually entailed. A review of the literature reveals two competing interpretations. In the liberal camp, scholars draw on transition theories and argue that the fall of Suharto was caused by a “people power” mobilisation. Other scholars in the oligarchy literature who adopt theories of political economy, however, question this interpretation and argue that the fall of Suharto entailed a reorganisation of patrimonialism. The latter has been criticised by liberals for underestimating the significance of changes in post-Suharto Indonesia, though little engagement has taken place between these camps, which now constitute two “parallel universes.” This article argues that while the oligarchy camp tends to emphasise continuity, it still provides us with important insights into changes in post-Suharto Indonesia which are not adequately recognised by liberals. This is largely because their different theoretical roots prevent meaningful conversations. By reframing the oligarchy literature using the language of transition theories, this article clarifies the difference in the nature of change these two camps are respectively concerned with in the hopes of stimulating more constructive engagements between them.

Quantum mechanics of hyperbolic metamaterials: Modeling of quantum time and Everett׳s “universal wavefunction”

Modern advances in transformation optics and electromagnetic metamaterials made possible experimental demonstrations of highly unusual curvilinear “optical spaces”, such as various geometries necessary for electromagnetic cloaking. Recently we demonstrated that mapping light intensity in a hyperbolic metamaterial may also model the flow of time in an effective (2+1) dimensional Minkowski spacetime. Curving such an effective spacetime creates experimental model of a toy “big bang”. Here we demonstrate that at low light levels this model may be used to emulate a fully covariant version of quantum mechanics in a (2+1) dimensional Minkowski spacetime. When quantum mechanical description is applied near the toy “big bang”, the Everett׳s “universal wave function” formalism arises naturally, in which the wave function of the model “universe” appears to be a quantum superposition of mutually orthogonal “parallel universe” states.

Parallel universe, dark matter and invisible Higgs decays

The existence of the dark matter with amount about five times the ordinary matter is now well established experimentally. There are now many candidates for this dark matter. However, dark matter could be just like the ordinary matter in a parallel universe. If both universes are described by a non-abelian gauge symmetries, then there will be no kinetic mixing between the ordinary photon and the dark photon, and the dark proton, dark electron and the corresponding dark nuclei, belonging to the parallel universe, will be stable. If the strong coupling constant, (αs)dark in the parallel universe is five times that of αs, then the dark proton will be about five time heavier, explaining why the dark matter is five times the ordinary matter. However, the two sectors will still interact via the Higgs boson of the two sectors. This will lead to the existence of a second light Higgs boson, just like the Standard Model Higgs boson. This gives rise to the invisible decay modes of the Higgs boson which can be tested at the LHC, and the proposed ILC.

Looking over the rim: algorithms for cheminformatics from computer scientists.

In recent years a number of methods were invented in the data mining/machine learning field that have received little attention in the cheminformatics world even though they offer interesting properties for these types of applications as well - even compared to some similar algorithms published primarily in the cheminformatics space. In this talk we want to highlight three of these algorithms/approaches. The first is MoSS [1], a frequent subgraph miner that can not only be used to find common substructures in a set of molecules but is also able to compute the MCSS very fast and has some extension especially suited for molecules. The second presented approach deals with the problem of finding diverse subsets of molecules [2]. Quite interestingly, not only finding a diverse subset can be a challenging task but already the definition of diversity is not as straight-forward as it seems at the first glance. The third algorithm goes along the same lines but tries to find similar molecules by looking at their properties from so-called parallel universes[3]. Each universe contains a set of related properties and partial predictive models are built in each universe separately. Through interactive model construction, e.g. by so-called Neighbourgrams, the models from one universe can aid the construction of a models in other universes.

The Cost of Collaboration: Reflections Upon Randall Collins’ Theory of Collective Intellectual Production via Émile Durkheim: A Biography

The Cost of Collaboration: Reflections Upon Randall Collins' Theory of Collective Intellectual Production via Emile Durkheim: A Biography Marcel Fournier, Emile Durkheim: A Biography. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012. 700pp.When instructing his junior colleagues, Emile Durkheim argued that there was no point in reviewing a book for L'Annee Sociologique only to itemize or describe the contents. There also had to be a theoretical contribution. The commentary, he said, should reflect and advance the wider agendas of the sociological discipline that they were pioneering. With fidelity to this spirit, it seems ceremonially appropriate to reflect on a noted application of Durkheimian sociology using Marcel Fournier's newly translated biography of Durkheim as our stimulus.In his social theory, Durkheim magically squared the circle between group morality and individualism in modernity. By insisting that the core value pattern of organic solidarity was the cult of the individual, he suggested that there was no contradiction between intense group belonging and personal freedom, between collective life and individual accomplishment. Yet after reading Fournier, one wishes that what works so proficiently in theory could fare better in practice. Durkheim's life is revealed as one in which group belonging had an ambivalent and surprisingly complex relationship with his own opportunities for creativity.Let's begin with a thought experiment. Imagine the following as a method to improve scholarly output and deep thinking. A truly brilliant and driven individual is placed in a cell. Books and food are passed through a hole in a door. Perhaps there are writing materials. Social interaction is minimized. This is not an absurd suggestion. It is a method used historically by monastic orders for precisely such a reason. Now, imagine a parallel universe in which the same scholar is engaged in intensive intellectual interaction. The scholar leads a team of students in collective activities, shares ideas, and experiences plenty of solidarity. Which method will lead to the maximum volume of quality work? kind of output can each system of intellectual production sustain? Which path will generate the new ideas and books that will stand the test of time and still be read a century hence? Emile Durkheim provides an interesting test with which to reflect upon this very issue.Conveniently, we have a new resource for our task. First published in French in 2007, Marcel Fournier's monumental biography of Emile Durkheim is now available in English. It provides an exhaustive and thoroughly useful year-by-year account of his professional life.For a long time, the best source of detailed biographical information has been that of Steven Lukes from the mid-1970s. Efforts by Giddens, Coser, and Alexander also stand out as oft-cited texts. These authors were concerned, albeit at varying levels of intensity, with reconstructing Durkheim's thought or getting to its essence. The animating questions were: What did he really mean? and Has scholarship interpreted him correctly? They also situate Durkheim in terms of his contribution to social theory on, for example, the sources of social order, the nature of modernity, and forms of solidarity. Driven by current theoretical concerns, biographical information in such works has operated largely as a context or resource for particular readings of the master.Fournier has a somewhat different approach. His organization is chronological rather than thematic. His interpretations of Durkheim's ideas have a defttouch. One might use the term diplomatic. Avoiding controversy, he aims at consensus and somehow floats above ongoing disputes, such as whether or not Durkheim's move to a religious sociology marked a deep epistemological break from his earlier stance as a positivist student of social facts. Indeed, Fournier barely refers to present-day scholarship. One might have expected him to discuss ongoing efforts to reconfigure Durkheim as a theorist of the body, sexuality, or multiculturalism. …

To B or Not to B? Glucocorticoid Impact on B Lymphocyte Fate and Function

Lymphocytes have been used to study the action of glucocorticoids for more than a half-century. Although it had been recognized that adrenal steroids administered in vivo could cause atrophy of the thymus and lymph nodes of the rat (1), Dr Allan Munck and his colleagues were the first to show that a specific biochemical change (reduction in glucose use) could be elicited by glucocorticoids acting on thymocytes and that these effects seem to be mediated through hormone interaction with highly specific intracellular binding sites (2–5). These receptors were also recognized to mediate the apoptotic response of lymphoid cells of some species, and murine lymphoma cell lines that exhibited resistance to these lytic effects of glucocorticoids were used as a tool to explore the structure-function relationships of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) (6–9). The power of this approach drove many important discoveries in the field of steroid hormone action. In what has seemed at times like a parallel universe, glucocorticoids were being applied in the clinical setting for the control of both normal and abnormal immune system function long before we knew anything about how they worked (10). These hormonal compounds were used to treat patients with immune system neoplasms and autoimmune, allergic, or inflammatory diseases as well as those undergoing organ transplantation, even though the mechanisms by which these various clinical effects were mediated remained largely obscure. We have now begun to recognize that the glucocorticoid actions on the immune system likely extend beyond apoptotic responses and suppression of cytokine gene expression in thymus-derived lymphocytes (11). This recognition has led to the expectation that other specific cellular and molecular targets of glucocorticoids can be identified in the immune system and, hopefully, exploited for therapeutic application in the clinical setting. In this issue of Endocrinology, Gruver-Yates et al (12) present an exploration of the expression of the GR across the developmental pathway of (bone marrow derived) Blymphocytes, the antibody-producing cells of the humoral immune system. The authors use flow cytometric techniques to meticulously characterize GR expression in immature B cell subsets extracted from bone marrow and from peripheral lymphoid organs, and they demonstrate functionality of these receptors by assessing the apoptotic responses of these cells to glucocorticoids administered in vitro and in vivo. Their results are of particular interest in that they identify B-lymphocytes at all stages of development as potential targets of glucocorticoid action. Although endocrinologists seem to have heretofore largely ignored the B lymphocyte as a glucocorticoid target, immunologists (for at least a time) showed considerable interest in the idea. In vivo experiments in humans receiving supraphysiological doses of exogenous glucocorticoids [100 or 400 mg of hydrocortisone (13) or 60 mg of prednisone (14)] resulted in transient reductions in the number of circulating lymphocytes after 4–6 hours. These effects reverted to normal by 24 hours. The most pronounced reductions occurred in T cells, but circulating B cell numbers were also reduced by nearly 50% (14). The ability of the remaining circulating lymphocytes to respond to phytohemagglutinin (a T cell mitogen) was unaltered, but responses to pokeweed mitogen (a B cell mitogen) were reduced by the highest dose of hydrocortisone (13). Because previous studies had demonstrated resistance of human lymphoid cells to glucocorticoid-mediated lysis (15), the investigators interpreted their findings in

The Corrupt Parallel Universe that Defines South Africa’s Constitutional Order and Labour Laws that Fail South Africa : Decline and Lagged Growth in a Period of Government Hegemony

This paper explores the aspects raised in the title of this paper from perspectives that need exploration because corruption has become endemic within South Africa. This corruption therefore plays a significant role in retarding the economy and development within the country. In addition the paper attempts to explore very briefly the issue of labour laws and argues that these laws have failed South Africa. All of this the paper argues has resulted in the decline of the economy by virtue of lagged growth which has resulted to certain barriers to black advancement, which has a direct co - relation to impeding necessary economic growth, which is vital to South Africa’s development and economic success in a period of global recession. All of this points to the consolidation of government hegemony in South Africa.

Parallel universes of Black Six biology.

Creation of lethal and synthetic lethal mutations in an experimental organism is a cornerstone of genetic dissection of gene function, and is related to the concept of an essential gene. Common inbred mouse strains carry background mutations, which can act as genetic modifiers, interfering with the assignment of gene essentiality. The inbred strain C57BL/6J, commonly known as “Black Six”, stands out, as it carries a spontaneous homozygous deletion in the nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase (Nnt) gene [GenBank: AH009385.2], resulting in impairment of steroidogenic mitochondria of the adrenal gland, and a multitude of indirect modifier effects, coming from alteration of glucocorticoid-regulated processes. Over time, the popular strain has been used, by means of gene targeting technology, to assign “essential” and “redundant” qualifiers to numerous genes, thus creating an internally consistent “parallel universe” of knowledge. It is unrealistic to suggest phasing-out of this strain, given the scope of shared resources built around it, however, continuing on the road of “strain-unawareness” will result in profound waste of effort, particularly where translational research is concerned. The review analyzes the historical roots of this phenomenon and proposes that building of “parallel universes” should be urgently made visible to a critical reader by obligatory use of unambiguous and persistent tags in publications and databases, such as hypertext links, pointing to a vendor’s strain description web page, or to a digital object identifier (d.o.i.) of the original publication, so that any research done exclusively in C57BL/6J, could be easily identified.ReviewersThis article was reviewed by Dr. Neil Smalheiser and Dr. Miguel Andrade-Navarro.

François Place, Traveler of the Imaginary

François Place, Traveler of the Imaginary Christophe Meunier (bio) The work of François Place is at the intersection of documentary and fiction, of historical or geographical reality and the imaginary. Traveler of time and space, the French artist has the gift of taking his readers of all ages through his lines, strokes, and colors into parallel universes. In turn, illustrator, author, and novelist, Place also has the genius of rethinking the very concept of children’s picture books. Born in 1957, to a schoolteacher mother and a mosaic artist father, François Place spent his childhood in Ezanville, a small town located about 20 kilometers north of Paris. He was eleven years old when the Place family moved to Touraine where his grandparents lived. François pursued his secondary studies at Tours. With a literary baccalaureate in hand, he left the Valley of the Loire in 1974, and undertook three years of advanced study in Paris, at the Ecole Estienne, a school of advanced studies for the arts and graphics industries. After graduation, he started out in business [End Page 125] communication, publishing and advertising. In 1983, he began illustrating at Hachette, collaborating on the “Bibliothèque Rose” collection, where he participated in republishing the works of the Countess of Ségur. For Hachette Jeunesse always and for “Le Livre de Poche” collection, he worked with Henriette Bichonnier and Roselyne Morel. In 1985, he met Pierre Marchand, editor at Gallimard Jeunesse, who noticed his drawings for youth. His career as an illustrator seemed to skyrocket from this point. Gallimard entrusted him with the illustration of a series of five documentaries for the “Découverte Cadet” collection, having as a subject the discovery of the world, the great conquerors, explorers and navigators. In 1992, it was Casterman who put their faith in him. They published Les Derniers Géants, the first illustrated work of fiction in which he was both author and illustrator. The book suggests, by its form, a travel journal and tells the story of an English adventurer of the 19th century, Archibald Ruthmore, who having purchased at a port in Sussex a tooth that he was told come from a giant, embarked on a brigantine and left, armed with a map, in search of the last giants. The book was a clear success, receiving three major awards on its release: that of the Salon de Montreuil, the Société des Gens de Lettres, and the Cercle d’Or Livres Hebdo. It was translated into English in 1993 by William Rodarmor, under the title The Last Giants, by the American firm David R. Godine, then into German, Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. All while continuing to illustrate the work of other children’s authors, Place undertook in 1994, an enormous piece of work which would take six years. The project was to produce an atlas of twenty-six maps from the letters of the alphabet and accompany each with a story of an imaginary country depicted by the map. The world of Atlas des géographes Orbae came to light as three volumes appearing in 1996, 1998, and 2000. The first volume was showered with praise and received the Children’s Book Award from the Geography Book Fair at the International Festival of Geography at Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in 1997, as well as the prize for the Bologna Children’s Book Fair the following year. Six other children’s picture books would follow before François Place started writing youth novels. In 2010, he published with Gallimard Jeunesse a fantasy adventure, La Douane Volante about the initiation voyage of a young Breton orphan, Gwen-le-Tousseux, carried off by the wagon of Death. Two years later, François Place wrote a follow-up to the Atlas des géographes d’Orbae issuing in a boxed set two novels relating two crossed destinies, those of two characters from Orbae. His most recent novel, published in March of 2014, by Casterman, is again the recounting of a voyage, that of Angel, l’indien blanc, embarking in Buenos Aires on The Neptune and setting foot in Antarctica. Whether through his picture books or novels, the voyage is at...