The Mathematician's Brain poses a provocative question about the world's most brilliant yet eccentric mathematical minds: were they brilliant because of their eccentricities or in spite of them? In this thought-provoking and entertaining book, David Ruelle, the well-known mathematical physicist who helped create chaos theory, gives us a rare insider's account of the celebrated mathematicians he has known-their quirks, oddities, personal tragedies, bad behavior, descents into madness, tragic ends, and the sublime, inexpressible beauty of their most breathtaking mathematical discoveries. Consider the case of British mathematician Alan Turing. Credited with cracking the German Enigma code during World War II and conceiving of the modern computer, he was convicted of "gross indecency" for a homosexual affair and died in 1954 after eating a cyanide-laced apple--his death was ruled a suicide, though rumors of assassination still linger. Ruelle holds nothing back in his revealing and deeply personal reflections on Turing and other fellow mathematicians, including Alexander Grothendieck, Ren Thom, Bernhard Riemann, and Felix Klein. But this book is more than a mathematical tell-all. Each chapter examines an important mathematical idea and the visionary minds behind it. Ruelle meaningfully explores the philosophical issues raised by each, offering insights into the truly unique and creative ways mathematicians think and showing how the mathematical setting is most favorable for asking philosophical questions about meaning, beauty, and the nature of reality. The Mathematician's Brain takes you inside the world--and heads--of mathematicians. It's a journey you won't soon forget.

大衛·呂埃勒（David Ruelle），1935年生乾比利時，法國科學院理論物理院士，1964年被法國高等科學研究所（IHES）聘為第一位外籍物理教授，自2000年起為IHES名譽教授及美國羅格斯大學的傑齣訪問教授。他是統計物理的奠基人之一，為混沌動力學的開創者。與塔肯斯（Flaris Takens）提齣奇異吸引子的概念並建立瞭湍流的新理論，為化學反應中混沌現象研究的先驅。1986年他因對統計物理的傑齣貢獻獲玻爾茲曼奬，2006年因對量子場論、統計力學、動力係統的傑齣貢獻獲龐加萊奬。除本書外，他還著有膾炙人口的科普書《機遇與混沌》。