A good evening to all.
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2014 was awarded to three scientists. .
Three researchers from Japan,
for their fundamental role in developing new light sources:
the blue light emitting diodes called LEDs.
These light sources are effective and environmentally-friendly.
And then these light sources will be,
as I put it here, the lights of the 21st century.
LED lights will be the lighting of the 21st century,
like Edison's lamp was the lighting of the 20th century.
This is a technological breakthrough.
A technological breakthrough that is based on a theory,
the quantum theory.
In fact, this quantum theory was born in the early 20th century
and led to a number of important and fundamental applications:
the transistor, which is the basis of electronics;
but also an object that was very mysterious at first: the laser,
which has become a valuable tool for doctors in surgery
but that is more commonly found at every cash deck
for reading bar codes.
So initially, however, quantum theory was not accepted.
It was not accepted because it was questioning
our vision of physics.
In fact, it was a breakthrough.
Breaks are rarely accepted easily.
At the same time, in the early 20th century
there was a break in art.
Yes, abstract painting.
Abstract painting also changed
the vision we had of the world, of representation.
So, what did quantum physics actually bring?
What did it proposed?
It proposed new objects.
Neither particle nor wave,
"totally crazy things",
to quote the great physicist Richard Feynman.
It proposed another vision of the microscopic world.
It proposed to enter a Terra Incognita
which physicists occupied pretty soon.
And in fact, this evolution of science was possible only because
science freed itself from dogma.
Science has gained its independence.
This long history of science
is the history of intelligence against obscurantism,
of critical minds against dogmatism.
This is the story of reason and doubt against certainty.
It's a long and beautiful story.
We should tell it to our children,
explain the perseverance of scholars,
explain that scientists had to fight
against those who did not accept the ideas they were bringing
because it was thought these ideas would disturb beliefs.
And, yes, scientists have had to fight against a concept of knowledge
locked inside a single idea of what the truth was.
Whereas, on the contrary it is necessary to promote a knowledge
open to the world, to civilizations.
This is what Kheireddine, whom you see here,
who was Prime Minister of Tunisia in the second half of the 19th century,
wanted to introduce in a new education system
which was fundamental for the evolution of Tunisia,
this teaching called the Sadikian education.
What did Kheireddine want to do?
Kheireddine wanted Tunisia to catch up in science
because for centuries, Tunisia had forgotten science,
like other Arab-Muslim countries.
Yes, the Arab-Muslim world forgot the science of its ancestors.
Let me tell you the last episode of Arabic astronomy.
In Istanbul, in 1577, an observatory was built.
Beautiful... with the most efficient instruments of the time,
like this other observatory that was designed in... "the North"
by the great Danish physicist Tycho Brahe,
(at the time, the term would have been astronomer, not physicist).
And this observatory was installed in the Palace of Uraniborg.
The two observatories, in Istanbul and in this northern country,
had completely opposite fates
after the appearance of a comet in the northern sky.
For Brahe, it was fundamental observations
which subsequently led to the extraordinary development
of astronomy in the European world.
I think everyone knows about it.
But in Istanbul, unfortunately,
that was the end of a beautiful scientific adventure.
Why? Because in fact, this comet had been interpreted differently.
In Istanbul, on the orders of the Sultan, the observatory was destroyed in 1580
because the Sultan had not accepted the astronomer's omen.
So today, we know more about comets,
you know more now...
we even make appointments from Earth!
Science is also at the heart of economic development.
Europe was built, was economically developed
thanks to scientific development.
And Kheireddine, whom I mentioned earlier, understood this.
Kheireddine who said we had to take science wherever it comes from.
Yes, we had to take science wherever it comes from
and our children had to discover it early.
We had to educate our children in this double culture.
Give them a traditional instruction, of course,
- at the time, in the 19th century, it was hard to say otherwise -
but also give them the teaching of modern science,
of foreign languages.
Yes, it is thanks to this double culture that modernity came into Tunisia.
Yes, this modernity that is in me, that I carry with me, that I am proud of.
My parents taught me this modernity, they instilled it in me.
My grandfather, a French and Arabic teacher.
My father, a pharmacist-biologist. Look at this picture.
This photo - my father is one of those pupils.
These pupils of the French-Arab school of Sfax.
It was the school year 1921-1922.
All dressed in jebba, except the teacher,
and all loving the values of equality and freedom:
the values of the French Revolution.
All for opening up to other cultures.
Yes, openness to other cultures...
This is what allows to know the other,
what allows to respect the other,
what allows sharing.
This must be at the heart of the education system.
Yes, a teacher's mission is a rich one.
They are passers of knowledge. They are passers of cultures.
They are also passers of values.
Values to share everywhere on the planet,
I mentionned equality: equality for all.
Equality for women and men.
Yes, equality for women and men.
So as a Tunisian woman, I want to say
that being from a country of Muslim culture,
I believe that women in Islamic countries
do not have to undergo an inferior status. I do.
Already, this principle of equality between men and women,
was stated by Tahar Haddad, a Tunisian theologian, in 1930
and his famous work "Our woman, Islamic law and society "
was translated into French - you see here the book cover.
And at the end of the book, a figure which may surprise you.
We don't have time to comment on that but I'm going to read the small caption:
"Our woman, between a faded past and a promising present."
Let's talk about the present.
We are worried. We are.
We are concerned by the violence, by the acts of barbarism in the region.
Yes, we are worried. March 18, Tunisia, my country,
the Bardo Museum was attacked, there were victims.
I pay tribute to them, but the Bardo Museum
is the museum of the Mediterranean.
This is the museum where all the Tunisian history is present.
Tunisia was Berber, Punic, Roman, Byzantine, Vandal
then Muslim and Arab.
So what can we do? How to deal with this violence?
Yes, we must protect our children.
We must protect our children from those who invite
to camp in "the field of the curse
to maintain the henchmen of the Demon and the sequence of destructive hatred".
This is a quote from a great Tunisian thinker
Abdelwahab Meddeb, who died recently. I pay tribute to him
Yes, this violence... how to react to this violence?
Well all together, each of us in our own way. Each of us where we are.
So as a teacher and a scientist,
I would like to mention very quickly two examples.
One is the story of my colleague, Aroua Saida, a biologist and didactician,
who understood that, in fact, students,
our students in their final year, studying the theory of evolution
had a... shall we say composite understanding
of the diversity of life.
They muddled up the scientific and theological references.
And she worked with them. And the students understood.
They understood you had to step into the researcher's shoes
That you had to accept the keys to science, to knowledge,
to accept questioning and critical thinking.
The second example concerns the scientific community.
The scientific community must fight against obscurantists,
who unfortunately, are currently investing the Web.
Yes, the scientific community
that of Academies of Sciences
made a declaration.
It gathered the Academies of Sciences of 68 countries
Europe, Latin America, USA, Africa, Asia,
and among these countries Arab Muslim countries:
The Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kingdom of Morocco
Turkey, Palestine...
perhaps I forgot some of them but anyway...
What did this declatation say?
It shows that it is important to teach the theory of evolution
that is so attacked on social networks, on the Internet
and that teaching this theory
which is actually accepted by the scientific community,
will bring students important knowledge
since the theory of evolution is one of the great advances of knowledge.
And this declaration called teachers, policy makers,
parents to educate their children so they can understand science.
But it also reminds of something interesting:
that number of questions
cannot be explained by science.
Then we should take other approaches:
philosophical, social, cultural, religious.
These approaches have different fields of action.
They have different fields of action and owe each other mutual respect.
So this declaration is a wonderful call.
A wonderful call from a scientific community,
of different culture, diverse culture.
But a call for young people to understand what science is.
For young people to understand that science is universal.
And I would add, because that is what is implied in that declaration,
human rights too, are universal.
And it is this universality I'm fighting for.
Thank you.
(Applause)