Ce livre propose une synthèse des recherches - des concepts jusqu'aux applications - sur les matériaux artificiels, incluant les cristaux photoniques et les métamatériaux. Il expose les enjeux de performance et les défis de fabrication (jusqu'à l'échelle du nanomètre) pour l'exploitation des effets d'ultra-réfraction ou de réfraction négative induits par l'ingénierie généralisée ou localisée de la dispersion sur l'ensemble du spectre électromagnétique (des micro-ondes à l'optique en passant par le térahertz et l'infrarouge). Didactique, Matériaux artificiels analyse les possibilités de l'optique de transformation tels que les mirages optiques, les lentilles parfaites, les tapis magiques et les capes d'invisibilité. Présentés comme potentiels précurseurs de nouveaux systèmes de contrôle de la propagation des ondes et/ou d'imagerie pour les domaines des télécommunications, de la biologie ou de la médecine, ils permettent d'identifier les principaux verrous théoriques et technologiques actuels.

The Ghent congress on town planning was the first genuinely international conference to address all aspects of civic life and design. Attended by representatives of 22 governments and 150 cities, as well as by hundreds of architects, planners, politicians, and scientists, it marked the culmination of a series of events which helped to form the world of town planning at the start of the twentieth century. Ghent illustrates three key themes for the history of town planning. First, the transactions of the congress include papers from some of the most significant theorists and practitioners of the period, such as Patrick Abercrombie, Augustin Rey, Raymond Unwin, and Joseph Stübben. Secondly, the congress as a whole reflects just how global the business of town planning had become by 1913: papers and exhibits included studies of colonial projects as well as European designs. The delegates themselves provide wonderful evidence of a transnational process at work. Finally, the text brilliantly illuminates the way in which town planning was critically linked to other reformist movements of the era. The whole event, like the International Union of Cities that it spawned, was the product of the peace movement. Even as war draw nearer, the International Union was being spoken of as a future world government. Significantly, one of the organisers of the event – Henri La Fontaine - won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1913. The Premier Congrès international et exposition comparée des villes is a major publication, but it is one that is now almost impossible to obtain. This republication, a century after this seminal event, will be considerable interest not only to those who work on town-planning, but also transnational historians and writers on the peace movement more generally.