biology

Pierre Lecomte du Noüy

Pierre Lecomte du Noüy is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pierre Lecomte du Noüy rather than just read about it. In short: Pierre Lecomte du Noüy (French pronunciation: [ləkɔ̃t dy nwi]; 20 December 1883 – 22 September 1947) was a French biophysicist and philosopher. He is probably best remembered by scientists for his work on the surface tension, and other properties, of liquids.

Key takeaways

Pierre Lecomte du Noüy belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pierre Lecomte du Noüy to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pierre Lecomte du Noüy from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Pierre Lecomte du Noüy (French pronunciation: [ləkɔ̃t dy nwi]; 20 December 1883 – 22 September 1947) was a French biophysicist and philosopher. He is probably best remembered by scientists for his work on the surface tension, and other properties, of liquids.

Biography Du Noüy, a descendant of the French dramatist Pierre Corneille, was born in Paris, France, to a family of artists and intellectuals. His father, Émile André Lecomte du Nouÿ, known as André Lecomte du Noüy (1844 – 1914) , was an architect who was appointed by the Romanian king Carol I for the restoration of a number of Romanian monuments, especially the Curtea de Argeș Cathedral. His mother, Hermine Lecomte du Noüy (1854 – 1915), wrote many novels, one of which, Amitié amoureuse, was translated into 16 languages and ran for 600 editions in France. His paternal uncle was the celebrated painter Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ (1842 – 1923). Educated in Paris, du Noüy obtained the degrees of LL.B., Ph.B., Sc.B., Ph.D., and Sc.D. In 1925 he married Mary Bishop Harriman (1891 – 1974), granddaughter of American businessman Oliver Harriman. In 1943, fleeing World War II, they moved to New York City, where Lecomte du Noüy died in 1947 after a short illness. After her husband's death Mary stayed in Paris until her death in 1974. Her body was brought back to the United States to rest beside her husband in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

Career He was an associate member of the Rockefeller Institute working in Alexis Carrel's lab from 1920 through 1928, head for 10 years of the biophysics division of the Pasteur Institute, and the author of some 200 published papers. He invented a tensiometer, a scientific apparatus that used his du Noüy ring method to measure the surface tension of liquids. Du Noüy believed that mankind should have confidence in science, but be aware that we know less about the material world than is commonly believed.

Telefinalism Du Noüy converted from agnosticism to Christianity. He supported a theistic and teleological interpretation of evolution. In his book Human Destiny he wrote that biological evolution continues to a spiritual and moral plane. Du Noüy met Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who shared similar interests in evolution and spirituality. Du Noüy developed his own hypothesis of orthogenesis known as "telefinalism". According to Du Noüy evolution could not occur by chance alone and that on an average since "the beginning of the world it has followed an ascending path, always oriented in the same direction." He accepted naturalistic evolutionary mechanisms such as mutation and natural selection but believed science could not explain all evolutionary phenomena or the origin of life. According to his telefinalist hypothesis a transcendent cause which he equated with God is directing the evolutionary process. His "telefinalist" hypothesis was criticized by Carl Hempel, Leo Koch and George Gaylord Simpson as nonscientific.

Publications Between Knowing and Believing (1967) The Road to Reason (1948) Human Destiny (1947) Biological Time (1937) An Interfacial Tensiometer for Universal Use (1925). The Journal of General Physiology. Volume 7, issue 5, pp. 625–633

Quotes If telefinalism, by postulating the intervention of an Idea, a Will, a supreme Intelligence, throws a little light on the combined transformations leading through an uninterrupted line to Man, it seems impossible not to see in the particular transformations limited to the species something more than the simple play of physico-chemical forces and chance. Human Destiny, p. 97

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pierre Lecomte du Noüy

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pierre Lecomte du Noüy claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pierre Lecomte du Noüy before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pierre Lecomte du Noüy ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pierre Lecomte du Noüy

In research: Pierre Lecomte du Noüy appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pierre Lecomte du Noüy in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pierre Lecomte du Noüy is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1883 births, 1947 deaths, 20th-century French male writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pierre Lecomte du Noüy outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Pierre Lecomte du Noüy in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pierre Lecomte du Noüy means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pierre Lecomte du Noüy out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pierre Lecomte du Noüy in simple terms?

Why does Pierre Lecomte du Noüy matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pierre Lecomte du Noüy?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pierre Lecomte du Noüy.