Philippe Landrieu (1872-1926), a Chemist involved in experimental politics.

From Jean-Baptiste Dumas to Chaim Weizmann and to Margaret Thatcher, includ ing Alfred Naquet, Marcelin Berthelot, Auguste Scheurer-Kaster, Stanislao C annizzaro, Frederic Joliot etc., there are few chemists who, at one time or another, have not been tempted to enter politics. Philippe Landrieu is cer tainly one of the lesser known of this group, even if he had a laudatory Ob ituary in both the Bulletin de la Societe chimique de France, and La Nouvel le Revue socialiste. The events in which he was involved, the utopias for w hich he was searching, his double career, and his scientific work, nothing was ordinary in his busy life. This Note, as well as placing him in the soc ial history of the last century, will also recall his work as a chemist, an d the unresolved problems in which he was interested. (C) 2001 Academie des sciences / Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.