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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
Pretty good book that makes black holes more interesting then ever, but sometimes it read like the author was really struggling to fill up this little book.
medium-paced
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Black holes are fascinating. The book does a good job of explaining it in a way that is understandable to a non astrophysicist. I fully feel ready to jump head first into a black hole.
Very nice illustrations, I learned a lot about the technicalities of black holes but would probably not recommend to someone who doesn't care about physics.
Well written, lyrical, sweeping, lucid, fatalist.
Black holes present a deep mystery that challenges our best scientific theories—general relativity and quantum mechanics—to their core. Janna Levin's survival guide will not save you from being devoured by the singularity if you veer too close. Her guide is ultimately a ruse to weave the tapestry of principles that form our conflicting theories and frame our current guesses for a solution to the black hole conundrum: What happens to the stuff that falls into a black hole? What happens to the information they contain? Is the horizon simply a place where spacetime is bent too much yet otherwise inconspicuous, or is it blazing with an ever growing accumulation of the information debris of the black hope's victims? These questions and other wonderments keep many a physicist sharpening their mathematical tools and even get into a few battles and wagers over their favorite answers.
Levin is a master of analogies that turn the concepts crystal clear. Her explanation of fundamental symmetries (Nature's lack of preference for one direction to another, for example) is the best I've read. My only complaint is that, at times, she seems to offer descriptions of certain notions that are neither universally accepted nor stand in harmony with other parts of her descriptions. For example, entanglement is presented as a means to receive information by one party faster than the speed of light, a dubious statement, especially as she also spends a good chunk on explaining how no such information is transmitted to the other party. In a similar vain, she describes the process of measuring a quantum superposition as one that somehow forces the quantum state to pick one state to be in, which is, to say the least, a very contested statement.
Despite these complaints, I enjoyed the time I spent in the company of Levin's words and thought experiments. And I hope you will too.
Black holes present a deep mystery that challenges our best scientific theories—general relativity and quantum mechanics—to their core. Janna Levin's survival guide will not save you from being devoured by the singularity if you veer too close. Her guide is ultimately a ruse to weave the tapestry of principles that form our conflicting theories and frame our current guesses for a solution to the black hole conundrum: What happens to the stuff that falls into a black hole? What happens to the information they contain? Is the horizon simply a place where spacetime is bent too much yet otherwise inconspicuous, or is it blazing with an ever growing accumulation of the information debris of the black hope's victims? These questions and other wonderments keep many a physicist sharpening their mathematical tools and even get into a few battles and wagers over their favorite answers.
Levin is a master of analogies that turn the concepts crystal clear. Her explanation of fundamental symmetries (Nature's lack of preference for one direction to another, for example) is the best I've read. My only complaint is that, at times, she seems to offer descriptions of certain notions that are neither universally accepted nor stand in harmony with other parts of her descriptions. For example, entanglement is presented as a means to receive information by one party faster than the speed of light, a dubious statement, especially as she also spends a good chunk on explaining how no such information is transmitted to the other party. In a similar vain, she describes the process of measuring a quantum superposition as one that somehow forces the quantum state to pick one state to be in, which is, to say the least, a very contested statement.
Despite these complaints, I enjoyed the time I spent in the company of Levin's words and thought experiments. And I hope you will too.
3.5⭐️
Quick, entertaining read to learn a little bit about what we know and speculate about blackholes. I enjoyed the author’s voice and there’s lot a good information packed into less than 200 pages.
Quick, entertaining read to learn a little bit about what we know and speculate about blackholes. I enjoyed the author’s voice and there’s lot a good information packed into less than 200 pages.
Adesso ho paura di cadere in un buco nero.
Evento improbabile, ma ora sarà il mio nuovo nightmare fuel.
Evento improbabile, ma ora sarà il mio nuovo nightmare fuel.
4/5
A concise and engaging read. Astrophysics and quantum mechanics is still an absolute mindfuck to me, but I think I understand black holes a little bit better now than I did before! The final third or so is where it started to lose me as it got a bit too abstract for me to comprehend, but I can appreciate the skill of the author in being able to describe these immensely complex ideas in relatively understandable ways.
A concise and engaging read. Astrophysics and quantum mechanics is still an absolute mindfuck to me, but I think I understand black holes a little bit better now than I did before! The final third or so is where it started to lose me as it got a bit too abstract for me to comprehend, but I can appreciate the skill of the author in being able to describe these immensely complex ideas in relatively understandable ways.
A charming, highly readable book that manages to relate the confusing info about black holes in unique and understandable ways, and yet still capture the subtle humor of existential dread. :D