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adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
"When Einstein died, his greatest rival, Bohr, found for him words of moving admiration. When, a few years later, Bohr in turn died, someone took a photograph of the black board in his study. There's a drawing on it. it represents Einstein's box of light thought experiment. To the very last, the desire to debate, to understand more. To the very last, doubt.
This permanent doubt, this deep source of science. "
Every time I read a book by Carlo Rovelli, the book starts in the same way. It will always, always, begin with the ancient greeks. It doesn't matter what he's writing on, or whether it's physics or love (though he will rarely write about one without the other), the ancient greeks always show up. I did initially feel it was a bit much to go through them all again, having read this book after 3 of his other ones, but to my dismay, it was actually quite relevant to the arguments he puts forward in this book.
Speaking of, this book is Mr Rovelli's argument for Quantum Loop Gravity (QLG). Starting at the ancients, pre-the fire of Alexandria, Rovelli takes you through physics all the way up to modern day, from the telescopes of Galileo, the orbits of Copernicus, Newton's apple, Feynman, Einstein, Bohr, and many others. He then (after a pretty dramatic page of italics) takes us to the more speculative realm of quantum loop gravity, and gives us the theory, arguing (fairly convincingly I think, but you be the judge) that it makes sense in the context of the rest of science.
The general idea is that at a scale of the planck length, approximately $10^{-33}$ cm, space is quantised, into separate "nodes" of space. There's lots of new words to learn, like "spinfoam", the word to describe the quantised spacetime (analogous to bubbles in a bath, where the nodes are the points where the bubbles meet), but it never feels too difficult to understand. And his argument for this quantised space time is very reasonable, giving many different examples and following the pattern of science so far as he sees it, from the father of the atom, Democritus, all the way to Matvei Petrovich Bronstein, a soviet scientist who made the first steps in the direction of quantum loop gravity.
The problem is, being described physics doesn't make one understand or comprehend it as well as you do by doing it mathematically. This is briefly touched upon, but not really - which I shall elaborate on in this brief aside. When I was about to start doing physics at university, my uncle told me to "shut up and calculate", instead of trying to conceptualize the physics. The understanding and intuition would come with the mathematics. And therefore you can imagine that for something as unintuitive as QLG it is very difficult to convey any understanding or intuition. This shows in the fact that his argument hinges on a specific interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Additionally, I would have loved to see more of a critique of string theory, which is an opposing theory to QLG, and criticisms of QLG! Despite talking about doubts, Rovelli doesn't really talk about the criticisms levelled at QLG - he mentions that he is uncertain that it is correct, and talks about how the equations are "messy" but I don't think sufficiently outlines the problems of the theory. Admittedly, that might distract from a book where the purpose is to spread news about this particular theory, and it did mean that I then googled the problems of the theory, thereby doing more reading into it (the first result was an article by the man himself, go figure).
But maybe these are more a criticism of popular science than of this specific book, who's main purpose is to appeal to people who don't necessarily have a physics background. And I hope it would. Rovelli's enthusiasm is infectious, and he writes beautifully about the "great scientists" of ages past, their doubts and their joys. He never loses sight of what is really important, the context within which the science is being done. In particular, the chapter about Einstein grappling with the consequences of his discoveries, and his struggle to secede to quantum mechanics were particularly poignant.
To conclude, this book is a really wonderful addition to any aspiring scientist or curious person's bookshelf. It may very well be that the physics described in the later chapters one day is rendered redundant, much like many theories passed. But part of the way forward in science is making mistakes, and reading this book would absolutely not be one.
This permanent doubt, this deep source of science. "
Every time I read a book by Carlo Rovelli, the book starts in the same way. It will always, always, begin with the ancient greeks. It doesn't matter what he's writing on, or whether it's physics or love (though he will rarely write about one without the other), the ancient greeks always show up. I did initially feel it was a bit much to go through them all again, having read this book after 3 of his other ones, but to my dismay, it was actually quite relevant to the arguments he puts forward in this book.
Speaking of, this book is Mr Rovelli's argument for Quantum Loop Gravity (QLG). Starting at the ancients, pre-the fire of Alexandria, Rovelli takes you through physics all the way up to modern day, from the telescopes of Galileo, the orbits of Copernicus, Newton's apple, Feynman, Einstein, Bohr, and many others. He then (after a pretty dramatic page of italics) takes us to the more speculative realm of quantum loop gravity, and gives us the theory, arguing (fairly convincingly I think, but you be the judge) that it makes sense in the context of the rest of science.
The general idea is that at a scale of the planck length, approximately $10^{-33}$ cm, space is quantised, into separate "nodes" of space. There's lots of new words to learn, like "spinfoam", the word to describe the quantised spacetime (analogous to bubbles in a bath, where the nodes are the points where the bubbles meet), but it never feels too difficult to understand. And his argument for this quantised space time is very reasonable, giving many different examples and following the pattern of science so far as he sees it, from the father of the atom, Democritus, all the way to Matvei Petrovich Bronstein, a soviet scientist who made the first steps in the direction of quantum loop gravity.
The problem is, being described physics doesn't make one understand or comprehend it as well as you do by doing it mathematically. This is briefly touched upon, but not really - which I shall elaborate on in this brief aside. When I was about to start doing physics at university, my uncle told me to "shut up and calculate", instead of trying to conceptualize the physics. The understanding and intuition would come with the mathematics. And therefore you can imagine that for something as unintuitive as QLG it is very difficult to convey any understanding or intuition. This shows in the fact that his argument hinges on a specific interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Additionally, I would have loved to see more of a critique of string theory, which is an opposing theory to QLG, and criticisms of QLG! Despite talking about doubts, Rovelli doesn't really talk about the criticisms levelled at QLG - he mentions that he is uncertain that it is correct, and talks about how the equations are "messy" but I don't think sufficiently outlines the problems of the theory. Admittedly, that might distract from a book where the purpose is to spread news about this particular theory, and it did mean that I then googled the problems of the theory, thereby doing more reading into it (the first result was an article by the man himself, go figure).
But maybe these are more a criticism of popular science than of this specific book, who's main purpose is to appeal to people who don't necessarily have a physics background. And I hope it would. Rovelli's enthusiasm is infectious, and he writes beautifully about the "great scientists" of ages past, their doubts and their joys. He never loses sight of what is really important, the context within which the science is being done. In particular, the chapter about Einstein grappling with the consequences of his discoveries, and his struggle to secede to quantum mechanics were particularly poignant.
To conclude, this book is a really wonderful addition to any aspiring scientist or curious person's bookshelf. It may very well be that the physics described in the later chapters one day is rendered redundant, much like many theories passed. But part of the way forward in science is making mistakes, and reading this book would absolutely not be one.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
As someone who hasn't taken any college physics classes, and sat through most of her high school physics class thinking, "oh I finally understand this" and then got back her tests with "you forgot about this tiny thing that still throws off all of your equations by a huge amount", I was expecting to read a chapter of this book, realize I was out of my depth, and give up.
But this is a really approachable overview of physics from Leucippus (who I'd never heard of) through Heisenberg (through a different lens than I read of his work through in chemistry) and Einstein (obviously) and many more.
This book breaks things down into very understandable chunks, with helpful diagrams showing the evolution of the field's perception of reality throughout. Coming from a technical writing perspective, the different chunks and the transitions through chapters also seemed really well thought out and helpful to me.
There are definitely pieces I'm going to have to go back to and re-read, and since it's physics it did still make me squint my brain at the world and tilt to try to wrap my head around certain things (especially quantum gravity and chapter 7 - "Time Does Not Exist")--but it was all very well explained. If you're a physics major, you'll probably feel a little over-explained at times, but I honestly think it could still be helpful if your teachers always took an equation-only approach to physics. It's easy to get wrapped up in the equations and miss the evolution of ideas in a field, and I think the emphasis on the evolution of the way physicists dissect reality was one of the driving factors for my appreciation of this book.
But this is a really approachable overview of physics from Leucippus (who I'd never heard of) through Heisenberg (through a different lens than I read of his work through in chemistry) and Einstein (obviously) and many more.
This book breaks things down into very understandable chunks, with helpful diagrams showing the evolution of the field's perception of reality throughout. Coming from a technical writing perspective, the different chunks and the transitions through chapters also seemed really well thought out and helpful to me.
There are definitely pieces I'm going to have to go back to and re-read, and since it's physics it did still make me squint my brain at the world and tilt to try to wrap my head around certain things (especially quantum gravity and chapter 7 - "Time Does Not Exist")--but it was all very well explained. If you're a physics major, you'll probably feel a little over-explained at times, but I honestly think it could still be helpful if your teachers always took an equation-only approach to physics. It's easy to get wrapped up in the equations and miss the evolution of ideas in a field, and I think the emphasis on the evolution of the way physicists dissect reality was one of the driving factors for my appreciation of this book.
The simple beauty in the author's writing rendered me speechless. There were moments when i had to put the book down to admire the masterpiece that this book is. The way he weaves poetry into quantum physics gave me so much joy. As a writer and a quantum science fanatic, i never thought I'd come across a piece of literature such as this. It's definitely worth multiple reads.
Just outstanding. One of the best pop physics books I can imagine. Wrestles with incredibly complex topics and renders them as simple as they could ever be. I felt I almost understood the basis of quantum physics and quantum gravity (I say almost). The audiobook is read excessively well, too; the narrator really captures the sense of wonder and awe, and passion for the subject, while being clear and allowing time to digest.
Rating due to combination of my ignorance and BBC, I hope. Revisit when read actual book.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Certainly came away smarter for
Having read this but also there are chapters that went by without me following what was being discussed at all. Special relativity is hard y’all. Love Carlo though!
Having read this but also there are chapters that went by without me following what was being discussed at all. Special relativity is hard y’all. Love Carlo though!
A really good book and overall quite clear about subject matter that can be very confusing for non-physics people. This went a little deeper than some books about quantum physics and really distinguishes it from other theories in a way that isn't too over your head. It takes away the infinity of earlier theories and makes concepts like quantum distances and black hole physics finite. A Good read.
If you've been exposed to the ideas behind general relativity, quantum mechanics and particle physics, but like me have never been able to form an intuitive understanding of how they relate to one another and to our everyday experience, then I highly recommend this book.
I started off reading this very slowly, trying to understand it completely. I soon realized there are ideas here I’ll never completely understand! This was still an excellent book. The author seems to be a big fan of Democritus I don’t recall ever hearing of Democritus before reading this book! There were a lot of mind blowing ideas presented in this book. I had no idea that Dante, in The Divine Comedy describes the universe as a 3-sphere. I’m still struggling to picture a 3-sphere but the descriptions given on page 96-7 got me closer to doing so. This was a great, enlightening book.