A review by gabe_reads
Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli

slow-paced

2.0

More about quantum physics than Rovelli’s other book that I’ve read. This goes through a history of how quantum physics was developed by people like Bohr, Heisenberg, and Schrödinger. How it was adapted from classical physics, the weird conclusions it led to and about how some of those things are resolved. 

He also then goes on to talk about his perspective on quantum physics: that the world is not really a collection of stuff but is more a web of interactions. That’s why quantum physics describes things in relation to their observer. Why you fundamentally cannot measure the location and speed of a particle simultaneously. Quantum physics describes things in clouds of probability, though we also know these things are tangible particles. 

He says that Schrödinger’s cat is only both awake and asleep (he changes the original saying because he won’t play with a cat’s life) in relation to us. In relation to, say, the cat itself, the container has either gone off or it hasn’t, there is no superposition. Does that make sense? No? Well it didn’t really to me either. 

There were bits of this book which I think I understood, though for the life of me I don’t think I could explain them now. There were other bits that completely lost me at the time. The writing style did a lot to make up for the dense and confusing subject though. Rovelli was light and engaging, and actively funny at times. Where he completely lost me was when he strayed more into philosophy and general musings.