Reality Is Not What It Seems

The Journey to Quantum Gravity

Paperback, 255 pages

English language

Published June 1, 2017 by Penguin Books.

ISBN:
978-0-14-198321-9
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4 stars (1 review)

What are the elementary ingredients of the world? Do time and space exist? And what exactly is reality? In elegant and accessible prose,theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli leads us on a wondrous journey from Democritus to Einstein, from Michael Faraday to gravitational waves, and from classical physics to his own work in quantum gravity. As he shows us how the idea of reality has evolved over time, Rovelli offers readers deeper explanations of the theories he introduced so concisely in Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. Rovelli invites us to imagine a marvelous world where space breaks up into tiny grains, time disappears at the smallest scales, and black holes are waiting to explode -- a vast universe still largely undiscovered.

(From back cover)

5 editions

What have physicists done in the last 100 years for Non-Physicist

4 stars

Obviously, the public is interested in what the 10,000 researching physicists are doing: the image of a black hole, Higgs boson, etc. This book explains what physicists have been up to for the last 100 years and how our everyday understanding is being overturned as a result. To illustrate this, the author uses the history of physical thinking in antiquity and from modern times onwards. I highly enjoyed enjoyed reading the book and learned a great deal. It cured my anger about "emanzipatorische Wissenschaftskritik", which was just a "mutual admiration sub reddit" in my opinion.

Subjects

  • Science
  • Physics
  • Quantum Physics
  • Quantum Mechanics
  • History