Descriere
The instant Sunday Times bestseller -- a beautiful story of rebellion and science
'Popular science has rarely been so good' Prospect
'A triumph. . . We are left in a world that is not disenchanted by science, but even more magical' Financial Times
In June 1925, twenty-three-year-old Werner Heisenberg, suffering from hay fever, had retreated to the treeless, wind-battered island of Helgoland in the North Sea in order to think. Walking all night, by dawn he had wrestled with an idea that would transform the whole of science and our very conception of the world.
In Helgoland Carlo Rovelli tells the story of the birth of quantum physics and its bright young founders who were to become some of the most famous Nobel winners in science. It is a celebration of youthful rebellion and intellectual revolution. An invitation to a magical place.
Here Rovelli illuminates competing interpretations of this science and offers his own original view, describing the world we touch as a fabric woven by relations. Where we, as every other thing around us, exist in our interactions with one another, in a never-ending game of mirrors.
A dazzling work from a celebrated scientist and master storyteller, Helgoland transports us to dizzying heights, reminding us of the many pleasures of the life of the mind.
Translated by Erica Segre and Simon Carnell
Chosen as a Book of the Year by The Times, Financial Times, Sunday Times, Guardian and Prospect
Popular science has rarely been so good
Prospect
The greatest populariser of physics today. . . We are left in a world that is not disenchanted by science, but even more magical. A triumph
Julian Baggini, Financial Times
Theoretical physics often feels rather mystical. This mind-bending, lively book by the bestselling physicist Carlo Rovelli reinforces that other-wordly feeling. . . unforgettable
The Times
Rovelli is often called the poet of physics. He writes elegant, wondering, enlarging books on time and quantum theory, much in the spirit of a priest bringing the word of God to his congregation, and I've found it good for my soul to be confronted with how little I understand the world and everything in it
Sarah Perry, Guardian
One of the warmest, most elegant and most lucid interpreters of the dazzling enigmas of his discipline. . . A momentous book
John Banville, Wall Street Journal
His most beautiful book yet. . . leaves an unforgettable impression of its author as a man struggling at the furthest limits of human comprehension
James Marriot, The Times
A deep-thinking, restlessly inquiring spirit. . . His books continue a tradition of popular scientific writing from Galileo to Darwin that disappeared in the academic specialisations of the past century
Ian Thomson, Observer
Another brilliant book by Rovelli. . . You'll have fun
Clive Cookson, Financial Times
If anyone can make sense of the topsy-turvy, counterintuitive world of quantum physics, it is Carlo Rovelli, the most poetically minded of today's science communicators
The Times
A remarkably wide-ranging new meditation on quantum theory. . . With the light touch of a skilled storyteller. . . Rovelli is not afraid to mix quantum physics and eastern philosophy
Manjit Kumar, Guardian
