Carlo Rovelli’s slim poetic meditation Seven Brief Lessons on Physics managed to clarify the troubling uncertainties of Einsteinian relativity, quantum theory and other physical exotica. Less than 80 pages long, it became one of the fastest-selling science books ever, and has now sold a million copies worldwide. Not since Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time had there been such a consensual success in the science book market; in the author’s native Italy the lessons even outsold Fifty Shades of Grey.
Reality Is Not What It Seems– a deeper, more intellectually challenging meditation – outlines for the general reader some of the key developments in physics from the ancient Greek philosophers and the Roman poet Lucretius to the present day. In the Italian professor’s elucidation, physics goes deeper than any other science into the riddle of existence. The laws of physics – gravity, energy, motion – underpin those of chemistry, astrophysics and meteorology combined. So an understanding of the world requires some grasp of physics. This book aims to make that grasp easier for the layperson.
Related: Carlo Rovelli: ‘Science is where revolutions happen’
Related: Seven Brief Lessons on Physics review – science without the detail
Continue reading...