Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

This brief, beautifully written book is not only a clear and profound discussion of the greatest achievements of modern physics, it is also a literary masterpiece. Rovelli's discussion of the great breakthroughs of modern physics covers familiar terrain--Einstein's theories of relativity, the development of quantum physics, and more recent theories that will eventually lead to the long-anticipated final theory-- and does not break new ground. Readers familiar with developments in physics in the 20th and 21st Centuries will find little new here. But what they will find are clear and elegant lessons about the meaning of these breakthroughs and why they matter. Rovelli's essays are among the clearest and most comprehensible summaries of the astonishing breakthroughs in modern physics that any reader will find anywhere. If one wants to acquaint one's self with the most profound breakthroughs in physics, these essays are a great place to start. Rovelli has a gift, a teacher's gift, to explain the most complex ideas in a way that a non-specialist can comprehend while still conveying the enormous consequences of the great ideas he discusses. But beyond being a wonderful discussion of the greatest ideas of science, this little book is above all a literary masterpiece. It is beautifully written, deeply human, and, ultimately, takes science to the level of poetry. Rovelli's essays convey the grandeur of the quest to understand our universe, and, beyond that, they discuss, in beautiful prose, the human significance of this quest. If you love science, and you love literature, do yourself a favor and buy this little book. It is profound, lucid, and deeply moving. It is about the meaning of life itself, and it is wonderful.

Many years ago, I was required to take a physics course. Being what they called a “Bull Major”, this version was called Physics for poets. A rather interesting formula for those who think human have no choice but to see the beauty in the world or its mechanics. That duality is silly. Much later, I would come home from dating (My then date is now The Wife) and watch a televised class in physics. Amazing what a huge budget for animations and demonstrations do to make the subject fascinating. Somewhere along the line I got interested in reading into Quantum physics. All the while clinging to the famous quote to the effect that if you think you understand Quantum, you don’t. And so, to this slim gem of a book. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli. It is a nice companion book for the not even amateur reader like myself and a lovely intro for one barely willing to read its 80 pages. Please read it, it is very nearly poetic and written to the intelligence of the most casual reader. For me, there was little new for about 3 chapters. These were fun because he gave me another way to think about and understand things, I had struggled to take in. Then he steps int what is more nearly poetry than science, and is entirely science. What we are asked to consider is that the universe is driven by probability. The outcome of every interaction is never more than a probability. Enven heat flows one way because that way is the more likely. For that matter, try this for contemplation. Time is (probably) heat flow. The past is gone, the future does not exist yet, but we are all certain of the right now. Why? What does ‘now’ mean? How do you express it as a formula? Great questions. Follow these thoughts where Rovelli takes you then launch out into your own directions.

It’s Not What You Think By Bob Gelms I have two science books that, over the years, have become my favorites, The Elegant Universe and The Field. I have just found a third, Carlo Rovelli’s Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. Keep reading, it’s not what you think. First of all I have to tell you that there isn’t any math in the book. There is one equation that Mr. Rovelli prints just to show you what it looks like. It’s not very famous unless you are already a physicist. In the preface he states, “These lessons were written for those who know little or nothing about modern science. Together they provide a rapid overview of the most fascinating aspects of the great revolution that has occurred in physics in the twentieth and twenty first century…” In the spirit of Mr. Rovelli’s book, physics is the concrete explanation of the magic of the universe. It is the search for the truth about how everything in the universe operates interdependently on a grand scale (galaxies) and on the minute scale (electrons, protons, neutrons, quarks, gluons, etc.) This search, at times, has been fraught with the real danger of losing your life. Galileo was almost burned at the stake, commuted to life imprisoned under house arrest, for simply saying that the Earth revolved around the Sun. Scientists in the twentieth century are a little better off. The book is very short. If you have the print version, it’s 81 pages long, with only seven chapters called lessons. It starts at the beginning of the twentieth century with, next to Isaac Newton, the most important physicist in all of history, Albert Einstein. Einstein’s theories are simply and elegantly explained in plain non-scientific language. The culmination of his work is called A General Theory of Relativity, in addition to three or four other papers that were glossed over and initially laughed at. Once the scientific community caught up with Einstein’s brain they were struck dumb with the beauty and simplicity of his vision for the operation of the universe. It has always struck me curious that when he won the Nobel Prize it wasn’t for relativity (E=MC2). It was for one of those glossed over papers on the nature of light. He did all of his work on relativity and the photoelectric effect in 1905, when he was 26 years old. Over the years, he became a towering giant in the history of science while remaining a gentle and kind man. The second lesson covers the exact opposite of Einstein’s theories. Planck, Bohr, and Heisenberg all contributed in some degree to the theory of the littlest “things” in the universe, which came to be called quantum mechanics. It deals with atoms and the particles that make them up, showing how they interact with the ever-changing landscape around and in them. Then all hell broke loose. It seems that the rules and regs that describe perfectly Einstein’s big universe of galaxies, stars, solar systems and planets do not work if you apply those rules and regs to the little world of quantum mechanics. Conversely if you take the rules and regs of the little universe of quantum mechanics and apply them to Einstein’s big universe you will find that they don’t work. WELL. Both theories contradict one another and they shouldn’t because they both work perfectly in their own space and time. The big prize in physics these days is to find the link between the two because it is inherent in both theories that there be something that draws them together. Einstein called it the unified field theory and he tried to find it his whole life. He failed. Lessons One, Two and Seven are the far and away the most interesting and most important in the book. The other essays cover more popular topics like time, black holes, probability, particles, and a lesson called Grains of Space which is a brief explanation of a theory founded by Mr. Rovell, himself a theoretical physicist. In it, he attempts, I think, to reconcile the big with the small worlds of physics. It is called loop quantum gravity and it’s where general relativity meets quantum mechanics. In many ways the most interesting of all the essays is the last one. It’s simply called Ourselves. This is where Mr. Rovelli attempts to equate us, homo sapiens, to the interworking of the universe. We are all made of stardust put together using the immutable laws of nature. Our bodies conform to how the atoms we are made of obey quantum mechanics and the way in which we pass through time and space. It is utterly fascinating. I had an “oh wow” moment. I’d like to close with Mr. Rovelli’s words. “Here, on the edge of what we know, in contact with the ocean of the unknown, shines the mystery and the beauty of the world. And it’s breathtaking.”

I loved this book as someone without a science background. Esoteric ideas are presented simply and are easy to understand. The book is short enough to distill essential ideas but leaves you wanting to read and learn more. Recommend!

知らない単語が出てくる頻度が少ない そして興味深い 洋書を初めて読む人にもおすすめ

A very good summary of the current stage of Physics, with some personal inputs from the author.

La capacità dello scrittore di coinvolgere il lettore in un tema difficile quale può essere la fisica e riflettere sul senso della vita

What an amazing little book! Easy to read, yet covering the very deepest understandings of reality as physics paints it for us. It touches not just on science, but philosophy and probes the deepest notions of who we are and how we perceive and understand the world. As other reviews have noted, the final chapter bears reading multiple times. It is wonderful in its summative and predictive insights. The book is very short and can be read in 'no time' - a pun only to be understood after reading this book. If you are interested in an easily accessible introduction to some of the cutting edge understandings around the nature of cosmology, time, space, gravity, neuroscience, the scientific method and more, then I encourage you to read this book. Wonderfully well written. Highly readable. Drives your innate curiosity to explore further.