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CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN AND PROSPECT
The instant Sunday Times bestseller -- a beautiful story of rebellion and science
'Popular science has rarely been so good' Prospect
'A thrilling story, written with wit and panache' John Banville
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 one of our most celebrated scientists 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
About the author
Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions to the physics of space and time. He has worked in Italy and the US, and is currently directing the quantum gravity research group of the Centre de physique théorique in Marseille, France. His books
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics,
Helgoland,
Reality Is Not What It Seems and
The Order of Time are international bestsellers which have been translated into forty-three languages.
Summary
CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE FINANCIAL TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES AND GUARDIAN
The instant Sunday Times bestseller -- a beautiful story of rebellion and science
'Popular science has rarely been so good' Prospect
'A thrilling story, written with wit and panache' John Banville
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 one of our most celebrated scientists 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
Report
Another triumph by quantum physicist Rovelli, who makes his own field of science approachable without losing a sense of authority. He mixes history with contemporary research to describe a "relational" universe in which nothing is permanent or absolute and everything depends on interactions between objects. Financial Times, Best Books of the Year
