Helgoland - Carlo Rovelli, Erica Segre & Simon Carnell

Helgoland

By Carlo Rovelli, Erica Segre & Simon Carnell

  • Release Date: 2021-05-25
  • Genre: Physics
4 Score: 4 (From 74 Ratings)

Description

Named a Best Book of 2021 by the Financial Times and a Best Science Book of 2021 by The Guardian

“Rovelli is a genius and an amazing communicator… This is the place where science comes to life.” Neil Gaiman

“One of the warmest, most elegant and most lucid interpreters to the laity of the dazzling enigmas of his discipline...[a] momentous book” ―John Banville, The Wall Street Journal


A startling new look at quantum theory, from the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and  Anaximander.

One of the world's most renowned theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli has entranced millions of readers with his singular perspective on the cosmos. In Helgoland, he examines the enduring enigma of quantum theory. The quantum world Rovelli describes is as beautiful as it is unnerving.

Helgoland is a treeless island in the North Sea where the twenty-three-year-old Werner Heisenberg made the crucial breakthrough for the creation of quantum mechanics, setting off a century of scientific revolution. Full of alarming ideas (ghost waves, distant objects that seem to be magically connected, cats that appear both dead and alive), quantum physics has led to countless discoveries and technological advancements. Today our understanding of the world is based on this theory, yet it is still profoundly mysterious.

As scientists and philosophers continue to fiercely debate the meaning of the theory, Rovelli argues that its most unsettling contradictions can be explained by seeing the world as fundamentally made of relationships rather than substances. We and everything around us exist only in our interactions with one another. This bold idea suggests new directions for thinking about the structure of reality and even the nature of consciousness.

Rovelli makes learning about quantum mechanics an almost psychedelic experience. Shifting our perspective once again, he takes us on a riveting journey through the universe so we can better comprehend our place in it.

Reviews

  • OK

    3
    By Andy Ruina
    I hoped this book would give me insight into quantum mechanics. It didn’t do very well at that. The book is a promotion of the authors interpretation of quantum mechanics called “relational” quantum mechanics. 1. I didn’t really get it, and 2. According to google it is not yet clear if that new theory is coherent. Then the book gets all philosophical in ways I didn’t understand nor care for. The writing style is nice, so reading wasn’t painful. I just didn’t get a lot out of it.
  • read this book hahahaha

    5
    By Tinymuciscian5
    pop culture quantum philosophy!!! and also perspective altering in a drastic way. thank you for meditating on these subjects 😍
  • An important and astounding book

    5
    By jedomann
    My new favorite of Rovelli’s superb books for the general (non-physicist) reader. In this book, I believe he points the way towards the most advanced and accurate understanding of reality humanity has so far achieved. This is revolutionary stuff.
  • Helgoland

    5
    By Necky46
    The clearest, most concise treatment of quantum physics I’ve ever seen.

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