A wonderful book and just the thing for cogitators.
Part celebration and part meditation, an elegant study of things that should awe and amaze us—and why we are capable of awe and amazement in the first place.
As Rachel Carson once observed, one of the great tragedies of adulthood is losing the child’s sense of wonder at the world. In this treatise, British writer Henderson (The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st-Century Bestiary, 2013), who admits to “no qualifications beyond curiosity and stubbornness,” advances many points that ought to give us all pause: the fact, for instance, that the human brain “is probably the most complex single thing in the known universe.” (Would that we used it better.) The author examines our capacities for and avenues of perception: how light arrives at the retina, how the protein rhodopsin helps process it into visual information, and so forth. Occasionally, Henderson overreaches to make a point—e.g. the image of a punch-drunk Robert De Niro in Raging Bull doesn’t help us understand the long-ago meteor strike that prompted an end to the age of dinosaurs. Still, blending biology, physics, cognitive science, and other disciplines, the author takes readers on a lively tour of evolution, noting that every life form on Earth “shares the same chemistry” and a common ancestor that lived more than 3.5 billion years ago. Another source of wonder is the orgasm, a blend of cultural matters and the reptilian autonomous nervous system. As to the nervous system, Henderson invites us to consider the human of the near future, one fitted with various prostheses that will extend our senses and our ability to take in still more wondrous things. As enjoyable as the text are the marginal notes, peppered with quotations on all sorts of matters from great thinkers across the ages: John Berger, say, who observes that hospitality underlies all our stories: “Deny it, and you deny all human worth.”
A wonderful book and just the thing for cogitators.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-226-29191-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Univ. of Chicago
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A magnificent account of a central reality of our times, incorporating deep scientific expertise, broad political and social knowledge, and ethical insight, and Idled with beautifully written biographical sketches of the men and women who created nuclear physics. Rhodes describes in detail the great scientific achievements that led up to the invention of the atomic bomb. Everything of importance is examined, from the discovery of the atomic nucleus and of nuclear fission to the emergence of quantum physics, the invention of the mass-spectroscope and of the cyclotron, the creation of such man-made elements as plutonium and tritium, and implementation of the nuclear chain reaction in uranium. Even more important, Rhodes shows how these achievements were thrust into the arms of the state, which culminated in the unfolding of the nuclear arms race. Often brilliantly, he records the rise of fascism and of anti-Semitism, and the intensification of nationalist ambitions. He traces the outbreak of WW II, which provoked a hysterical rivalry among nations to devise the bomb. This book contains a grim description of Japanese resistance, and of the horrible psychological numbing that caused an unparalleled tolerance for human suffering and destruction. Rhodes depicts the Faustian scale of the Manhattan Project. His account of the dropping of the bomb itself, and of the awful firebombing that prepared its way, is unforgettable. Although Rhodes' gallery of names and events is sometimes dizzying, his scientific discussions often daunting, he has written a book of great drama and sweep. A superb accomplishment.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0684813785
Page Count: 932
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986
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