by George Johnson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1995
A journey along the edge of human comprehension: accessible and even elegant, but a bit overstuffed.
A New York Times science writer contemplates the human compulsion to search for order and purpose in the origin of the universe and the development of life on earth.
Johnson (In the Palaces of Memory, 1990) chooses the spiritually and geologically multilayered landscape of New Mexico as the setting for this impressive meditation. The gnarled terrain is home to a seemingly motley collection of ideologies: the Roman Catholicism of the Spanish conquistadors, the pioneering science of the nuclear physicists of Los Alamos, the mushy crystal-gazing of transplanted New Agers, the overlapping cosmologies of different groups of Tewa Indians. But as Johnson proceeds to show, all these groups share the uniquely human drive to find patterns, to explain reality, to find a comforting reason why we are here. At bottom, is the Big Bang any more comforting or provable than the creation myths of the Tewa? By the time Johnson has finished his own tour of quantum physics, the menagerie of atomic particles begins to seem like nonsense, invented for the convenience of physicists whose experiments needed them. The progress of science turns out to be "a house of cards, each [layer] resting on a shakier foundation and each testifying to our theoretical bravado.'' No matter how ingenious we are, we are still here, stuck on a microdot in the universe. Johnson takes us through some of the best theories: the concept of information as a fundamental force; various attempts to explain the origin of life; the question of whether human complexity is a miraculous fluke of natural selection or an inevitable and repeatable evolution. Johnson's careful and deliberate explanations make you think, which is rare and wonderful, but the blizzard of concepts and scientists may eventually glaze a fascinated reader's wide eyes.
A journey along the edge of human comprehension: accessible and even elegant, but a bit overstuffed.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-679-41192-5
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1995
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by Lulu Miller illustrated by Kate Samworth ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020
A quirky wonder of a book.
A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.
Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.
A quirky wonder of a book.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6027-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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by Carlo Rovelli ; translated by Simon Carnell & Erica Segre ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2016
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
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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
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