Carlo Rovelli

From the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics comes a new book about the mind-bending nature of the universe Do space and time truly exist? What is reality made of? Can we understand its deep texture? Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his whole life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know. In this mind-expanding book, he shows how our understanding of reality has changed throughout centuries, from Democritus to loop quantum gravity. Taking us on a wondrous journey, he invites us to imagine a whole new world where black holes are waiting to explode, spacetime is made up of grains, and infinity does not exist -- a vast universe still largely undiscovered.

Reality Is Not What It Seems

Ivy Chen

But the more we discover, the more we understand that what we don't yet know is greater than what we know. 

Traces how the human image of the world has changed throughout history, demonstrating the evolution of the idea of reality while touching on subjects ranging from the Higgs boson to quantum gravity.

The Journey to Quantum Gravity

Reality is Not what it Seems

Guy Moorhouse

Really interesting read, but probably punching a bit above my weight. Especially by the time Rovelli outlines the concept of spin foam and all possible realities being concurrent. Pretty mind boggling stuff.

Daniel Waterhouse

Artas Bartas

The problem with the quantum theory is that everyone has an opinion on it. And, unfortunately, most people's opinions are based on the woefully outdated physics textbooks. Finding a book summarizing the latest scientific breakthroughs in the field is a pleasant surprise and a welcome distraction from the dreaded reality where alt-Nazis and radical Christians join their forces in an all-out assault on the ideals of Enlightenment. Carlo Rovelli is a great scientific writer. He manages to explain clearly complex ideas and illustrates scientific discoveries with clever thought experiments. 

But what makes this book eminently readable is Rovelli's knack for weaving wildly different theories - Democritus atomism, Faraday and Maxwell's discovery of electromagnetism, Einstein theories of relativity, Shannon's information theory to name just a few - into an elegant narrative about the ongoing inquiry into the nature of reality. This narrative is full of poetic metaphors and intellectual paradoxes, especially as Carlo Rovelli grapples with modern day quantum theory. 

Suddenly, you discover that time does not exist (at least, not on the micro-scale); that our world is finite but limitless; and that while we can discover fundamental concepts governing our universe, our knowledge of this universe is relational and, therefore, probabilistic. There is some good news too. Apparently, the universe can be explained as a complex construct consisting of space quanta, and some of the crazier predictions put forward by the quantum theory (Higgs boson, gravitational waves) have been confirmed by scientific experiments.

To be fair, not all aspects of the quantum theory receive the same treatment in the book. The discussion of space quanta and loop theory left me feeling woozy and I wish Carlo Rovelli spent more time discussing the nature of black holes or how scientists understand time. But on the whole, however, the book does an excellent job of introducing the subject and sending you on a quest to find out more about the aspects of the theory that pique your interest (an annotated bibliography at the end). In short, thumbs up!

bella <3

Liam Holbrook

From the best-selling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics comes a new book about the mind-bending nature of the universe What are time and space made of? Where does matter come from? And what exactly is reality? Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know. Here he explains how our image of the world has changed throughout centuries. From Aristotle to Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday to the Higgs boson, he takes us on a wondrous journey to show us that beyond our ever-changing idea of reality is a whole new world that has yet to be discovered.

Johnny Noble

Jürgen Schweizer

Hooman Rostami

Gabriella Lanouette

Matthew Jackson

Sasuga

Yihui

Tuago

Jimmy Cerone

Andrei Leica

Caterina P.

What are time and space made of? Where does matter come from? And what exactly is reality? Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know. Here he explains how our image of the world has changed throughout centuries. From Aristotle to Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday to the Higgs boson, he takes us on a wondrous journey to show us that beyond our ever-changing idea of reality is a whole new world that has yet to be discovered.

Reality Is Not What It Seems

Reviews

Highlights