Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

A small, dense, elegant book about physics. It was oddly moving in the end; Rovelli does a great job capturing the wonder and near-spiritual glory of reality, as understood by science. I listened to this in Italian, and I wonder how it translates: every time I read translated Italian, it sounds soooo purple - embarrassingly so.

So I worry about gushing too much, but, okay, I'll be honest, I had tiny nano sparkle-tears in my eyes by the end, when Rovelli reassures us, grandfatherly, that the capital weirdness of quantum mechanics and general relativity is as natural and normal as the rest of “our home” (this reality). He notes that we're just curious apes, from a large family of curious apes - but all our cousins are extinct (e.g. Neanderthals). I found that strangely touching as well, and a fresh way to think about things.

I also found Rovelli's quantum-sized packets of physics lessons refreshingly different. I've been a fan of quantum mechanics and general relativity and the whole Einstein/Bohr/Planck/early 20th century physics gang for a long time, so I felt like I may have heard these same lessons many times: from Michio Kaku, from Neil DeGrasse Tyson, from good science fiction. But Rovelli's description of the bending of space around large objects (space == gravitational force), of the curiosity that is the illusion of forward-moving time, of probabilistic thermodynamics (it's not deterministic!?!), and all that: I found my mind pleasantly bent. I also appreciated his ultimate (super Buddhist!) conclusion that reality isn't a bunch of stuff, it's a bunch of events - a bunch of interactions.

Oh YES, and I ALSO appreciated his low-key Italian pride: he specifically notes the contributions of many modern Italian scientists (and also specifically notes how none of them work at Italian universities; get it together, Italy, come on), especially in particle physics, and this, too, filled me with gentle Italian pride and Italian fondness. I've been generally despairing at the scarcity of Italian books, especially non-fiction, and how that keeps certain great Italian thought locked away from me (e.g. I just discovered Margherita Hack a couple years ago - I want to read her books!!! where are they!!?). So this was also a nice, in that regard. Yeah, I think I just said “Italian” 8 times in this paragraph. Ooooh, vaaaa pensieeerooooo sull'aaaaaaaliiiii doraaaaateeeeee... sparkly tears of national pride and cosmic wonder