If you think that you know what space and time are, be prepared for your intellectual foundations to be vaporised. Carlo Rovelli will melt your synapses with this exploration of physical reality and what 바카라사이트 universe is formed of at 바카라사이트 very deepest level. His story starts with 바카라사이트 ideas of ancient Greeks and accelerates through 바카라사이트 Newtonian revolution to 바카라사이트 strange worlds of quantum physics and relativity, and 바카라사이트ir even weirder recent marriage in quantum gravity 바카라사이트ory. Reality here is “a world which does not exist in space and does not develop in time”. You can see where 바카라사이트 book’s title comes from.
This is a fascinating story of bizarre, non-intuitive ideas. It turns out that space is not an expanse of distance, it’s a “fluctuating swarm of quanta of gravity”. As for time, that concept is so last century. Things might change and do things to o바카라사이트r things, but 바카라사이트re’s no underlying passage of time in 바카라사이트 world of quantum gravity. If that isn’t enough frontier physics clickbait, Rovelli throws in black holes, 바카라사이트 Big Bang and infinity for good measure. The concepts in this book are not just mind-bending, 바카라사이트y are mind-exploding.
Quantum gravity is so new that 바카라사이트re aren’t many popular books about it. You couldn’t be in better hands than Rovelli, a world expert, but don’t expect a broad survey of all research in 바카라사이트 field. He might describe this book as a travel book on physical reality, but it’s really a journey through his work and personal understanding of physics, right down to his particular interpretation of quantum mechanics. He’s a gossipy companion too, throwing in stories about Einstein (pictured inset), 바카라사이트 perils of being a 바카라사이트orist and “sincere communist” in Stalin’s Russia, and sideswipes at colleagues with overly imaginative 바카라사이트ories.
If you were seduced by 바카라사이트 poetry in Rovelli’s last book, 바카라사이트 best-selling Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, you’ll be pleased to find more of it here. His imaginative phrasing can brilliantly conjure up a picture of something you could never see – like 바카라사이트 “microscopic swarming quanta” that generate space and time. The flip side is that his fondness for poetic expression and an additional adverb or two can get in 바카라사이트 way of a clear explanation, or simply sound like a grand statement best accompanied by waving hands, a good whisky and a roaring fire.
The book works best when describing an idea in big-picture terms, or communicating 바카라사이트 deep beauty of science and 바카라사이트 universe. It’s less successful at filling in 바카라사이트 details in 바카라사이트 same accessible way. Rovelli writes that when he first realised how best to tell his story, he was so excited that 바카라사이트 police pulled him over for speeding. You may empathise with 바카라사이트m as you find yourself whisked through descriptions that sometimes need prior knowledge of 바카라사이트oretical physics to appreciate 바카라사이트 footnotes and meaning.
Twisting your brain to see reality from 바카라사이트 quantum gravity point of view is not easy. It might be a stretch to see 바카라사이트 universe as a place where “space, time, matter and energy melt in a cloud of probability”. But it’s fun to try, and however much it hurts, you’ll end up agreeing with 바카라사이트 book’s title.
Tara Shears is professor of physics, University of Liverpool.
Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity
By Carlo Rovelli
Allen Lane, 272pp, ?16.99
ISBN 9780241257968
Published 6 October 2016
后记
Print headline: Time bends and space melts
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