Reality is Not What it Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity

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.

Review: If your desire to be awestruck by the universe we inhabit needs refreshing, theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli is up to the task * Elle * May genuinely alter how you see the world — Tom Whipple * The Times * A marvel… In exquisitely written pages Rovelli seeks to bridge the divide between what CP Snow called the \”Two Cultures\” of science and the arts — Ian Thomson * Guardian * Like all great thinkers, Rovelli has a talent for simplicity. His prose is lucid and poetic… It’s not a scientific treatise. It’s a paean to the wonder of the natural world… I scraped a C in my Physics O-level and haven’t been near a physics textbook since. If I can understand – and even enjoy – Rovelli’s book, then anyone can — William Cook * Spectator * Be prepared for your intellectual foundations to be vaporised… Carlo Rovelli will melt your synapses with this exploration of physical reality and what the universe is formed of at the very deepest level… Quantum gravity is so new that there aren’t many popular books about it. You couldn’t be in better hands than Rovelli, a world expert — Tara Shears * The Times Higher Education * Rovelli writes with elegance, clarity and charm… A joy to read, as well as being an intellectual feast — Michael Brooks * New Statesman * A comprehensive guide to the bewitching adventure of physics * Daily Telegraph * The latest thinking in physics is distilled in this primer… Why do you need yet another popularisation of theoretical physics? Because Rovelli writes with crystalline simplicity. And because he turns quantum physics into a coherent story, shaping it as a quest for a single, underlying \”substratum\” of reality – from Democritus’s finite, indivisible atoms to Einstein — James McConnachie * Sunday Times * Rather brilliant… for fans of cutting-edge physics made accessible — Mark Haddon This is a really, really good book about science. It’s like a tonic for the mind. Carlo Rovelli is a physicist so of course this book is about physics. But it’s much more than that. It’s about thinking clearly… He gives beautifully clear explanations of the ideas of the cleverest people in history, from Democritus, via Newton, to Einstein and beyond. * Evening Standard * The new Hawking… His writing is luminous. By the time I had finished reading I was in serious awe of the author — David Aaronovitch * The Times * The physicist transforming how we see the universe * Financial Times * Surely Rovelli deserves the title ‘world’s most inspiring physics teacher’ * Daily Telegraph * The most fun physicist to be with — as well as the greatest explainer of physics — Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times * A global superstar… Professor Rovelli is making the grammar of the universe accessible to a new generation * Channel 4 News *

Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
Publication date: 01/06/2017