Paperback, 192 pages
Published Sept. 28, 2021 by New York Review Books.
A fast-paced, mind-expanding literary work about scientific discovery, ethics and the unsettled distinction between genius and madness.
Albert Einstein opens a letter sent to him from the Eastern Front of World War I. Inside, he finds the first exact solution to the equations of general relativity, unaware that it contains a monster that could destroy his life's work.
The great mathematician Alexander Grothendieck tunnels so deeply into abstraction that he tries to cut all ties with the world, terrified of the horror his discoveries might cause.
Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg battle over the soul of physics after creating two equivalent yet opposed versions of quantum mechanics. Their fight will tear the very fabric of reality, revealing a world stranger than they could have ever imagined.
Using extraordinary, epoch-defining moments from the history of science, Benjamín Labatut plunges us into exhilarating territory between fact and fiction, progress and destruction, genius …
A fast-paced, mind-expanding literary work about scientific discovery, ethics and the unsettled distinction between genius and madness.
Albert Einstein opens a letter sent to him from the Eastern Front of World War I. Inside, he finds the first exact solution to the equations of general relativity, unaware that it contains a monster that could destroy his life's work.
The great mathematician Alexander Grothendieck tunnels so deeply into abstraction that he tries to cut all ties with the world, terrified of the horror his discoveries might cause.
Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg battle over the soul of physics after creating two equivalent yet opposed versions of quantum mechanics. Their fight will tear the very fabric of reality, revealing a world stranger than they could have ever imagined.
Using extraordinary, epoch-defining moments from the history of science, Benjamín Labatut plunges us into exhilarating territory between fact and fiction, progress and destruction, genius and madness.
The creative madness of genius scientists. Evolves from fact through to terrifying fabulation, without straying from the essence. Strikingly original.
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A little over my head but still thought-provoking.
-1 star because women are missing in this tale about science.
Really enjoyed the first few chapters, but as it gets weirder (mixes more fiction into the telling, which becomes a fever ridden dream towards the end) - I felt more and more disconnected from the theme. It is a fantabulous work - merging fiction and history together in something that transcends both. The book's core exploration - "how our minds break down as we approach the unknown" is very fertile ground for ideas, imagery, and storytelling. But it equates paradigm changes in science to "moments of epiphany" far too often. It is however, a work of fiction, and it works well for the theme, it just doesn't work for me.
A lot of people have mentioned that this is a very approachable book, even for non-physicists. I agree, but would also add that for anyone who studied quantum physics …
-1 star because women are missing in this tale about science.
Really enjoyed the first few chapters, but as it gets weirder (mixes more fiction into the telling, which becomes a fever ridden dream towards the end) - I felt more and more disconnected from the theme. It is a fantabulous work - merging fiction and history together in something that transcends both. The book's core exploration - "how our minds break down as we approach the unknown" is very fertile ground for ideas, imagery, and storytelling. But it equates paradigm changes in science to "moments of epiphany" far too often. It is however, a work of fiction, and it works well for the theme, it just doesn't work for me.
A lot of people have mentioned that this is a very approachable book, even for non-physicists. I agree, but would also add that for anyone who studied quantum physics even at an undergraduate level will likely find the explanations very hollow of actual meaning. There are vague analogies and metaphors, which are good approximations, but very often elevate straight-forward approaches to epiphanies.
I really enjoyed the first chapter, which I read with no recollection or idea of what the book was about. Only after reading it did I find the whole "mixes fiction with history" aspect - still curious what the "one fictional paragraph" in the first chapter is. Might do a reread to find that. Current guess is the cannon ball explosion.
