Categories: History Of Science Popular Science Physics Books Quantum Physics (quantum Mechanics & Quantum Field Theory)


Helgoland The Strange and Beautiful Story of Quantum Physics - Penguin Popular Science
Carlo Rovelli (author), Erica Segre (translator), Simon Carnell (translator)
Paperback (01 Sep 2022)


The instant Sunday Times bestseller -- a beautiful story of rebellion and science

Popular science has rarely been so good Prospect

A triumph. . . We are left in a world that is not disenchanted by science, but even more magical Financial Times

In June 1925, twenty-three-year-old Werner Heisenberg, suffering from hay fever, had retreated to the treeless, wind-battered island of Helgoland in the North Sea in order to think. Walking all night, by dawn he had wrestled with an idea that would transform the whole of science and our very conception of the world.

In Helgoland Carlo Rovelli tells the story of the birth of quantum physics and its bright young founders who were to become some of the most famous Nobel winners in science. It is a celebration of youthful rebellion and intellectual revolution. An invitation to a magical place.

Here Rovelli illuminates competing interpretations of this science and offers his own original view, describing the world we touch as a fabric woven by relations. Where we, as every other thing around us, exist in our interactions with one another, in a never-ending game of mirrors.

A dazzling work from a celebrated scientist and master storyteller, Helgoland transports us to dizzying heights, reminding us of the many pleasures of the life of the mind.

Translated by Erica Segre and Simon Carnell

Chosen as a Book of the Year by The Times, Financial Times, Sunday Times, Guardian and Prospect


Book information

ISBN: 9780141993270
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint: Penguin Books
Pub date: 01 Sep 2022
DEWEY: 530.12
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Sales rank: 1925
Number of pages: vii, 187
Weight: 160g
Height: 129mm
Width: 196mm
Spine width: 16mm