Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

The book is indeed BRIEF and I was mildly shocked when it arrived. My last physics book was easily 20 times heavier. The author no doubt knows his subject matter and has a gift for language and simplification. He even waxes poetic at times. Perhaps it's no accident he is Italian. I frankly cannot imagine an English or German physicist being so lyrical - nor brief.

The lessons as such are really not "lessons" in the sense of what you get at graduate school or even college. The reason for this "superficiality" or lightness can be found in the introduction: the book is essentially a compendium of articles written by the author for the weekend edition of an Italian newspaper. The mere fact a mass circulation newspaper would even publish physics "lessons" is in itself noteworthy but the intended audience cannot be expected to digest industrial strength physics lessons of any kind, let alone ones about modern physics.

There is one factual error in the book that really bothers me for personal reasons. The author states incorrectly on page 1 that Einstein "registered at the University of Zurich. It was actually at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (known under its German acronym ETH) and not at the University which is an entirely different institution of higher learning.

Still, I recommend the book wholeheartedly to anyone curious about modern physics and especially to those without any technical or scientific background. I plan to re-read it a few more times.

I have no aptitude for physics just a curiosity & it was more than satisfied. I understood each & every lesson but I cannot now explain them to anyone else. That's okay. I will share the book w/ others like minded.

Don't think politics are appropriate in this book. The only reason statistics are so central to physics is that we cannot contemplate every interaction. All is predictable. Watson is our first try. There is no uncertainty

The physics explanations were excellent clarifications of very complex subjects, about which Professor Rovellie demonstrated great expertise. However, the neurology seemed as if it could be a bit more lucid.

I concur with other reviewers--this is scarcely a book--FAR too short for the $10 it cost me. There is not enough depth in the "lessons" to teach anyone who has any knowledge of physics. That said, I did like the author's writing style; I found it easy to read and very clear. I suspect that I might find one of the author's other books to be more fulfilling, but I am soured after paying so much for so little in this book.

The quality of the writing and passion of the author are beyond question but if you are looking for more than the recitation of certain theories of physics and the philosophical reflections of the author look elsewhere particularly if you are not a scientist as there is not much explanation that a layman can understand.

While Carlo Rovelli book is scientifically very accurate I found it very tedious reading. I am a retired engineer and I knew much of what he is saying, Why did I want to read it? I was hoping to find some things I didn't know already and I did, but I had to read many pages to get this information when one page and a diagram would have been enough.

Not written for the laymen like me. I found myself trying to look up the things book says as if I should know. If you are really into science or are in the field I think this book is for you. If you are curious and want to learn something new like I did, then pass on this book for now until you get a broader understanding of the field.

Well written, and fun to read. I enjoyed it. The three star rating is more a reflection of wanting more science and more detail on the topics touched upon. For an audience interested in reading a book on "Physics" I would of expected similar desires for the latest updates and science being done on each of the topics covered.

Rovelli discusses and describes advanced concepts of physics, quantum mechanics and relativity in a way that is eloquent and beautiful. Unfortunately his solutions and conclusions remain beyond my grasp.

If you have any appreciation for Cosmology, this is not the book for you. It was very short, very cursory and simply not what I expected. If you don't know a think about the subject, I guess it is OK. But, if you want meat, this is just a salad.

Not much of substance here at all. I kept wondering when he was going to get into the material a little bit. Then he punctuated the whole thing with the final chapter expounding upon his pseudo-religious beliefs. Look elsewhere.

Of the seven, perhaps 2 were worth reading. While the explanations of special relativity and quantum mechanics were well thought out, the rest of the book seemed scattered and philosophical rather than clear and explanatory. Overall it was a interesting read but not worth my time.

Good for a layman to get an idea of the great scientific discoveries. Relevant currently as it tries to explain Einstein's General theory of relativity.This theory has been corroborated by experiments exactly after a century since they were propounded by Einstein.

This is a pretentious little book that culminates in a series of vague questions without answers. The early, historical part is generally good but not detailed. The latter is a bunch of philosophizing that is not insightful.

Modern physics connected and clearly explained. The evolution of scientific thought running throughout the book was engaging - a lesson on scientific insight and genius. An engaging short read. Now I will stay tuned, with great interest and enthusiasm, to LQG. (Loop Quantum Gravity). Bravissimo!!

With a science background, I thought it would be an interesting read. When I started it, some things about relativity and quantum mechanics he stated just didn't seem right. For example, he says that "Heisenberg imagined that electrons do not always exist. They only exist when someone or something watches them ..." From my university physics class, electrons exist, but you can not determine both the exact location and velocity at the same time (Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle).

It was interesting to learn about the Loop Quantum Gravity Theory, but with no predictions, it's still at the same concept stage as string theories. Maybe at a future date, it will show some promise.

When I started reading about time being an illusion, it started getting philosophical. Even though time progresses at different rates for different objects, it's still real.

He finishes off the book with a downer that all we're doomed to die anyways because of global warming. Please have some positivity. I think humans will eventually understand the severity of global warming and act to stop it like we're actively solving many world problems, increasing human lifespan, solving medical conditions and increasing world wide living standards.

He did have some interesting physics and personal philosophy ideas, but there are many better books out there.

I would recommend searching for a beginning book on astronomy. A great free website is particleadventure.org. I also enjoyed Particle Physics a Very Short Introduction by Frank Close, Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman, and am currently reading the two volume set Particle Physics for Non Physicists, which is also very good, but about 500 pages. There are also good online articles about about Einstein's Relativity.

A bit on the breezy side, and while I know this is a translation of articles for the non physicist, it sometimes overstates the case he is making. In other words the possible becomes the probable and the probable edges into certainty. He is better than some, but my physicist husband more or less went up in smoke (and wrote the author) on the issue of time. To his credit, Rovelli responded. I suppose it would be fair to say that they simply disagree, at least at the general level of the book's discussion. I only mention it because there is apparently a lot of room for such disagreement and sometimes the author does not let you know that (Sometimes he does). Not a book to take at face value but interesting if you know that.

The term "Lessons" is out of the way, "views or fields" would be much more appropriate. The book is interesting and I read it in a couple days, its style is personal and almost philosophical in sections. However, it doesn't provide needed insight on the "hows and whys". I recommend it for people who aren't acquainted with modern physics.

First chapters regarding relativity, gravity and quantum physics was explained in a way I could understand. Chapter on time was not explained in layman terms. Wish he had given more tangible examples of how to think about time as theoretical physicists are conceptualizing it.

The author is an excellent writer and tells a nice story, weaving in some nice scientific concepts in a way that is compelling. He ends with a pitiful "we are nature" philosophy that is shockingly hollow.

I honestly don't know why this book was given so many high ratings. I expected summaries on the seven topics where one could get a introduction into key concepts but it was written in such a casual, opinionated style I gave up after the first chapter. It's like an amateur read up on each topic *briefly* and then summarized it with irrelevant fluff and filler. It was a complete waste of time.

Rovelli's book "Sevens Brief Lessons on Physics" was a huge disappointment! I'm not sure who he had targeted as his audience, but the sevens lessons were indeed brief and very superficial in their content. There was nothing in any of the lessons that provided additional information to that found in the reams of lay literature, internet browsing, and clearly nothing new on these exciting topics in physics that are shrouded with theoretical probabilities and possibilities.
If you are interested in learning something new or more on these topics, save your money and go to the TED site on Y-Tube or Google or look for more comprehensive and current books on these "lessons".

I thought the 2 star rating was generous and somewhat influence by the author being Italian!!

It was ok. I heard an interview with the author on Science Friday and I had high hopes for reading it with my Physical Science students. A few of the chapters are perfect but there are a few chapters that don't say very much about the topic.

The lessons are indeed brief, and probably suited best to readers with little knowledge of the great progress and remaining challenge confronting theoretical physics. Readers who would like to gain some insight and conversational knowledge of some of the deepest philosophical aspects of physics might want to read this book.

Physics was boring in high school and is boring here. And then the last pages admonish the reader on climate change. Somehow you just knew how it was going to end. Carlo Rovelli does have a fluid writing style, however.

I thought it would be more technical as other books such as Brian Green, Marcus Chown, Michio Kaku, etc. For instance, the first chapter is about special relativity and general relativity, but there is very little explanation or examples of it. It is more of history of how Einstein created the theory. He mentions time goes by faster if your in the mountains as opposed to the ground. While this is correct, the difference is unnoticeable to anyone on Earth and the author fails to mention this detail. There is no mention of String Theory but it's alternative, loop quantum gravity has its own chapter.

Basically all the chapters are way too brief to really give any insight to the average person. If you want more substance, check out the authors above.

Severely disappointed about the content for the price I paid.

Based on a glowing review in The Economist I purchased this book. Disclaimer: I have not finished reading it. That caveat aside, Carlo Rovelli does write in a way that makes complex theories of physics easy to follow for non-scientists. His description of Einstein's Theory of Relativity is particularly good. I am still grappling with the chapter on quantum physics. For anyone wanting to know more about gravity, physics and the structure of our universe, I recommend Seven Brief Lessons...

This is a review of the history of modern physics but not an explanation.

Its not clear how much is proven and how much is assumption. I say this because time and consciousness are perspectives of the author. He may be right but his thinking is not proven.

On the other hand it is easy to read and gives the reader an overview of the progress (if not an understanding) that physicists have made.

I probably should have read the description better before buying this but I was in a hurry as my plane was about to takeoff when I realized I didn't have anything I wanted to read with me. It's not a bad book by any means, but it really just barely grazes on the topics. If you have ever read anything about physics there is probably very little new here for you. Also, at a very fast reading 87 pages it didn't even last me the entire 1 hour flight, so it's fairly expensive at $9.99 for the Kindle Edition given the length. My recommendation is spend your money on something else and you'll probably get more enjoyment for your dollar.

This book is simply a love letter from the author to his favorite physicists. No detail, drawings or explanations. Sure physics words are mentioned in minute emphases, but nothing to be learned here by anyone even slightly interested in physics.

The idea behind this book is admirable: provided an introduction to modern physics for real beginners. The execution fails. Rather than explaining the deep problems of modern physics, it gives the novice the idea that he has learned something when he has not. I am reminded of the story of a man who took his wife to the golf pro at the local golf course and asked him to give her a golf lesson. "And do you want a lesion too," asked the pro. "No, I learned yesterday," the man replied.

There is much more that could be done without introducing a lot of complicated math. Special relativity is virtually ignored. General relativity does not explain how the equivalence of inertial and gravitation mass gives rise to general relativity. Galileo is seriously underrepresented, as is Newton. Quantum mechanics does not deal with entanglement, locality, wave/particle duality, or most other interesting issues. The discussion of loop quantum gravity is good, but far too advanced in comparison with the other topics. The final chapter, on what it all means philosophically, is a throw-away.

The chapters covering the big scientific advances of the past 150 years provide interesting perspectives but little in the way of giving insights into the science itself. The final chapter raises interesting questions about the relationship between human thought and the laws of nature but overall, I was a little disappointed.

“A startling and illustrative distillation of centuries of science.”—states The Economist

Sorry, this book is neither “startling” nor a “distillation” of “centuries of science.” Unfortunately, reviews in major periodicals can no longer be believed.

The kindle version of this book is priced about the same as THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE by Brian Greene. However, the latter is a real book (about ten times the length of Rovelli’s).

SEVEN BRIEF LESSONS IN PHYSICS has all the heft of a few lightweight magazine articles. And by “magazine,” I’m talking Reader’s Digest, not Scientific American. SEVEN BRIEF LESSONS won’t help you understand the most elementary concepts in contemporary physics. But you may have the impression that you do.

Having said all that, this book does have a certain charm, and a hint of the mystery and magic of the topic comes through. If your goal is to be able to nod knowingly at a dinner party if the subject comes up, then this might work for you.

Unfortunately, by buying this book, you'll also be encouraging the misrepresentation and outrageously deceptive pricing that's becoming more and more frequent in the online book business.

This is a lightweight "physics for poets" kind of book, but actually a pretty good introduction to the concepts of modern physics from Einstein forward. It also gives a good feel for the current frontier where relativity and quantum mechanics have not been reconciled, and the concept of time is still troublesome. He lost it completely in the last chapter though with weird metaphysical commentary on the meaning of life with a good dose of moralizing from a secular leftist perspective. Agree or not with those views they are in no way a logical result of the science of physics. Including those grandiose tangential thoughts attempts to claim a role for physics that it is nowhere close to credibly claiming.

While this product makes no mistake in being called "brief", it provides an overview of many aspects of modern physics. Furthermore, the final chapter is astonishingly emotion-provoking for non-fiction.

Disappointing. Started well but after introducing a concept it left the reader wanting explanation. At the end the author went on a jihad about how we descended from some primordial bug. Sorry I believe God made humans separate from bugs and bacteria. This author worships Darwin and Dawkins.

This is a book you can judge from its cover. There are seven Physics lessons here and they are brief. They appeared as a collection of essays the author (a world-class physicist) wrote in Corriere della Serra and I read it in one sitting.

To be more accurate, it should really say “Seven AWESOME Brief Lessons in Physics” because this book both fills you with awe AND would probably appeal to the Fonz.

Did I learn any Physics from it? Well, damn it, I actually did. I really did! And I had a super time reading it too. Two hours, tops, because I read it super slowly. To wit:

1. General Relativity: Gravitation and space is one and the same, you can’t treat them separately. The moon thinks it’s going straight, as it should be, since nobody’s touching it. But “straight” is a funny thing, because the Earth is nearby.

2. Quantum Physics: Reality is only interaction; so never mind if you cannot get it into your head that “a cat can be in two places at the same time:” when it counts (when it’s time to observe it) it conforms to your experience. Quantum Physics does work in the thousands of transistors you use every day!

3. This world we live in started as a small ball that is still expanding.

4. The world is made of particles and the best description of how they come about, the Standard Model, is probably not the final word, because we cannot conceive of how it is compatible with gravity and dark matter; but it has seen off many alternative theories.

5. Under Loop Quantum Gravity (the author’s baby), it is possible that the entire universe periodically collapses and is regenerated.

6. The heat of black holes is the Rosetta stone of physics: by allowing us to move between Gravitation, Quantum Theory and Thermodynamics it may hold the key to understanding what “now” means.

7. OK, the last chapter is philosophical. It’s not about Physics. It’s good, though!

Easy Reading. This book was written by physicist and author Carlo Ravelli in the Italian language in 2014, and was translated into English in 2015 by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre. The translation is copyrighted 2015, and was published in the United States by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK. It is clear, concise, and easy to understand.

The book is organized into six brief chapters covering the various major discoveries and theories on Physics, plus a seventh chapter summing it all up and describing the impact on and by humans. The total length of the book is just 49 pages, plus an index and a short blurb about the author. The first chapter describes the Theories of Special and General Relativity that were developed by Albert Einstein. The second describes Quantum Mechanics, generally thought to have been ideated by German physicist Max Planck in 1900. The idea was further developed by a number of physicists, including the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, who developed it much further. Chapter three is titled The Architecture of the Cosmos, and describes the “macrocosmic structure of the universe.” In includes several drawings to help explain the principles being described. In the fourth chapter, the author tells us about the micro-structure of the very smallest particles that make up the universe. He tells us about the important work done by Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. He describes quarks and gluons. He talks about the Higgs bosun that was recently discovered using the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland. In Chapter Five, Ravelli describes the paradox that exists between the theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics: “. . . the two theories cannot both be right, at least in their current forms, because they contradict each other.” The paradox comes about because both theories work well to describe the physical universe in which we live. The sixth chapter of the book introduces us to black holes, the definition of heat, the notion of probability, and a description of time. The author tells us a bit about thermodynamics and how quantum mechanics fits much of this together.

The final chapter of the book is about us, rather than about physics. In it, Ravelli asks what role we humans have in the world described by contemporary physics. He appears to wax more philosophical than scientific in this chapter, but he does so very eloquently. At one point, he tells us that: “We belong to a short-lived genus of species. All of our cousins are already extinct.” He goes on to add that man does damage to the environment and Ravelli does not believe that we will escape the consequences unscathed. He believes that public and political opinion prefers to ignore the dangers we are creating, and that we prefer to hide our heads in the sand. I couldn’t agree more.

His closing summation is poignant: “Here, on the edge of what we know, in contact with the ocean of the unknown, shines the mystery and beauty of the world. And it’s breathtaking.”

Read this book. You will certainly learn a few things you didn’t previously know, and your understanding of the universe we live in will be enhanced. It is a relatively easy read for most people, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The author loves his subject. About relativity, he writes: “There are absolute masterpieces that move us intensely: Mozart’s “Requiem,” Homer’s “odyssey,” the Sistine Chapel, “King Lear.” To fully appreciate their brilliance may require a long apprenticeship, but the reward is sheer beauty—and not only this, but the opening of our eyes to a new perspective upon the world. Einstein’s jewel, the general theory of relativity, is a masterpiece of this order.

Not bad for a guy who was an average student and because he couldn’t land a cushy teaching job at a prestigious university worked in a Swiss patent office as an assistant examiner. The job didn’t exactly excite him, but it allowed him plenty of time to dream, to conduct what later would become known as “thought experiments.” This was in 1903, Two years later (in 1905) he produced three disparate and revolutionary papers that would propel him from third-class patent clerk to first-class physicist. Each paper was worthy of a Noble Prize, though only one of them actually won it for him. This was the paper on the photon, or quantum. The other papers were on special relativity and on the atom.

Had Einstein been an outstanding student and mastered all the classic mathematical formulas, he may have become locked into the world of esteemed college professors and never have surpassed Newton’s laws of physics with his own groundbreaking laws governing the universe. Though employed as an assistant patent clerk, he was free to imagine what the universe was like, and asked himself questions such as: “What would the world look like if I rode on a beam of light?” Flights of fancy? You bet, but in conducting these “thought experiments” Einstein changed the world.

Einstein produced not three but five groundbreaking papers in 1905. They are:

1 - QUANTUM PHYSICS—The first paper (released in March) was an answer to the question of why a light beam caused a piece of metal charged with static electricity to emit electrons. Scientists had thought light could move only as a wave. Einstein said light could also act as a particle (known as the photon) and that it was the particle form that knocks electrons from metals. He received the Nobel Prize for this work in 1921. From this emerged quantum physics, which made possible everything from our televisions to the fiber-optic cables that carry the signals they display, from our phones to our computers, from the technology of the Internet to our MRI machines. Even use of the most seemingly mundane of appliances—ovens, clocks, thermostats—have components that depend for their design on an understanding of the quantum.

2 - MEASURING MOLECULES—His second paper (in April) was his fourth attempt to write a dissertation that would be accepted for his doctorate in physics. It got him the doctorate, but it was more important for the simple question it asked and answered: How can you measure sugar molecules dissolved in a cup of tea? His formula for measuring the size of sugar molecules in a liquid was applicable to all molecules.

3 - ATOMS—Einstein’s third paper (in May) addressed the question of why tiny particles suspended in a liquid move in jerky motions. It was, he said, because atoms and molecules that make up the liquid are in constant motion and jostle the particles. This paper along with the one in April provided powerful support for the fledgling idea that matter was made of atoms. This paper was an immediately sensation. It was so compelling that a crusty old physicist named Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald, the atom’s noted archenemy, said after reading Einstein’s paper he was convinced that atoms were real.

4 & 5 - SPECIAL RELATIVITY—His fourth and fifth papers (June and September) concerned the theory of special relativity and came out of his thought experiments indicating that a ground-based observer would see time slowing down on a fast-moving train, but someone on the train would not notice a change. A derivative showed how matter and energy are interchangeable. It gave birth to the most famous mathematic formula, E=mc2 (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared). As great as his two papers on special relatively were, he outdid them in 1915 with his paper on general relativity. It explained gravity so well that it has become the accepted standard. It came from what Einstein called “the happiest thought of my life.” In his thought experiment he envisioned a man falling from a roof. If dawned on him that the falling man could not feel gravity. The man couldn’t tell if he was being pulled or pushed, and Einstein realized this meant that gravity and acceleration are the same.

Newton had said gravity is a force exerted by one body on the other. The flaw in this theory was that it could not explain how such a force could travel instantly over the vast distances between galaxies. Gravity would have to travel faster than the speed of light, and nothing could do that. Einstein concluded that gravity was not a force, like other forces that moved through space. Instead, it was a condition of space itself. Big objects cause space to curve around them, like water in a stream flowing around a rock. Everything in space was effected by gravity, including light. Gravity warped space, causing light to bend and to make planets like earth be forever trapped in perpetual orbit around the sun.

Einstein brought about a complete revolution in physics: a conceptual revolution but a fundamental one. Before Einstein, scientists would perform a number of observations, or carry out a number of experiments, and from these find a way to generalize them, and come up with a theory. Einstein, on the other hand, never performed a single experiment. Sitting in the quiet of his room contemplating the universe, he changed our entire conception of the universe.

Einstein also changed our concept of reality. Reality itself was subjective, he said, not objective. It was different for everyone. He wasn’t the first to say this. Questions involving the relations between observer and reality, subject and object, have haunted philosophers and thinkers since the dawn of reason. Twenty-four centuries ago the Greek philosopher Democritus wrote: “Sweet and bitter, cold and warm as well as all the colors, all these things exist but in opinion and not in reality; what really exists are unchangeable particles, atoms, and their motions in empty space.” Galileo was aware of the purely subjective character of sense qualities like color, taste, smell, and sound and pointed out “they can no more be ascribed to the external objects than can the tickling or the pain caused sometimes by touching such objects.”

The great German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz said: “I am able to prove that not only light, color, heat, and the like, but motion, shape, and extension too are mere apparent qualities.” In other words, just as our visual sense tells us that a baseball is white, so vision abetted by our sense of touch tells us that it is also round, smooth, and small—qualities that have no more reality, independent of our senses, than the quality of which we define by convention as white. The Oxford physicist Roger Penrose put it even more succinctly: “The world is an illusion created by a conspiracy of our senses.”

Thus gradually philosophers and scientists arrived at the startling conclusion that since every object is simply the sum of its qualities, and since qualities exist only in the mind, the whole objective universe of matter and energy, atoms and stars, does not exist except as a construction of the consciousness, an edifice of conventional symbols shaped by the senses of man. Einstein carried this train of logic to its ultimate limits by showing that even space and time are forms of intuition, which can no more be divorced from consciousness that can our concepts of color, shape, or size. Space has no objective reality except as an order or arrangement of the objects we perceive in it, and time has no independent existence apart from the order of events by which we measure it.

The universe as Einstein imagined it was orderly. The physicists who picked up where Einstein left off developed theories that revealed the universe to be a chaotic place, without certainties, only probabilities. This was the quantum revolution, and it bothered Einstein to no end. “God does not play dice with the universe,” he said, despite a growing mountain of evidence to the contrary. For better or worse, the quantum revolution has ushered in an incredible new world of conveniences that 25 years ago would have been thought impossible.

Despite simple prose and muscular declarative sentences, not an easy book to read, but well worth the experience. Five Big Stars.

Book Report: Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli

To start with, this is a well-written book. The author writes lyrically about some of the most fascinating aspects of modern physics. Also, it’s short: only 81 pages. For non-experts, this could be the perfect intro to many of the physics topics that crop up in the news lately, including quantum mechanics, black holes, the Higgs boson, and dark matter.

However, for these same reasons, it’s a little light on details. It’s rather like a buffet of appetizers: many tasty morsels, but not very filling.
Now, I happen to have a background in physics, including a PhD in theoretical physics. I’ve been a college professor, taught science and calculus, and published in journals. Not that I’m at all well-known or accomplished: but I do have a slightly different view of these topics than the average non-expert reader. And what strikes me most about them isn’t what the author says, but what he doesn’t say.

For example, he tells the story of Max Planck performing a certain calculation, and using for the first time the concept of a “quantum” of energy. But what he doesn’t tell you is why Planck was doing this, or why he tried using the quantum to get the right answer. The reason is simple: the physics of the time had failed miserably to get the answer right. Physicists put everything they knew about electricity and light and energy into their calculation, and they were spectacularly wrong. They were so far off that the problem was called the “ultraviolet catastrophe.”

Similarly, he tells the story about Einstein also using the concept of a quantum of energy as a way to explain the photoelectric effect, where light falling on metal causes electricity to flow. Again, he doesn’t reveal to us why Einstein was doing this. It was because, once more, the physics of the time had failed utterly. Using everything they knew about light and electricity, for example, physicists had predicted that, if you shined light on a metal, it would take a few minutes for the light to cause the electricity to flow. In reality, the electricity starts immediately. This is incomprehensible in classical physics, and only the use of the quantum gives a satisfying explanation.

Finally, he talks about Niels Bohr coming up with a picture of the atom that leads to electrons being in set, stable orbits, and making the now-famous quantum leaps between orbits. What he doesn’t talk about is why this idea is necessary: because ordinary physics predicts that all electrons should spiral into the nucleus in a thousandth of a second: there would be no stable atoms, ever.

Why does the author omit discussing these motivations for the advances in physics he presents? I don’t know, of course, but I suspect that he wants to present physics as a magnificent edifice of marble and bronze, perfect and eternal. To this edifice, giants such as Planck and Einstein and Bohr contribute new wings, and every student of physics can aspire to offer some small improvement.

It’s a noble image, and one that probably impresses the tourists, but it’s absolutely false. In reality, physics is a ramshackle hodge-podge cobbled together with chewing gum and baling wire. It works remarkably well, and with more rigor than any other science, but it is far from perfect and even far from consistent. This leads to some howlers in this book, such as “the equations of the [quantum] theory finally appeared, replacing those of Newton”. Um, not really. The equations of quantum mechanics are good almost solely for phenomena about the size of an atom or smaller. For everyday life, Newton’s equations work just fine, thank you very much.

I wonder if the author is presenting this shining exterior to win readers over to his viewpoint, which is thoroughly materialistic. Materialism is the philosophy that the world consists of inert matter subject to the forces of nature, and that’s it. In materialism, there is nothing of the spiritual, of the soul, of the mind. To a materialist, human beings are something like complex machines, and anything produced by a human being is something like the result of a printing press, not of any individual creativity. The author seems to value music, art, and literature, but, as a materialist, he must believe that these are simply the by-products of the biochemical reactions of the brain.

In fact, he states so much in this book: you are your brain. There is nothing of you besides what goes on in that organ.

I don’t know how a materialist can esteem certain human beings, such as Planck or Einstein or Bohr. Surely, their brains were simply doing what their brains came into being to do, right? Why should they receive any special acclaim simply for performing the process they had no choice but to perform?

He goes even further: “An individual is a process.” In other words, you are something like a rusting can, or a rock being eroded by water. No more, no less.

It’s not surprising that such a bleak view of life leads to a bleak view of the future. “I believe that our species will not last long,” he states. Given this view, one wonders why he would bother to be interested in unraveling the mysteries of the universe, or indeed, why he would want to gain adherents for his views. Why would it matter (rimshot)?

Still, those of us who believe there is more to human beings than physical and chemical reactions can still value his descriptions of the magnificence of the universe, and the singular and amazing fact that we can actually understand some of how it all works.

Recommended, but mind the gaps.

However much time I spend studying Quantum Mechanics or the Theory of Relativity through popular science books, I am always left with the feeling that I won’t be able to confidently teach to someone else what I have learnt. The same applies to Loop Quantum Gravity. Just as I thought I understood basic concepts like Heat, this book takes it one step further by posing basic questions about Heat and its relationship to Time, which has never occurred to me. What enchanted me about this book was that it is not so much about explaining the details of the science behind Relativity, the Quantum, Black holes or the Cosmos. It is a celebration of these ideas in a rather poetic language, showing us how beautiful Physics is. Amazingly, it is all done in just about 80 pages, making us reflect on the essence of these ideas and ponder about the various phenomena in the Universe that these great theories still do not explain. In order to give a glimpse of what is on offer, I shall touch upon a couple of the expositions which stopped me in my tracks.

The first one is the discussion of Heat and Time. The author says that the difference between past and future exists only when there is heat. The fundamental phenomenon that distinguishes the future from the past is the fact that heat passes from things that are hotter to things that are colder. This happens due to sheer chance and not due to any inherent law of nature. It is not impossible for a hot body to become hotter through contact with a colder one! It is just extremely improbable. We can detect a difference between the past and the future only when there is this flow of heat. In physics, there is nothing that corresponds to the notion of ‘Now’. The idea of a present that is common to the whole Universe is an illusion and that the universal ‘flow of time’ is a generalization that doesn’t really work. The book is worth reading just for this discussion on the link between Heat and Time.

The second one is the author’s discussion of space and time. He himself is one of the co-founders of Loop Quantum Gravity, which is another effort in trying to unify Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity. It postulates that space exists in ‘quanta’ just like matter. In the author’s own words, “... space is not continuous, that it is not infinitely divisible but made up of grains, or “atoms of space.” […] They are called “loops,” or rings, because they are linked to one another, forming a network of relations…..there is no longer space that contains the world, there is no longer time “in which” events occur. There are only elementary processes wherein quanta of space and matter continually interact with one another, causing the illusion of space and time”. This leads to his mind-boggling conclusion that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space!

Other beautiful passages which caught my attention are also worth noting here.
The author describes the many concepts covered by Einstein’s theories, including gravitational waves, in the following brief: “..the theory describes a colorful and amazing world where the universes explode, space collapses into bottomless holes, time sags and slows near a planet, and the unbounded extensions of interstellar space ripple and sway like the surface of the sea….”.

The concept of gravity as given by the General Theory of Relativity is succinctly described in the words: “..the gravitational field is not diffused through space. The gravitational field is that space itself. Space curves where there is matter. That is it. Space and gravitational field are the same thing.…”

Black Holes are explained as follows: “When a large star has burned up all its combustible substance, what remains is no longer supported by the heat of the combustion and hence, collapses under its own weight, to a point where it bends space to such a degree that it plummets into an actual hole. That is a black hole”.

It is obvious from the text that the author is simply in awe of Einstein’s accomplishments not only for its path-breaking nature but also for the tremendous beauty in those formulations. While talking about ‘Genius’, the author quotes the introduction to Einstein’s article on ‘Light’ as follows: “....It seems to me that the observations associated with blackbody radiation, flourescence, the production of cathode rays….” . Then, he notes that Charles Darwin too, in his introduction to his notebooks, begins with “...it seems to me….”. He goes on to say that even Michael Faraday spoke of a ‘hesitation’ when he introduced the revolutionary idea of magnetic fields. Finally, the author connects it all up concisely, saying ‘Genius hesitates’, implying the humility in those great minds.

Author Rovelli writes with great simplicity and clarity. In the process, he brings to life the deep questions that engage Physics. Though it deals with complex concepts in the Standard Model of Particles, General theory of Relativity, the dilation of Time and Quantum entanglement, I would say that it is still aimed at readers who do not have any deep exposure to Modern Physics. There is very little of technical jargon or equations or graphs. In short, it is a real accomplishment to deal with these subjects in such a short volume using concise, lucid explanations. The book is a translation from its original in Italian, which was a best seller.

I found it an inspiring, enchanting little book.

This was a great overview of some of the developments and the quandaries of science. But it was much too short and shallow. The essay of the author's opinion that is the final chapter pads out an otherwise scant booklet. This should not be sold online as a "book" where the buyer cannot see how woefully short it s.

These seven brief lessons about physics are interesting, enlightening, and (more or less) accessible to non-scientists. The author, Carlo Rovelli, is a theoretical physicist with great enthusiasm for his subject matter.

The lessons (which I'm greatly simplifying) include:

Special Theory of Relativity: The faster you move, the slower time passes. This would be really obvious if you could travel at the speed of light.
General Theory of Relativity: Space is not empty, but composed of particles of some kind. The sun bends space around itself, and the planets circle around the sun because they follow the curve of space (like marbles that roll around a funnel). This explains the 'force of gravity' that prevents the planets from flying off into the galaxy.

Quantum Mechanics: The energy of a field is distributed in 'quanta', or packets of energy, like electrons in an electrical field. But quanta only exist when they're interacting with something else - so they bleep in an out of existence. Moreover, quanta move randomly so we can't know where they'll manifest themselves. (If you can't wrap your mind around this don't feel bad. Albert Einstein couldn't either. LOL)

The Architecture of the Cosmos: Our sun is one star among billions of stars in the galaxy.....and there are billions of galaxies.....and so on. There may even be more than one universe, but we don't know.

Particles: The universe is teeming with particles called electrons, quarks, gluons, photons, neutrinos, and Higgs bosons. Rovelli explains that these particles are 'like bricks in a Lego set' that make up the material things surrounding us. Moreover, 'the nature of these particles and the way they move is described by quantum mehanics'.....so they're always winking in an out of being. All the particles, fields, and forces in the universe are summed up in 'The Standard Model of Particle Physics' which no one understands. Ha ha ha.

Quantum Gravity: Unfortunately the theories of general relativity - where the universe is a continous curved space, and quantum mechanics - where the universe is composed of particles that bleep in and out of existence, contradict each other. But both theories work well. So physicists are trying to merge the ideas in a field of study called 'loop quantum gravity.'

One combined theory suggests that space is not continuous but made up of infinitesimally small 'grains of space' called loops.....connected somewhat like a chain link fence. This theory has repercussions that mess with the reality of time - so it needs a lot more of work.

Probability, Time, and The Heat of Black Holes: The notion of 'time' is elusive and has been the subject of much debate among physicists. Rovelli points out, though, that heat distinguishes the past from the future. As time goes by, heat passes from things that are hotter to things that are colder (for example, a teaspoon heats up in hot tea). The science of heat is called thermodynamics.

We don't know what happens to a gravitational field when it heats up, but a clue might be found in a black hole - a collapsed star with a gravitational field so strong that nothing (not even light) can escape. Black holes are hot - in essence hot 'spots' of space-time. Thus they combine quantum mechanics, general relativity, and thermodynamics. Eventually, scientists might be able to use black holes to reveal the true nature of time.

Ourselves: If humans are composed of ephemeral particles, the same stuff as the rest of the universe, where do we get our sense of ourselves......of being conscious and making decisions. Scientists studying the brain are trying to shed light on this.

I liked the book - which is short and sweet - and recommend it to readers interested in the subject.

This is a brief book on a subject where there is a plethora of publications. But all those other books fail to satisfactorily teach the reader on what should be gleaned from modern physics. This book is unique in that it tells you all you need about modern physics ... in under one hundred pages.

This is heady reading but not overly challenging. Rovelli has distilled all that you need to know about Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, particle physics and the like, and gives the reader enough information to confidently seek other books about these subjects for a deeper understanding. He makes the subject of physics interesting and accessible for the lay person like no other tome I have seen.

The brief lessons cover seven areas in modern physics — relativity, quantum mechanics, the structure of the universe, particle physics, quantum gravity, probability and black holes, and finally, how all these topics relate to us mere mortals.

The tone is conversational; technical terminology has been kept to a minimum, but in a subject like this, unavoidable. Rovelli makes judicious use of the jargon, and if they are used, he carefully brackets the wordage with concrete, everyday language to make the topic understandable for laypersons. Most importantly, there is a conspicuous dearth of mathematical sentences. If you are like me, a deer in front of the headlights when confronted with mathematical equations, this is a big plus. The subject matter of physics is difficult enough without throwing in equations to further cloud the subject. It says a lot to Rovelli’s understanding of the subject and his ability to convey that understanding.

This book is highly recommended.

XXXXX

“These [seven] lessons were written for those who know little or nothing about modern science. [Science is systematized knowledge derived from observation, study, research, and experimentation.]

Together they provide a rapid overview of the most fascinating aspects of the great revolution that has occurred in physics in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and of the questions and mysteries that this revolution has opened up. [Physics is the science dealing with the properties, changes, interactions, etc. of matter and energy.]”

The above comes from the preface of this little and surprisingly comprehensive book by Carlo Rovelli. He is an Italian theoretical physicist and the head of the Quantum Gravity group at Aix-Marseille University (in France). As well, he is a co-discoverer of a new theory called “loop quantum gravity.”

These physics lessons are expansions of a series of articles published in the Sunday supplement of an Italian newspaper. They were later translated into English.

This small book contains some BIG ideas. It explains the major concepts of modern physics. Rovelli’s concise and comprehensible writings makes sense of complex scientific notions such as Einstein’s general relativity (“the most beautiful of theories”), quantum mechanics (“shrouded in mystery and incomprehensibility”), cosmology (the study of the universe as a whole), and thermodynamics (the study of the conversion of heat energy into other energy forms).

What makes this book a joy to read is Rovelli’s enthusiastic, poetic, and even philosophical descriptions that communicate the essence of these topics without getting bogged down in excessive details. As well, this book taken as a whole ignites curiosity.

I agree with the first sentence in the above extract in quotations. However, this book is not just for novices. I feel that there is just enough for the well-versed scientific reader.

This book has been a best-seller in Italy and the United Kingdom. This is not surprising since few writers, let alone physicists, capture the beauty of nature and the excitement of its discovery in such clear, rich prose.

Finally, the only problem I had was with the last chapter or lesson. In the previous lessons, the author sticks to his area of expertise but in the last lesson he does not and fails to reference some of the new ideas and concepts he introduces. However, the writing was exceptionally good.

In conclusion, for those that what to learn the beauty of physics in fewer than a hundred pages, this is the book for you!!

(first published in Italian 2014; translated into English 2015; first published in English 2016; preface; 7 lessons/chapters; main narrative 80 pages; index)

<<Stephen PLETKO, London, Ontario, Canada>>

XXXXX

This is a collection of seven brief newspaper articles previously written by Rovelli. The articles touch upon a few of the high points in the past century of theoretical physics research and most particularly offer interesting explanations and summaries of general relativity and quantum mechanics. Rovelli is one of the original proponents of loop quantum gravity and in this book he offers a clear and succinct explanation of what that theory is about. His critique of the Standard Model is balanced, fair and enlightening. I'm not convinced that thermodynamics and its implication for the meaning of "time" is the future of theoretical physics, but it is an interesting idea.

And there we are. Fortunately, Rovelli soft pedals the poetic musing that public intellectual scientists are so taken with, although there is still a fair amount of that. For the most part he plays fair and displays more interest in actually presenting ideas and explaining theories than in rhapsodizing about the fathomless mysteries of the universe.

This is interesting stuff for the curious nonprofessional and cutting edge in an accessible fashion. That was good enough for me.

Thanks, Professor Carlo Rovelli, for making most of the current and recent understandings in physics comprehensible and pithy and for comparing these to ancient and somewhat modern misconceptions. I appreciated the simplicity with which you described each theory, its foundations and its conclusions or rejection by scientists over the last several hundred years, and particularly in the last forty years.

My favorite parts: 1) reminders that people who live at higher elevations age more quickly than those at sea level. I knew I wanted to live at the beach (thanks, Einstein, for this one); 2) hotter things "give" their heat to colder and this exchange is the ONLY thing that creates our illusions of linear time. The first part of #2 gives me hope for the characters in the unrequited love story in my sci-fi/romance books in "The Spanners Series." I put some of that discussion into my WIP (work-in-progress, Volume V) already!

However, I didn't much like your "conclusion" and look ahead, particularly since this book ended (was published) 2 years ago (which means finished 3 years ago, in 2013) and SO MUCH has happened and physics has been almost up-ended since then. Not your fault, but your attempt to be visionary and philosophical in the last chapter falls very short of your goals due to actual recent theories and discoveries: The multiverse! String theory! The directionality of subatomic particles that creates linear time! Multiple Big Bangs! Actual nature of Black Holes! Dark Matter! Dark Energy!

What about the work of physicists Brian Green? Max Tegmark? Vera Rubin? Michio Kaku? Lisa Randall?

Oh, well.

Glad for the physics primer and thanks, again. Please write a sequel that updates this volume!

Theoretical Physicist, Carlo Rovelli takes us on a quick tour of his discipline, covering seven different aspects of Physics. And as with all books about this subject I understood only a small portion of what was being said. Mostly it was words, words, words, then something that made me go “Oh yeah, I get that. How cool!” Then words, words, words. Possibly others will find it more accessible than I did, or possibly I was attempting to create visual images of what Rovelli was describing, something without which I find it hard to hang on to a concept.

What I did get out of it was how very beautiful, vast, and magical Physics is, and how much Rovelli loves his subject. Indeed, his love for the universe and all the things that come together within it shines out from every word of this book. It became almost a gorgeous fairytale filled with more magic than I can grasp.

This is a book I’d attempt again, but next time as an ebook or hard copy. The audiobook, usually the best way for me to comprehend difficult scientific concepts, failed me this time. Or maybe it really didn’t. I’m reminded of listening to the late, great David Bohm talking about quantum theory, and stopping in mid lecture to say, “You realize that none of us understand this either?” His audience laughed. I laughed on the commuter train carrying me home, and we all appreciated his honesty. I got what I could, and that’s more than I had before I began.

This is a humbling read. Over the years, I have learned a great deal about many things, enough so that sometimes I think I actually understand what it's all about. Rovelli's little book is a reminder that probably none of us really understand what it's all about. It's difficult enough to understand what any of it is about. We're part of the universe we're trying to understand, and the thing we label as life is, too. In trying to understand the universe we humans are both observers of and participants.

If I understand Rovelli, it's--all of it, everything, from lobster and mole cricket to galaxy--is a process, not an entity unto itself, and can only be defined in relation to interactions with other things themselves the articulation of processes. This poses some interesting problems for the question of what is self and what is life. I'm going to have to read the book a couple more times. My own background is literature, and that suddenly seems relevant in that current understanding is that reading is a dialog between reader and author, and that all writing--any and all communication--is grounded in the context of the writers' and readers' life and times and language and culture. One thing I cannot wrap my own imagination around is the idea that time may not exist.

So there: one aspect of this little book is that it will get your imagination going.

The writing is excellent--or rather, it seems to be, because it's a translation from the Italian. It does seem a little journalistic in form, and it originally appeared as lessons in the Sunday supplement to an Italian newspaper (can anyone seriously imagine a US newspaper having a series of lessons on physics??). I think that the lesson on the architecture of the universe is the best (possibly because it's mostly graphic and easier to comprehend).

The lessons include one on Einstein, quanta, architecture of the cosmos, particles, grains of space, probability (which is titled "Probability, Time and the Heat of Black Holes"), and "In Closing" about ourselves. Rovelli sees (and to some extent conveys) a majesty in the immensity, but he also comments that he does not expect out species to survive very long, and does comment about how human actions are damaging the planet, perhaps to the point of our own extinction.

Originating as articles in an Italian Sunday newspaper, these Seven Brief Lessons on Physics convey the gist of a few of the most complicated mysteries facing us. Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli introduces general relativity, quantum mechanics, elementary particles, gravity, black holes, cosmic architecture and human responses to our role as participant-observers in our (un)fathomable universe.

Weighing in at 80 pages of narrative, with big print and a few illustrations of charts, this small book provides an introduction for the general reader. It may stimulate audiences to delve into the themes which Rovelli introduces. His genial style eases comprehension; his short chapters defy compression.

Rovelli rejects a model of the universe as an immense, rigid, invisible infrastructure. Rather, we are "immersed in a gigantic, flexible snail-shell." When light bends around stars, when gravitational waves warp the passage of planets, or where "things fall because space curves," the Newtonian models of forces meet the disorienting realm predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity. That "describes a colorful and amazing world where universes explode, space collapses into bottomless holes, time sags and slows near a planet, and the unbounded extensions of interstellar space ripple and sway like the surface of the sea." In Simon Carnell and Erica Segre's translation, a wider audience can appreciate the enthusiasm evinced by Rovelli in this international best-seller. This primer cannot match the range of other popularizations. But it sparks the imagination, nevertheless.

Niels Bohr's "quantum jumps," Dmitri Mendeleev's periodic table and Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle take up a total of three efficient paragraphs in Rovelli's account. Yet, as shown in his introduction of quanta, gaps appear in his discussion. Why does time meet physical limits? How do elements each correspond to "one solution of the main equation of quantum mechanics"? Rovelli writes for general readers, but he fails to fully explain these concepts after he raises them.

We evolve from such concepts, Rovelli avers, into an "immense, elastic" universe. We challenge the standard model of the universe. Yet we acknowledge the beauty of the "cosmic alphabet" composed of elementary particles fluctuating between existence and non-existence. Here a connection back to Mendeleev's table might have strengthened the bond between quantum mechanics and the elements.

The incompatibility of the systems of general relativity and quantum physics, Rovelli conjectures, can be solved by "loop quantum gravity." His specialty, this resembles a spectral version of "finely woven chain mail." Not in space, but comprising space itself. "Grains of atoms of space" linked together become grains that no longer contain space or time as our "world." Instead, only space and matter continually interact as elementary processes. Loop quantum gravity suggests from black hole observations that our universe formed not from a Big Bang but a Big Bounce. It re-emerged from a previous phase, obliterated from our observation as it precedes our own spatial and temporal limits.

Rovelli returns to time to examine its "flow." He admits that it is still not understood. It nestles at the intersection of gravity, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics. This may justify the vague nature of much of his discussion of this concept and presence, but it leaves this inquirer very puzzled.

Concluding, Carlo Rovelli reminds readers how we are comprised of quanta packets, vehicles traveling through space and time. Yet, we alone ask how "the central exchange of information in nature can produce us and our thoughts." In our brains, as many neurons as there are stars in the galaxy help form our identity. This final lesson inspires human exploration and discovery.

It also embodies, Rovelli cautions, a drive which will likely leave us "a short-lived" species. Our genetic cousins already are extinct. Within our ephemeral spans, "we are born and die as the stars die, both individually and collectively." Out of such simple statements, profundity lurks within physics. Rovelli's Seven Brief Lessons on Physics charts the tiny core of what our universe keeps expanding.

At less than 90 pages, this book does not qualify as a primer on the basics of physics. It does however whet one’s appetite to learn more. This is a collection of seven essays expanded from a series of Italian newspaper articles that is easy for a layperson to understand and digest. The writing is clear, passionate, and the author’s enthusiasm for the subject shines through.

Topics include:

1. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
2. Quantum mechanics
3. The shape of the universe
4. Particle theory
5. Emerging theory of loop quantum gravity
6. The relationships between probability, time, and the heat inside black holes
7. Understanding humans’ place in nature

I have already added the author's next book, Reality Is Not What It Seems, to my reading list.

A review of ‘Seven brief lessons on physics’ by Carlo Rovelli

CITATION: Rovelli, C., Carnell, S., & Segre, E. (2016). Seven brief lessons on physics. Harmondsworth, UK: Allen Lane (Penguin Books).

Reviewer: Dr W. P. Palmer

This is a remarkable book and is perhaps essential reading for anyone with an interest in physics or more generally for anyone who wants to know about the very latest ideas in physics written in an easily comprehensible manner. The book consists of seven chapters (the seven lessons) in 79 pages. The author, Carlo Rovelli, is a top research physicist who is a founder of the loop quantum gravity theory. Originally the articles were written for the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Il sole 24 hore to make the latest science more available to the general public. The translation by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre is so good that it does not appear like a translation.

The first lesson ‘The most beautiful of theories’ explains the general theory of relativity and also provides some details of Einstein’s life, making the point, when describing Einstein’s apparent wasting of a year as perhaps being a prerequisite for ‘serious scientists’.

The second lesson is on the quantum theory and the fact that the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics appear to be incompatible. The third lesson describes the architecture of the cosmos and this is largely achieved through simple illustrations. The fourth lesson is entitled ‘Particles’ and considers the nature of matter and its components, electrons, quarks, photons and gluons, but also explains why some physicists are unhappy with the ‘standard model’. These four lessons are to some extent familiar territory, whereas the final three lessons move gradually from established physics to the realms of what appears to be speculative philosophy. The fifth lesson (grains of space) introduces the idea of quantum gravity to explain the contradictions between relativity and quantum mechanics. The sixth lesson (probability, time, and the heat of black holes) goes back to the work of the Austrian physicist, Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann, who brought ideas of probability into physics (statistical physics); his ideas were ridiculed at the time, which led to him committing suicide. Very recently Stephen Hawking has shown that black holes radiate heat and this discovery leads to the possibility of showing how quantum mechanics, general relativity and thermal phenomena may converge to reveal the true nature of time. The final lesson (ourselves) attempts to relate physics to what we know about ourselves as human beings perhaps to see the relationship between the patterns seen on the screen of an encephalograph and our own consciousness. Rovelli considers that this last chapter represents the area in which progress is most likely to be made.

A book as simple and as profound as this book is offers schools the opportunity to encourage the majority of their Year Twelve students to go beyond the curriculum and to see, albeit through a glass darkly, where the boundaries of science lie.

BILL PALMER.

NB I wrote this review for ‘Teaching Science’ (The Journal of the Australian Science Teachers Association) 62(3)64 (September, 2016).

The virtue of this little volume (86 pages) lies more in the beauty of the book itself and in the clear English translation of the words of Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre than in anything the reader may learn about physics. Not that Rovelli is to be faulted. The problem lies in the nature of physics itself and the limitations of the human mind. Without the math we are stuck with metaphor and analogy. The curvature of space, for example, can be understood in a practical sense but imagining something we cannot see curving is beyond our ability. And yes the mathematics describes how matter curves space allowing us to predict events with great precision. But do we know why matter curves space? No. In fact “curves” is a metaphor for something beyond our ken. Indeed the nature of space is a mystery.

The lessons, which are really little lectures, are on relativity, quantum mechanics, cosmology, particle physics, loop quantum gravity, probability/time/heat/black holes, and in the final lesson on how we might see ourselves in view of what science has taught us. Rovelli is simultaneously pleased with what we humans have accomplished and thankful for being alive, but is very clear in stating that we humans will be a relatively short-lived species. He doesn’t speculate on what will happen to us, but I will toss out some possibilities in my next book including disappearance by genetic engineering, a runaway greenhouse effect, and even extinction by pathogen, to name three. But never mind.

I do want to note that Rovelli does not so much as mention string theory. It appears that loop quantum gravity of which he is a founder will replace string theory or at least make the attempt. Personally I have never liked string theory mainly because of all the postulated dimensions required to make the theory work, so I look forward to learning more about loop quantum gravity which is, like string theory, an attempt to reconcile relativity with quantum mechanics.

Finally I would like to observe that although Rovelli, like Einstein before him, uses the word “time” in the lessons, he really believes that time does not exist except as a way of talking. With this I also agree and believe it is an important point. Indeed I like to say that time is a mathematical point sans dimension existing nowhere.

--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”

This is good overview of physics in easy, understandable language. It's approachable and concise. It's nice to see attempts like this to make science accessible to the masses and improve science education.

That being said, this book was too advanced for someone with little science training and too simple for those with a strong science background. He tosses out concepts like inertia and electromagnetic fields as if they were well understood by all. But then he fails to go into detail in most areas, which is especially frustrating when he comes to more recent developments. Concepts like quarks and Hawking radiation are mentioned by name but never fully explained.

Worst of all the last "lesson on physics" is actually a "lesson on philosophy" Unfortunately, the author appears to be an amateur in that field. He shares his views on philosophical concepts like free will, morality, and epistemology, but he fails to acknowledge any opposing ideas or unresolved questions. In most other chapters, he is honest about the shortcomings of ideas or theories, but he fails to do so in his philosophical chapter. The last lesson is honestly a waste of time.

I would recommend reading "A Brief History of Time" by Hawking or "Six Easy Pieces" by Feynman instead of this book. They cover a lot of the same concepts, but are much better in their execution.

My experience with physics in high school and college consisted largely of memorizing formulae and using them to solve problems that were mind-numbingly mundane. I understood that beauty and mystery could be found in physics, but I had no idea how to unlock the door that led to them. Carlo Rovelli's small book of less than 100 pages has finally unlocked that door and opened it far enough that I can glimpse the wonders within.

The seven lessons included here were written by Rovelli, a theoretical physicist and a founder of the loop quantum gravity theory (which is explained in one of the lessons,) for an Italian newspaper. Thus the lessons are written with the non-specialist, though intelligent, reader in mind. Rovelli has both the mind of a scientist and a poet, and his explanations of theories and concepts that could quickly become arcane are instead approachable and intriguing.

This is one of those odd but satisfying books that earn a special place in their readers' hearts. Read it, even if physics seems an impenetrable mystery to you, and you will catch a glimpse of the light.

This is an excellent book to catch up on the latest in science or to begin to understand new science concepts. It was an easy read, especially for someone who graduated high school in the bottom third of 750 students, and no math since 10th grade shop math. Nonetheless, this was the best explanation of Einstein’s life and theories that I have ever read. I borrowed this book and Carl Rovelli's "Reality is not what it seems" from the local library, and now I bought "Seven Brief Lessons". This is good book to have handy and reread when needed. I will admit that lesson 7 on Quantum Gravity has my head spinning, but the rest of the book was easily absorbed and enjoyable. This would be a good book to give as a gift to anyone who would be surprised to read that "Thinking Men (and women)" were around and seeking real knowledge 3000 years ago.

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli

“Seven Brief Lessons on Physics" is an excellent introductory book on modern physics. Renowned theoretical physicist, Carlos Rovelli, provides the general public with an upbeat and accessible look at key topics in physics. This optimistic 88-page book covers the following six chapters and a closing chapter: 1. The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2. Quanta, 3. The Architecture of the Cosmos, 4. Particles, 5. Grains of Space, 6. Probability, Time, and the Heat of Black Holes and In Closing, Ourselves.

Positives:
1. A well-written, accessible and succinct book for the masses.
2. An uncharacteristically joyful tone (joy of discovery) for a book on modern physics. It’s written with clarity.
3. Professor Rovelli has authored over 200 scientific articles that have been published in leading international journals and has mastery of the topics presented in this book.
4. Seven fascinating topics covered.
5. A discussion of the most beautiful theories and of course the great Einstein shines with a basic explanation of the general theory of relativity. “And it is at this point that an extraordinary idea occurred to him, a stroke of pure genius: the gravitational field is not diffused through space; the gravitational field is that space itself. This is the idea of the general theory of relativity.”
6. The almost incomprehensible world of quantum mechanics. “In quantum mechanics no object has a definite position, except when colliding headlong with something else.”
7. A look at the cosmos. “The next leap was accomplished by Copernicus, inaugurating what has come to be called the great scientific revolution.”
8. The Standard Model of elementary particles. “The Standard Model was finalized in the 1970s, after a long series of experiments that confirmed all predictions. Its final confirmation occurred in 2013 with the discovery of the Higgs boson.”
9. Theories that contradict one another, find out.
10. A discussion on loop quantum gravity from one of its founders, that’s right, Professor Rovelli. “Loop quantum gravity is an endeavor to combine general relativity and quantum mechanics. It is a cautious attempt because it uses only hypotheses already contained within these theories, suitably rewritten to make them compatible. But its consequences are radical: a further profound modification of the way we look at the structure of reality.”
11. What is heat? “Heat does not move from hot things to cold things due to an absolute law: it does so only with a large degree of probability. The reason for this is that it is statistically more probable that a quickly moving atom of the hot substance collides with a cold one and leaves it a little of its energy, rather than vice versa. Energy is conserved in the collisions but tends to get distributed in more or less equal parts when there are many collisions.”
12. So is time an illusion? Find out.
13. A look at consciousness.
14. Ends with some philosophy.

Negatives:
1. Feels more like an overview of some key concepts of physics. Lacks depth.
2. No links to notes.
3. No supplementary material.
4. No formal bibliography.
5. Honestly, at $9.99, this book is overpriced. Rent for free from your local digital library.

In summary, Rovelli succeeds in providing the public with an excellent appetizer of modern physics. This book is written with clarity and joy and it’s intended to spark curiosity and wonder in the reader. This is an excellent introduction for the layperson but lacks depth for the more demanding reader. I recommend it.

Further recommendations: “The First Scientist” by the same author, “Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher” by Richard P. Feynman, “Spectrums” by David Blatner, “The Elegant Universe” and “Hidden Reality” by Brian Greene, “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari, “A Universe From Nothing” by Lawrence M. Krauss, “About Time” by Adam Frank, “Higgs Discovery” and “Warped Passages” by Lisa Randall, “The Grand Design” by Stephen Hawking, and “The Quantum Universe” by Brian Cox.

This book certainly lives up to its title in its "brief" lessons. While I wasn't expecting too much depth within these lessons, they were even more abbreviated than I expected. The lessons are more accurately described as summaries rather than actual explanations. Based on this book, I don't feel like I was given enough information to have a completely grasp on many of theories because I feel as if Rovelli danced around the ideas without ever fully describing, but I do have a basic understanding of the ideas involved within each theory. At times, I must add that Rovelli almost attained a tone that sounded somewhat patronizing, as if he assumed the reader would have extreme difficulties grasping these ideas. This could be a positive aspect, but it could also be negative - it really depends on how you interpret it.

Rovelli's writing itself is, however, quite lovely, and you can certainly gain a sense of his own wonder and appreciation of this subject. His prose is almost poetic at times, which adds a certain sense of beauty and awe to the subject, as well as makes the book approachable for just about any reader.

This is a great book for someone who might be interested in pursuing a physics major or related career and wants to know the basic ideas that are involved. This was like a series of movie trailers meant to give you a taste of each theory, rather than going into much detail or explanations of the components of each theory.

Overall, I'm giving Seven Brief Lessons on Physics four stars for delivering its promise of brief physics lesson in an enlightening and readable manner. If you're at all interested in physics and want to know only the basics, this is a great little pocket companion and introduction into the fundamentals of the subject.

Another marvel by Rovelli, author of "The First Scientist - Anaximander and his legacy".
Carlo recounts the achievements of Albert Einstein in such a way that gives the educated, non-physicist reader a wonderful window to the changes brought by Einstein when he made one of space and gravitational field and showed how time itself "curves". Explaining the discontinous quality of radiant energy, the notion of quanta is explored and he teaches us that reality is in fact interactions. The universe is discussed in the Cosmos section where the Big Bang theory is presented. He introduces us to one of the theories that strive to unite general relativity with quantum mechanics. You will also learn how probability is linked with the notion of temperature. His final chapter dwells on our species, and our continous drive to understand ourselves and the world we briefly inhabit as individuals. It is difficult to explain the wonder his text provokes in the reader. Possibly his latin roots are responsible for the light and poetic quality of the book even when dealing with such a difficult subject as the foundation theories of physical science. But he can amaze the reader.

This is a lovely little book which, in a few brief chapters, lays out the basics of modern physics and then goes on to summarize current thought on time, the human mind, and the definition of "I". The examples used to explain complex theories were very effective. In the last chapter, the author waxes philosophical about the past and future of the human species, a summary which mirrored my own thoughts but expressed them more gently and succinctly than I could. "I believe that our species will not last long. It does not seem to be made of the stuff that has allowed the turtle, for example, to continue to exist more or less unchanged for hundreds of millions of years, for hundreds of times longer, that is, than we have even been in existence. We belong to a short-lived genus of species. All of our cousins are already extinct. What's more, we do damage. The brutal climate and environmental changes that we have triggered are unlikely to spare us."

I have to say I'm very grateful for this book and will probably purchase a copy for myself, something I do very rarely, for reference on the scientific theories and for the poetry of the last chapter. The translators have done a wonderful job of making Dr. Rovelli's prose so effectively available to English speakers.

Regrettably, I'm a little disappointed with the content of this book. The first sentence in the preface states, "These lessons were written for those who know little or nothing about modern science." I know a thing or two about science and physics, and read books on the subject every now and then as a passing hobby. Many physics books and articles are filled with technical jargon, and I hoped this book would cut through the clutter and give the reader clear and concise information on the concepts. In some cases, Mr. Rovelli accomplishes this difficult task, but in others he leaves the reader with deficiencies. I expected more from this short book, not necessarily extensions of concepts, but more to the point.

Although providing only the briefest, albeit beautiful, glimpses into contemporary science's conceptions of reality, this book opened my eyes much wider to the meaning of it all. I have a scientific background, but these short essays did summarize very broad and complex concepts in helpful ways. For someone not well versed in modern physics, this book would definitely provide an excellent, and sufficient, introduction. But it was the beauty of the writing and the philosophical conclusions that I found most rewarding. The translators are especially to be commended. These essays are concise enough to reread easily for greater understanding.

This is the simplest explanation of physics and The General Theory of Relativity I’ve heard or read; Rovelli explains the theory of relativity in two pages! The book is concise, clear, and anecdotal. He weaves historical and theoretical facts with the main questions of discovery.

I heard Carlo Rovelli speak on NPR’s Science Friday and enjoyed it. My local library had this book digitally and as a chemistry public school teacher I had time to read it over summer vacation. I’m thinking of buying the book and more of his books as reference.

I would highly recommend this book.

Ok, this is just not very good. Superficial in the extreme, and bound to be disappoint to anyone who would be attracted by the title. We are told that, about 100 years ago, Scientists had an explosion of important ideas, which are cool, and powerful and useful. And the 2 biggest ones are really amazing, but can't both be true . . . And recently, Scientists have mostly blundered about, heading down lots of interesting dead ends. No progress in sight. Plus, we get a terrible, moralizing conclusion that doesn't help any -- Man is not long for this earth, we are told, because we are destroying it. But hey, the universe will go only merrily without us. Whatever that mean. At 80 pages, this is fluff, for $19. Skip it.