'A dazzling book ... the new Stephen Hawking' Sunday Times
The bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics takes us on an enchanting, consoling journey to discover the meaning of time
'We are time. We are this space, this clearing opened by the traces of memory inside the connections between our neurons. We are memory. We are nostalgia. We are longing for a future that will not come.'
Time is a mystery that does not cease to puzzle us. Philosophers, artists and poets have long explored its meaning while scientists have found that its structure is different from the simple intuition we have of it. From Boltzmann to quantum theory, from Einstein to loop quantum gravity, our understanding of time has been undergoing radical transformations. Time flows at a different speed in different places, the past and the future differ far less than we might think, and the very notion of the present evaporates in the vast universe.
With his extraordinary charm and sense of wonder, bringing together science, philosophy and art, Carlo Rovelli unravels this mystery. Enlightening and consoling, The Order of Time shows that to understand ourselves we need to reflect on time -- and to understand time we need to reflect on ourselves.
Translated by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre
Imprint: Penguin
Published: 26/04/2018
ISBN: 9780241292532
Length: 224 Pages
RRP: £8.99
I consider Carlo Rovelli to be a poet as much as a physicist. . . Everybody should read this book
Not only a lesson on physics but also philosophy, poetry, biology, even music. . . After guiding us through the cosmos in his previous books, now Rovelli undertakes a journey that begins and ends with ourselves and the discovery of the greatest mystery: what is time?
Do we exist in time or is it time that exists in us? To find out, we embark on a journey out of time with Carlo Rovelli, who knows how to speak to his readers' minds without ever overlooking their hearts
The physicist transforming how we see the universe
A global superstar. . . Professor Rovelli is making the grammar of the universe accessible to a new generation
The new Hawking. . . His writing is luminous
The most fun physicist to be with -- as well as the greatest explainer of physics