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Helgoland

Helgoland

  • The Sunday Times bestseller

Brought to you by Penguin.

The Number One bestselling author of The Order of Time is back with a stunning book about the enigma of quantum physics

In June 1925, twenty-three-year-old Werner Heisenberg, suffering from hay fever, retreated to a small, treeless island in the North Sea called Helgoland. It was there that he came up with one of the most transformative scientific concepts: quantum theory.

Almost a century later, quantum physics has given us many startling ideas: ghost waves, distant objects that seem magically connected to each other, cats that are both dead and alive. Countless experiments have led to practical applications that shape our daily lives. Today our understanding of the world around us is based on this theory. And yet it is still profoundly mysterious.

In this enchanting book, Carlo Rovelli, one of our most celebrated scientists, tells the extraordinary story of quantum physics and reveals its deep meaning: a world made of substances is replaced by a world made of relations, each particle responding to another in a never ending game of mirrors.

Shifting our perspective once again, Rovelli takes us on a riveting journey through the universe so we can better understand our place in it.

© Carlo Rovelli 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Reviews

  • With the publication of his million-selling book Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Rovelli took his place with Stephen Hawking and Richard Feynman as one of the great popularisers of modern theoretical physics

    Sam Leith, Spectator

  • Modern physics has found its poet. . . Rovelli is a wonderfully humane, gentle and witty guide for he is as much philosopher and poet as he is a scientist

    John Banville, Irish Times

  • A global superstar. . . Rovelli is making the grammar of the universe accessible to a new generation

    Channel 4 News

  • The most fun physicist to be with -- as well as the greatest explainer of physics

    Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times

  • The man who makes physics sexy. . . the new Hawking. . . His writing is luminous. By the time I had finished reading Seven Brief Lessons on Physics I was in serious awe of the author

    David Aaronovitch, The Times

More from this Author

About the Author

Carlo Rovelli

Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions to the physics of space and time. He has worked in Italy and the US, and is currently directing the quantum gravity research group of the Centre de physique théorique in Marseille, France. His books Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Reality Is Not What It Seems and The Order of Time are international bestsellers which have been translated into forty-one languages.

Carlo Rovelli

Read more

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Extracts

Vladimir Nabokov: novelist, poet… esteemed butterfly scientist?

In this essay from his forthcoming collection, There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness, titled ‘Lolita and the Blue Icarus’, Carlo Rovelli writes about Nabokov’s foray into lepidoptery – and his surprising recognition as “a scientist of real worth”.
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Features

Listen to audiobooks read by Oscar winners and nominees

Oscars season is upon us – did you know that some of the Best Actress and Best Actor nominees narrated Penguin audiobooks? Listen to some familiar faces read aloud from much-loved titles below.
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Features

6 things to know about The Order of Time

We're excited to announce that Benedict Cumberbatch will be reading the audiobook for Carlo Rovelli's new book, The Order of Time. Here we share with you six interesting facts about the collaboration.

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