Carlo Rovelli - Helgoland (Allan Lane, 2021) ****

Over the years, I've become a great fan of Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli, whose books on physics are always a joy to read. Rovelli is a great writer too, because he understands the lack of knowledge of his readers, and because he knows the stories behind the great discoveries and debates in physics. "Helgoland" is the name of the tree-less island where Werner Heisenberg retreated at the age of 23 to stop suffering from hay fever, and where he came up with the concept of quantum physics. And through the history of physics, and the relevant moments in the lives of its scientists, Rovelli adds questions of a more fundamental philosophical nature. If all these theories are correct, what does this mean for us? If all matter can be divided and divided and divided until nothing is left but relationships, where does that leave us?  If everything is relative, also to the subjective 'I' that does all the measurement, where does that leave consciousness? 

Despite all the advances made, our reality remains a big mystery. And to Rovelli, that by itself appears to be a joy. 

Carlo Rovelli - Anaximander (Westholm, 2007) ****

 In the list of thinkers who shaped our world of today, Anaximander should be high in the rankings. According to physicist Carlo Rovelli for the simple reason that he put forth the statement that all things have a reason in nature. He described how clouds are formed from heating up water and how clouds that cool down start raining, replenishing the rivers and oceans that can evaporate again. Before Anaximander, all natural events were the result of the interference of gods: Poseidon, Zeus, Athena, ...

Even more, by tracking the trajectories of stars across the sky, he came to the astonishing conclusion that the earth is not "down here" and the stars "up there", but that the earth is floating in space, and that all planets and stars are revolving around us. This explained why the sun and the moon disappear only to re-appear again on the other side with such fixed regularity. 

Of course we know little about Anaximander himself - his pupil Thales of Miletus is probably better known - but Rovelli uses his revolutionary approach to describe the value and the history of scientific thought up until today. Especially today, religious bigotry, conspiracy theories and intentional obfuscation of the facts for political gain requires a good understanding of science. Today, scientific thought has never been so widespread, but technology also allows the dumbest superstitions to get traction across the world. 

His conclusions are worth repeating.