NOTE: I am storing this here because I don't yet own a copy of the book being reviewed (and because I think some people who've read Schoedinger's Kittens might like to see this)! Here is a translation of Marghe48's (Italian) review of Carlo Rovelli, 'Helgoland:' Psychedelic is an adjective that is encountered more than once in this text and is actually absorbed by a whirlwind and all-encompassing experience that projects us out of ourselves. It's not exactly easy to read but, ultimately, this isn't a problem. Rovelli has the gift of a writing tinged with humor, as is usually found in good, or excellent, Anglo-Saxon communicators and with a lot of grace accompanies the reader along a dizzying path without ever making him feel inadequate even if something, and even more than something, escapes his understanding. It also invites you to skip some parts if you are afraid of finding yourself in too adventurous paths and getting lost in excessively subtle ruminations. In short, he is nice and not snooty. This keeps you nailed to the text even if the understanding is not total (this is my case). I followed the explanation of physical phenomena without excessive difficulty, while the discourse on the integration between the physical world and the mental world was more difficult for me (p. 173: "there is continuity between the world of meanings of our mental life and the world physical. The one and the other are relationships "). However, what particularly gratified me is not so much the exhumation of very distant and approximate high school notions, buried in the maze of memory, as the possibility of reflecting on the fallout, or rather on interaction, of the discoveries of quantum physics on contemporary culture. For me, who come from a humanistic background, a whole series of discussions and cultural issues unfold in front of my eyes that focus precisely on the reality / interpretation opposition and interconnection (eg: structuralism, deconstructionism, postmodernism). The entire cultural background of the twentieth century - philosophical, literary, anthropological, artistic - is coherently framed against the unavoidable background of the discoveries of quantum physics (p. 127: "And to think that today someone sees natural sciences, human sciences and literature as impervious areas. 'one to the other ... ”). Really exciting for a humanist, who can finally feel not a useless appendage, almost a parasite in a world dominated by science and technology, but an integral part of a way of seeing and interpreting the world that concerns us all. (4 stars).

I don't like nonfiction as a general rule, but this was a fascinating read. ( )

Contains useful descriptions of quantum events and phenomena, such as the nature of light, but it's more concerned with profiling scientists than exploring their ideas, unfortunately. ( )

Miro's review is on this page:

http://www1.dragonet.es/users/markbcki/gribbin.htm ( )