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Small things misbehaving leads to the greatest question of all

3 April 2021

9:00 AM

3 April 2021

9:00 AM

Helgoland Carlo Rovelli

Allen Lane, pp.240, 14.99

Helgoland is a craggy German island in the North Sea. Barely bigger than a few fields, it reaches high above the water on precipitous cliffs and is famous for its sweet air. It has a town and a harbour, and the 1,000-odd inhabitants speak a distinct dialect. In the summer of 1925, the 23-year-old physicist Werner Heisenberg went there to sort out his
hay fever and solve the problem of reality.

Helgoland is a slightly misleading title for Carlo Rovelli’s inspiring, chaotic, delightfully unsatisfactory book of popular quantum physics.

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