This month seems to be full of celebrity, whether as subjects of our latest science books or as their authors. There are new books from physicist Carlo Rovelli, doctor and presenter Xand van Tulleken, broadcaster Jim Al-Khalili and leading scholar of our relationship with tech, Sherry Turkle, as well as a biography of Stephen Hawking. As ever, we range far and wide, from great biographies to the world’s darker, problematic corners.
Carlo Rovelli’s latest offering, On the Equality of All Things, certainly looks like a broad-ranging virtuoso. New Scientist reporter Karmela Padavic-Callaghan has already gone the distance with the book, and their review will be published soon. They write that physics, as the science that describes all the ingredients of our physical reality and how they interact with each other, has a strong claim on how we understand our surroundings – but what about its grasp on meaning-making more broadly?
Rovelli apparently tackles this question to great effect, arguing that with the advent of quantum physics, science underwent a revolution, but philosophers haven’t fully caught up, and he aims to offer them – and the rest of us – a crash course. Padavic-Callaghan finds his final lesson inspiring: “We face the world not as an ‘I’ faced with a ‘this’ but as a ‘me’ faced with a ‘you’. And we are home.” Rovelli is saying that seeing ourselves as abstract consciousnesses disconnected from the world and looking for truths beyond how the world touches us is a fool’s errand.
Beautifully researched, clear-eyed and very funny,” said mathematician Hannah Fry of Make Me Well: A quest to understand the confusing world of wellness. Xand van Tulleken (one of identical twin brothers, both doctors, and both writers) sets out to take a hard look at a sector already worth billions – and largely unregulated. He digs into everything from the supposed benefits of vitamin D supplements and turmeric tablets to wearable health technology, blood tests and so-called anti-ageing pills.
And he finds that the claims made for the above by influencers, tech companies, podcasters and their ilk mostly don’t stand up to hard science. This may be unsurprising to regular readers, but it can’t be documented too many times as we face an extraordinary surge in innovation, transforming drug design, genomics and diagnostics that yields ever more complexity and confusion. So how do we stay healthy, facing such an onslaught – and naked corporate greed?
Quite likely, we could do worse than start here… What a challenge: write the first major biography of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, a man who faced enormous physical challenges just to stay alive beyond his twenties, who lived on to defy the odds and contribute pioneering science – some of which has only quite recently been worked through. Factor in both the Hawking estate (which supported the work) and the whole scientific world (especially many of the stars also interviewed by the biographer) all watching closely to see the result. But it would be surprising if veteran science writer Graham Farmelo dropped the ball in Hawking: His life and work.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
