Physicist and Author Carlo Rovelli Would Like to Explain the Universe to You

It’s a very good thing Carlo Rovelli did not get eaten by a bear in 1976—though even he admits it would have been his own fault. Camping alone in western Canada, he decided to save the money it would have cost him to pitch his tent in a designated area, and picked instead a wilder part of the wilderness. No sooner had he set up camp and prepared to settle in than the grizzly appeared. Fortunately for Rovelli, the bear was more interested in the easy pickings of the food supplies he had left out in the open than it was in human prey. “I packed super rapidly,” he says, “left the food, took my tent and backpack, ran to the campsite, and was happy to pay the $2 it cost to camp there.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] That $2 ensured that Rovelli remained in the world, and—to the gratitude of millions of his modern-day readers and followers—that the world got to keep Rovelli. It turned out to be a good deal all around. The 65-year-old research physicist now directs the quantum-­gravity research group at the Centre de Physique Théorique in Marseilles, France, and is the best-selling author of seven books, including 2014’s Seven Brief Lessons on Physics—which has been translated into more than 40 languages—and the new There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness, coming May 10, a collection of his news­paper columns originally published from 2010 to 2020. Read ...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Books culturepod Exclusive Source Type: news