You wouldn't think a book about black holes and quantum mechanics would make me laugh. But it has. Regularly.
Take this tidbit, for example:
p. 147 ". . . deep holes in space whose gravitational attraction is irresistible. Wheeler (John Archibald Wheeler) began calling them black holes. At first the name was blackballed by the preeminent American physics journal Physical Review. [...:] the term black hole was deemed obscene!"
I also liked his description of running 15 miles on a freezing day in Manhattan, until there were "icicles of sweat hanging from my long hair," and then being rescued by a fellow physicist in a taxi, who whisks him to Yeshiva University where he endures a debate about toilet paper and Talmudic law in the cafeteria before walking in late to a lecture about Stephen Hawking's latest breakthrough.
I'm also loving Einstein as a role model for novelists. Yup. That man was the master of taking a very simple thought experiment and following it out to the most far-reaching conclusions. And tell me, isn't that what an excellent novel should do? Have a clear premise and then astound and amaze you with how it all plays out?
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Published on
March 04, 2009 13:27
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