
This is how to write pop-sci: Select a theme, a Big Idea, but let it flow naturally from the subject. Dumb it down, but not enough to give the reader a false sense of understanding. Keep your anecdotes few and relevant. After too many
Wisdom of Crowds-type books that violate all of the above, it is refreshing to find
Fearful Symmetry - The Search for Beauty in Modern Physics by Anthony Zee. Zee aims to present not the details but the
flavor of 20th century physics. His two central concepts,
symmetry and
group theory, are both simpler and more difficult than the formula-oriented physics most of us
remember from school, allowing a randomly educated amateur like me to enjoy the book without giving me the idea that I know the first thing about physics. Which is how it should be. Written in 1986,
Fearful Symmetry says almost nothing about string theory, and that's not really a weakness. One step at a time. In line with the Blake reference, Zee refers liberally to
Him (the ultimate creator) and
Her (mother nature) throughout the book, which is an unintrusive figure of speech, but it also reflects a deism that evades the question of why there are such beautiful patterns in physics in the first place. When all your explanations for a Mystery are bad ones, ("somebody just made it that way"), it may be best not to explain it at all.
Labels: Books, Popular Science
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