Fear of Physics: A Guide for the Perplexed Book

"To be scientifically illiterate is to remain essentially uncultured. And the chief virtue of a cultural activity--be it art, music, literature, or science--is the way it enriches our lives."
― Lawrence M. Krauss, Fear of Physics: A Guide for the Perplexed



One of my great loves is reading about physics and science. Richard Feynman, Niels Bohr, Newton, Einstein, etc., are my lower-case "g" gods. While my math and science background is just enough to get me in trouble, it is also enough to keep me coming back.

A couple years ago I decided that I would drop my subscription to 'The Economist' for a year and instead subscribe to 'Science'. Every week I would read. It was like launching myself into an intellectual sphere that got more and more dense toward the center. I would jam easily with THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE and even IN BRIEF, but once I hit RESEARCH ARTICLES and the REPORTS I was usually forced to just dance around the abstract. But I loved it. It was like New York Times crossword puzzles. I found the more often I could finish a Wednesday the more answers I could find without help to the Thursday puzzles.

That, I believe is the essence of what Krauss is trying to communicate in this book. Life is a joy. The search for answers is a thrill. Knowing how science works and where science IS deepens our understanding of our brief moment on this round rock in space. I love literature, but often GOOD literature tries to translate truths found in science. Just look at how closely Cormac McCarthy and Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo follow the discoveries of science. Knowledge is constantly bleeding between science, philosophy, and art. There is a nobility and a beauty to the search, the discovery, and understanding. If we aren't curious and aren't engaged, we might as well be dead or slaves.