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• Perhaps time is the greatest remaining mystery
• Part I. The crumbling of time. Loss of unity
• Loss of direction
• The end of the present
• Loss of independence
• Quanta of time
• Part II. The world without time. The world is made of events, not things
• The inadequacy of grammar
• Dynamics as relation
• Part III. The sources of time. Time is ignorance
• Perspective
• What emerges from a particularity
• The scent of the Madeleine
• The source of time
• The sister of sleep.

"Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to "flow"? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike. He tears down our assumptions about time one by one, revealing a strange universe where at the most fundamental level time disappears. He explains how the theory of quantum gravity attempts to understand and give meaning to the resulting extreme landscape of this timeless world. Weaving together ideas from philosophy, science and literature, he suggests that our perception of the flow of time depends on our perspective, better understood starting from the structure of our brain and emotions than from the physical universe. Already a bestseller in Italy, and written with the poetic vitality that made Seven Brief Lessons on Physics so appealing, The Order of Time offers a profoundly intelligent, culturally rich, novel appreciation of the mysteries of time."--Dust jacket.

• Grains ; Is there a limit to divisibility? ; The nature of things
• The classics ; Isaac and the little moon ; Michael: fields and light
• Albert ; The extended present ; The most beautiful of theories ; Mathematics or physics? ; The cosmos
• Quanta ; Albert again ; Niels, Werner, and Paul ; Fields and particles are the same thing ; Quanta
• 1: Information is finite ; Quanta
• 2: Indeterminacy ; Quanta
• 3: Reality is relation ; But do we really understand?
• Spacetime is quantum ; Matvei ; John ; The loop's first steps
• Quanta of space ; Spectra of volume and area ; Atoms of space ; Spin networks
• Time does not exist ; Time is not what we think it is ; The candle chandelier and the pulse ; Spacetime sushi spinfoam ; What is the world made of?
• Beyond the big bang ; The master ; Quantum cosmology
• Empirical confirmations? ; Signals from nature ; A window onto quantum gravity
• Quantum black holes
• The end of infinity
• Information ; Thermal time ; Reality and information
• Mystery.

Traces how the human image of the world has changed throughout history, demonstrating the evolution of the idea of reality while touching on subjects ranging from the Higgs boson to quantum gravity.
"A closer look at the mind-bending nature of the universe. What are the elementary ingredients of the world? Do time and space exist? And what exactly is reality? Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli has spent his life exploring these questions. He tells us how our understanding of reality has changed over the centuries and how physicists think about the structure of the universe today. In elegant and accessible prose, Rovelli takes us on a wondrous journey from Democritus to Albert Einstein, from Michael Faraday to gravitational waves, and from classical physics to his own work in quantum gravity. As he shows us how the idea of reality has evolved over time, Rovelli offers deeper explanations of the theories he introduced so concisely in Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. This book culminates in a lucid overview of quantum gravity, the field of research that explores the quantum nature of space and time, seeking to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity. Rovelli invites us to imagine a marvelous world where space breaks up into tiny grains, time disappears at the smallest scales, and black holes are waiting to explode--a vast universe still largely undiscovered"--Jacket.

• Preface
• Introduction: Walking along the shore
• Grains
• The classics
• Albert
• Quanta
• Spacetime is quantum
• Quanta of space
• Time does not exist
• Beyond the big bang
• Empirical confirmations?
• Quantum black holes
• The end of infinity
• Information
• Mystery.

"What are the elementary ingredients of the world? Do time and space exist? And what exactly is reality? [The author] has spent his life exploring these questions. He tells us how our understanding of reality has changed over the centuries and how physicists think about the structure of the universe today. In elegant and accessible prose, [the author] takes us on a wondrous journey from Democritus to Albert Einstein, from Michael Faraday to gravitational waves, and from classical physics to his own work in quantum gravity. As he shows us how the idea of reality has evolved over time, Rovelli offers deeper explanations of the theories he introduced so concisely in Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. This book culminates in a lucid overview of quantum gravity, the field of research that explores the quantum nature of space and time, seeking to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity. [The author] invites us to imagine a marvelous world where space breaks up into tiny grains, time disappears at the smallest scales, and black holes are waiting to explode--a vast universe still largely undiscovered."-- Dust jacket.

Carlo Rovelli, a leading theoretical physicist, uses the figure of Anaximander as the starting point for an examination of scientific thinking itself: its limits, its strengths, its benefits to humankind, and its controversial relationship with religion. Anaximander, the sixth-century BC Greek philosopher, is often called the first scientist because he was the first to explain that order in the world was due to natural forces, not supernatural ones. He is the first person known to rnunderstand that the Earth floats in space; to believe that the sun, the moon, and the stars rotate around it--seven centuries before Ptolemy; to argue that all animals came from the sea and evolved; and to posit that universal laws rncontrol all change in the world. Anaximander taught Pythagoras, who would build on Anaximander's scientific theories by applying mathematical laws to natural phenomena. rnrnIn the award-winning Anaximander and the Birth of Scientific Thought, Rovelli restores Anaximander to his place in the history of science by carefully reconstructing his theories from what is known to us and examining them in rntheir historical and philosophical contexts. Rovelli demonstrates that Anaximander's discoveries and theories were decisive influences, putting Western culture on its path toward a scientific revolution. Developing this connection, rnRovelli redefines science as a continuous redrawing of our conceptual image of the world. He concludes that scientific thinking--the legacy of Anaximander--is only reliable when it constantly tests the limits of our current rnknowledge.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface-- Acknowledgements-- Terminology and notation-- Part I. Relativistic Foundations:
• 1. General ideas and heuristic picture--
• 2. General relativity--
• 3. Mechanics--
• 4. Hamiltonian general relativity--
• 5. Quantum mechanics-- Part II. Loop Quantum Gravity:
• 6. Quantum space--
• 7. Dynamics and matter--
• 8. Applications--
• 9. Quantum spacetime: spinfoams--
• 10. Conclusion-- Part III. Appendices: References-- Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Quantum gravity is perhaps the most important open problem in fundamental physics. It is the problem of merging quantum mechanics and general relativity, the two great conceptual revolutions in the physics of the twentieth century. The loop and spinfoam approach, presented in this 2004 book, is one of the leading research programs in the field. The first part of the book discusses the reformulation of the basis of classical and quantum Hamiltonian physics required by general relativity. The second part covers the basic technical research directions. Appendices include a detailed history of the subject of quantum gravity, hard-to-find mathematical material, and a discussion of some philosophical issues raised by the subject. This fascinating text is ideal for graduate students entering the field, as well as researchers already working in quantum gravity. It will also appeal to philosophers and other scholars interested in the nature of space and time.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The most beautiful physical theory; Astrophysical black holes; Observations of General Relativity at strong and weak limits; General Relativity and dragging of inertial frames; GNSS and other applications of General Relativity; The strange world of quantum spacetime; Index; List of contributors.

Generalising Newton's law of gravitation, general relativity is one of the pillars of modern physics. On the occasion of general relativity's centennial, leading scientists in the different branches of gravitational research review the history and recent advances in the main fields of applications of the theory, which was referred to by Lev Landau as "the most beautiful of the existing physical theories".
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
Generalising Newton's law of gravitation, general relativity is one of the pillars of modern physics. While applications in the beginning were restricted to isolated effects such as a proper understanding of Mercury's orbit, the second half of the twentieth century saw a massive development of applications. These include cosmology, gravitational waves, and even very practical results for satellite based positioning systems as well as different approaches to unite general relativity with another very successful branch of physics - quantum theory. On the occassion of general relativity's centennial, leading scientists in the different branches of gravitational research review the history and recent advances in the main fields of applications of the theory, which was referred to by Lev Landau as "the most beautiful of the existing physical theories". Contributions from: Andy C. Fabian, AnthonyL. Lasenby, Astrophysical black Holes Neil Ashby, GNSS and other applications of General Relativity Gene Byrd, Arthur Chernin, Pekka Teerikorpi, Mauri Vaaltonen, Observations of general Relativity at strong and weaks limits Ignazio Ciufolini, General Relativity and dragging of inertial frames Carlo Rovelli, The strange world of quantum spacetime.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Generalising Newton's law of gravitation, general relativity is one of the pillars of modern physics. On the occasion of general relativity's centennial, leading scientists in the different branches of gravitational research review the history and recent advances in the main fields of applications of the theory, which was referred to by Lev Landau as "the most beautiful of the existing physical theories".
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
Generalising Newton's law of gravitation, general relativity is one of the pillars of modern physics. While applications in the beginning were restricted to isolated effects such as a proper understanding of Mercury's orbit, the second half of the twentieth century saw a massive development of applications. These include cosmology, gravitational waves, and even very practical results for satellite based positioning systems as well as different approaches to unite general relativity with another very successful branch of physics - quantum theory. On the occassion of general relativity's centennial, leading scientists in the different branches of gravitational research review the history and recent advances in the main fields of applications of the theory, which was referred to by Lev Landau as "the most beautiful of the existing physical theories". Contributions from: Andy C. Fabian, AnthonyL. Lasenby, Astrophysical black Holes Neil Ashby, GNSS and other applications of General Relativity Gene Byrd, Arthur Chernin, Pekka Teerikorpi, Mauri Vaaltonen, Observations of general Relativity at strong and weaks limits Ignazio Ciufolini, General Relativity and dragging of inertial frames Carlo Rovelli, The strange world of quantum spacetime.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)