At least, science in its current state.” Some fashionable beliefs are “more appealing the less you understand physics,” but Hossenfelder avoids low-hanging fruit (Deepak Chopra and Elon Musk make fleeting appearances), preferring to interview and often argue with fellow physicists, including Nobel laureates. Natural laws contradict others, and still others are “ascientific”-i.e., neither true nor false but unprovable: “Science has nothing to say about it. Unlike many other science writers, Hossenfelder is less interested in denouncing pseudoscience than revealing that many spiritual ideas are compatible with modern physics. Religious leaders ask the same questions, as do philosophers, gurus, mystics, alternative healers, and outright quacks. More than other scientific fields, notes the author, physics asks profound questions about the meaning of everything, including life and death, the origin of the universe, and the nature of reality. In her second book, she turns her gimlet eye on popular beliefs. In her 2018 book, Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray, Hossenfelder, research fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, excoriated her colleagues for falling in love with theories that bear little relation to reality. A German physicist digs into a host of existential quandaries.
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