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Cosmological Koans
Cosmological Koans
Nov 11, 2024 10:07 AM

Author:Anthony Aguirre

Cosmological Koans

'A gem of a book' Carlo Rovelli, author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

'A unique and beautifully written masterpiece' Max Tegmark, author of Life 3.0

Could there be a civilization on a mote of dust? How much of your fate have you made? Who cleans the universe?

Through more than fifty Koans - pleasingly paradoxical vignettes following the ancient Zen tradition - leading physicist Anthony Aguirre takes us across the world from Japan to Italy, and through ideas spanning the age, breadth and depth of the Universe. Using these beguiling stories and a flair for explaining complex science, he covers cosmic questions that giants from Aristotle to Galileo to Heisenberg have grappled with - from the nature of time to the origin of multiple universes to the meaning of quantum theory.

Playful and enlightening, Cosmological Koans invites the reader into an intellectual adventure of the highest order, giving us what Einstein called 'the most beautiful and deepest experience' anyone can have - a sense of the mysterious.

Reviews

This unique and beautifully written masterpiece transforms the deepest mysteries of our universe into a captivating and accessible quest for personal enlightenment

—— Max Tegmark, author of Life 3.0

A gem of a book

—— Carlo Rovelli, author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

A delight for readers raised on Gödel, Escher, Bach and The Dancing Wu Li Masters

—— Kirkus

This is calisthenics for the mind - it will stretch your imagination almost to the breaking point, and your understanding of reality will come away more healthy and flexible than before

—— Sean Carroll, author of The Big Picture

A truly creative exploration of physics and its profound insights into the Universe

—— Adam Frank, author of Light of the Stars

The paradoxes of Zen Buddhism could help us grasp fundamental physics. . . What Aguirre does remarkably well is to find a way of threading many of the most interesting questions in theoretical physics onto a single narrative chain. . . At its heart the book offers a compelling answer to the question of how to talk about the un-talk-about-able

—— Gilead Amit , The New Scientist

One of those rare books that can truly change the way you see the world around you . . . revelatory . . . astounding . . . and brimming with infectious joy

—— HELEN MACDONALD, author of H is for Hawk

A true masterpiece, a thrilling and fascinating insight into the living world . . . I hope and trust that it will become an instant classic

—— GEORGE MONBIOT

Blew my mind . . . Essential reading. Go and get swept up in a new world

—— ANDREA WULF, author of The Invention of Nature

Astonishing . . . it's impossible to finish this book without feeling awestruck

—— ANDREW MOTION, TLS Books of the Year

Delightful to read but also grand and dizzying in how thoroughly it recalibrates our understanding of the natural world

—— ED YONG, author of An Immense World

Sentence after sentence stopped me short. I ended it wonderstruck at the fungal world - the secrets of which modern science is only now beginning to fathom - and the earth-shaking, hierarchy-breaking implications of Sheldrake's argument. A remarkable work by a remarkable writer

—— ROBERT MACFARLANE, author of Underland

A revelation . . . Changes the way we need to look at life, the planet and ourselves

—— ISABELLA TREE, author of Wilding

Wonderfully written . . . surprising . . . The best science writing invites people to view the world around them in a new way, and Entangled Life is a perfect example

—— BRIAN COX

This is a book that, by virtue of the power of its writing, shifts your sense of the human . . . It will inspire a generation

—— MICHAEL POLLAN (Bay Area Book Festival, 2020)

I have been working on and reading and writing about fungi for a decade. And yet, nearly every page of this book contained either an observation so interesting or a turn of phrase so lovely that I was moved to slow down, stop, and reread . . . This book rocked me into remembering that nature, especially fungal nature, is big and encompassing and creative and destructive. It reminded me that fungi are, like the Universe, sublime

—— Rob Dunn , Science

A magical journey deep into the roots of Nature by an expert storyteller . . . a must-read for citizen scientists hoping to make a positive difference on this sacred planet we share

—— PAUL STAMETS, author of Mycelium Running

Reading this book, I felt surrounded by a web of wonder. The natural world is more fantastic than any fantasy, so long as you have the means to perceive it. This book provides the means

—— JARON LANIER, author of Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

You may never look at fungi in the same way . . . an eye-opening exploration of this mysterious taxonomic kingdom . . . a journey into an untapped world. It is both a wonderful collection of fungal feats . . and a personal account of Sheldrake's experiences with these miraculous organisms

—— New Scientist

Brilliant . . . entrancing . . . when we look closely [at fungi], we meet large, unsettling questions . . . Merlin Sheldrake . . . carries us easily into these questions with ebullience and precision . . . challenging some of our deepest assumptions

—— Guardian

A joy . . . a captivating trip into the weird and wonderful mycorrhizal world around us - and inside us . . . full of startling revelations

—— Daily Mail

The oddest and most uplifting book . . . It is, to say the least, rare to find such a vast area of life on Earth - fungi - about which one knows almost nothing, and which gives promise of being so important to human life during our next century

—— ANDREW MARR , New Statesman Books of the Year

If you had told me a book about fungi would be both enthralling and completely mind-blowing, I wouldn't have believed you. And yet. Dazzlingly good

—— INDIA KNIGHT, Sunday Times

A triumph and a thing of vast beauty

—— TOM HODGKINSON, The Idler

Fungi are everywhere, and Merlin Sheldrake is an ideal guide to their mysteries. He's passionate, deeply knowledgeable and a wonderful writer

—— ELIZABETH KOLBERT, author of Under A White Sky

Deeply engaging and constantly surprising . . . the magic of mushrooms is not merely mind-expanding . . . it might expand the very concept of mind

—— PHILIP BALL , Prospect

As hard to put down as a thrilling detective novel, and one of the best works of popular science writing that I have enjoyed in years

—— DENNIS MCKENNA, author (with Terence McKenna) of Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower’s Guide

It is impossible to put this book down. Entangled Life provides a window into the mind-boggling biology and fascinating cultures surrounding fungal life, as well as fungi’s innumerable uses in materials, medicine and ecology. Sheldrake asks us to consider a life-form that is radically alien to ours, yet vibrant and lively underfoot

—— HANS ULRICH OBRIST

This is not just for mushroom-heads - it is science at its most uplifting

—— JEANETTE WINTERSON , The Times

Playful, strange, intensely philosophical ... Until very recently, human knowledge of this most mysterious lifeform, neither plant nor animal, has been extremely limited. This is astounding, given ... their seismic impact on life on earth ... [Sheldrake's] central vision of the interconnectedness of all life-forms feels shiveringly prescient'

—— Telegraph

Superbly written. Beautifully written and utterly heartbreaking. Courageous, inspired, bleakly comic, extreme candour

—— Guardian

Searing

—— Daily Mail

Hodge's beautiful memoir is both a devastating, grief-fuelled account of her sister's death and a redemptive tale of an emotional reckoning

—— i

It's a vivid and oddly entertaining memoir, a hand plunged into the dark hole of grief . . . uncovers surprising treasures - most importantly, strength, resilience and love

—— Mail on Sunday

Searing. A masterful writer with a gift for storytelling. Her prose is rich with detail, combining a sharp sense of place with escalating drama. A triumph

—— i

The most moving, most exquisitely written book about addiction, grief, loss and coming to terms with trauma even decades on. One that you will be thinking about, and remember long after finishing

—— Sophia Money-Coutts , Quintessentially

One of the most beautiful memoirs I've ever read. This story will say with you long after you put the book down

—— Emma Gannon

I just turned the last page (reluctantly!). A bold, often brutal exploration of memory, grief and love. Full of hope and heart. I can't recommend it enough

—— Terri White, author of Coming Undone

A brave, brilliant book that is both beautiful and important. Read it then buy it for all your friends

—— Hello!

Gavanndra's memoir The Consequences of Love is absolutely beautiful. It's compelling, heartbreaking, sweet, honest, fascination. I recommend it HIGHLY. I absolutely LOVED it.

—— Marian Keyes

This stunning exploration of grief is so well written and profoundly moving

—— Good Housekeeping

An elegant study of grief and memory

—— Guardian

Hodge pours heartbreak and love into the pages of a book that never pretends to know the answers, and is all the better for it

—— Sunday Times

An eye-opening snapshot of the fashion world in '90s London

—— Vogue UK

The most important story, perfectly told

—— Amy Liptrot

Memorable, urgent, eloquent ... Rebanks speaks with blunt, unmatched authority. He is also a fine writer with descriptive power and a gift for characterisation ... English Pastoral may be the most passionate ecological corrective since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

—— Caroline Fraser , New York Review of Books
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