We Have No Idea

“Even now, our science is mostly just drinking coffee with the occasional flash of insight and rare afternoon of actual progress.”

So pretty much like writing, is one of my takeaways here.

I picked this book up thinking that it was different book we have with a similar title, was quickly corrected on that, and went ahead reading it anyway because it’s absolutely fascinating.

I don’t really follow science news (except to the extent that we are all in 2020 learning a bit about viruses), so just about everything in this book was new to me. I had heard of dark matter at least, and was kinda-sorta up on relativity as long as I don’t try to actually do math, but dark energy? The Higgs field? Galactic superclusters?

At least now I know more about what I don’t know. The authors do a good job of providing an overview of concepts that are, to be fair, pretty damned difficult. I could have done with fewer jokes, and I will probably never be able to remember the names and attributes of all of the subatomic particles, but I have a new delight in contemplating the universe–at least the 5% of it that humanity thinks we understand.

(As you might guess, I’ve been doing some reading during the holiday break! Hopefully I can keep it up.)