Going beyond that horizon towards a new understanding of space, time and black holes is the principal goal of physicist Carlo Rovelli's wonderful new book ... White Holes, like Rovelli's other works, is remarkably short — less than 200 pages. But the clarity of his explanations is unparalleled. As a scientist who is also a popularizer, I often find myself marveling at the acuity of his passages. More than just an ability to explain cutting edge ideas in physics, Rovelli's erudition and sensitivity lets him make contact with the broadest human yearnings for making sense of the world ... taking the journey with Rovelli is more than worth the price of the book. Dante gave us his tour of the underworld. We could not do better than having Rovelli as a guide into the dark world of black holes.
Rovelli is an accomplished theoretical physicist, prolific author and lyrical science communicator. White Holes is a small book – Rovelli’s briefest yet – and smashes through a lot of material at breakneck speed, pretty much the entire content of A Brief History of Time in a couple of short chapters by way of overview and introduction. Reading it is more akin to the final psychedelic sequence in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey: you’re not sure where you’re heading but it feels bloody exciting. In fewer pages than it would take some authors to describe how they would prepare an omelette, Rovelli drags you into the heart of a black hole and then – somehow – out the other side. What he suggests is that, as the star forming a black hole continues to collapse, it eventually becomes so compact and tiny that the laws of general relativity have to give way to the laws of quantum mechanics ... this is a book for the layperson and Rovelli understands this limitation, glossing over finer detail in pursuit of an impression of the wonder that lies at the heart of the cosmos and his theorising. And in his hands it’s an effective technique ... One of the things I most loved about White Holes was the glimpse Rovelli gives you into the mind of a physicist working at the edges of the known universe, and the fundamental insecurity of creating groundbreaking theories and then putting them out there like clay pigeons launched from a trap ... if you’re a final year undergraduate looking for revision notes to accompany your module in high energy astrophysics, this volume may disappoint. But if you want to remember why you once fell in love with the idea of the cosmos, or want to fall in love with that idea for the first time, then this book is for you. For my part, I found myself following Rovelli into a weird and wonderful new universe and I was very content to be there.
Through history we have had great guides to understanding science from Anaximander, to Einstein and Bohr – moving through Aristotle, Galileo, Newton and Darwin on the way. It is like the conversations between Dante and his guides through the Divine Comedy – a work he infuses with new magic. Now we are moving beyond Einstein’s equations on cosmology and physics into a new unknown. We must be certain about uncertainty and explore the new. I would give this book to anyone, young and old, interested in thinking, science and literature. His reflections on how Shakespeare and Dante considered first and last things are a joy. His book is a work of literature itself.
There is a confidence to Rovelli’s writing. Like Virgil, he is our guide to the unknown. He takes us through literary allusion, scientific history and personal anecdote...His skill is his way of persuading you as a reader that these ideas, ideas that really work only in the language of mathematics, are just within your grasp. And yet — this is no reflection on him as an author — you reach for them and, like a dandelion seed held aloft on a summer breeze, they flit playfully out of your grasp, always just beyond reach ... it is always worth reading Rovelli. He writes as though he believes you are as learned and clever as he is. Yet he also writes with such care for your ignorance that it feels as if every page is urging and coaxing you — a non-physicist — to see what he can see. So I do not feel cheated that I have just read a book whose central theory might well be incorrect. Nor do I feel cheated that, if I’m honest, I don’t completely understand what that theory is. Theoretical physics has long since ceased to be accessible to those who read about it in words.
It doesn’t take a degree in astrophysics or expertise on Albert Einstein to appreciate White Holes...But brushing up on Dante Alighieri’s work might help. Rovelli liberally sprinkles quotes from Dante throughout his slim book exploring the hypothesis that black holes eventually transform into an inverse white hole. It’s fitting for a book that says as much about imagination and exploration as it does about physics. Oftentimes, Rovelli’s book feels more like poetry than a science lesson as he explains black holes in striking detail and the theoretical concepts behind white holes ... The book won’t turn lay readers into an expert on white holes or theoretical physics. But Rovelli helps readers grasp how important imagination is to seeing the universe in new ways is, for both artists and scientists.
Rovelli writes for non-physicists, so that anyone interested in cosmology, whether they have a science background or not, will appreciate his clear, straightforward style. Scientists now understand that 95 percent of the universe is 'missing,' leading to questions surrounding dark matter and dark energy. Are white holes part of the answer?
Rovelli does a solid job of making the underlying science accessible, even if some of the finer points may go over general readers’ heads, such as his explanation of why 'you can only enter a black hole, and you can only exit a white hole.' Still, those with a background in physics will be sucked in.
Rovelli works hard, sometimes successfully, to explain matters, but he is dealing with phenomena so complex that he often gives readers permission to skip ahead. Heavy-duty popular science not for the faint of heart.
