There’s much here that is charming and comfortable: an eminent man sharing tales of a bygone era ... The reader, who might, in all honesty, be touched now and again by boredom, sits up straighter once the threads begin to braid.
Some of Mr. Parisi’s essays here arose from articles or public lectures, others from interviews, making the collection more like a series of snapshots than a continuous narrative. While the scientific explanations are admirably lucid, the tone is somewhat dry and the human side of research gets less attention than one might hope for.
Most importantly, the deceptively slim volume serves as a forceful argument for the value of scientific literacy at a time when it’s increasingly being challenged by misinformation ... A step toward making physics feel more accessible and less like magic.
