When We Cease to Understand the
World – Benjamin Labatut
Spanish Book translated to English,
Five Chapters on the whole – Started as fact lister detailing facts, anecdotes and happenings entwining each other – one leading
to another – braced with the risk of creating
fatigue of astonishing and
unbelievable facts, book took a spectacular turn towards imaginative literary
flourish. Later part of the book reimagines breath-taking encounters of Great
minds of Twentieth century with Truth or revelation and in this conscious turn
lies the literary value of the book.
Prussian Blue – Starting
as a thread trailing Cyanide s invention and its varied encounters with
Humanity across centuries this chapter rests its weight on Germany during World
wars. A Nation with swelling pride produced many a fierce individuals – this chapter
devotes its time on Haber & Hitler. Haber- Founder of Nitrogen
helped in leapfrogging fertiliser
production thereby saving millions from hunger also designed gas attacks during
World War 1 which killed many soldiers in cruel fashion. Haber
also helped in his endeavour to produce more Fumigants and pesticides to protect
fields and granaries invented Zyklon D,
gas that killed the Jewish prisoners. Haber s guilt surprisingly is not Zyklon
but Nitrogen as he felt guilty of disturbing the equilibrium of nature by
producing Nitrogen in Large Quantities. Hitler - Fighting in trenches during
world war 1 , a Shy man partially affected by gas attacks carried the lost
wounded pride of Germany to write a manual which he would use later in his life
to leapfrog to highest position of the country. Such is the pride that loss in
World war 2 meant he can no longer live – an anecdote in the book tells us
about a planned concert attended by German Elite arranged during final phases
of war- impending enemy troops - to end their lives by popping Cyanide pills
midst chamber music
From the macro narrative of the first
chapter book took a subtle turn towards
individual inquisitiveness s in Schwarzschild
s Singularity – a account of life of Karl Schwarzschild , astronomer,
Physicist and Mathematician – Chapter begins with Schwarzschild serving as lieutenant in German Army sends his first exact
solution of equations of general relativity to Einstein, Chapter goes on to
list the unsatiable genius and inquisitiveness ending with how decades later Scientific
community accepts Schwarzschild s Singularity in general terms called the Black
Hole
Heart of the Heart – Opens
with Latest finding on Living Mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki leads us into
the eccentric and unbelievable life of Mathematician Alexander Grothendieck
– Grothendieck in his initial part of his life as a master of abstraction was
always looking for “Heart of the Heart”, concept located at the centre of Mathematical
Universe. When he turned 40 and afterwards his life took a topsy turvy turns
too real to be imagined – In this Chapter Literary gambit of the book subtly
changes from Individual inquisitiveness to Grand Big Truth or Universal Understanding
of Scheme of Things – Grothendieck s
foray into seclusion , his daily memoirs and his turn to commune Life calls for
Further reading into Many other books about this Mathematical Genius and breath-taking
personality.
“When We Cease to Understand
the world” – Best Chapter of the book – Encounters of the great scientific
minds becomes more personal- Imaginatively retold based on available anecdotes
and Memoirs – In this chapter we leap into a question of can universe be
definitely comprehended understood and modelled – We witness the Classic battle
of Bohr vs Einstein ( Einstein quipped “God does not play Dice with Universe” )
in side-lines of two moving separate encounters of Heisenberg and Schrodinger
with the Universe. Heisenberg in secluded island of North Germany wrote an epiphany which turned out to be first paper
on Quantum mechanics and his challenges to Schrodinger resulted in Further
revelation in Streets of Copenhagen to arrive at his pinnacle work of “ Uncertainty
Principle” – Schrodinger similarly had a revelatory experience in Sanatorium to
complete his Wave Function. Reading these chapters we get a glimpse of Exciting
Unsatiated Energetic lives they lived.
The Night Gardner –
Provides glimpse of how seeds of this book is sown with few anecdotes and
presents itself an open question have we ceased to understand the world ? How
much wonder is left to be ascertained ? How much Uncertain is Our Lives ?
Pushkin Press , Translated by Adrian
Nathan West
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