A Sense of the Mysterious

November 29, 2004
Not unlike its author, this collection is difficult to categorize. Lightman, a physicist and author of four acclaimed novels (The Diagnosis
was a National Book Award finalist) as well as several books on science, offers essays (some recent, some dating back as far as 1984) that are neither scientifically substantial nor intellectually lightweight, all touching in one sense or another on the human dimensions of science—the passion it inspires, the use of mathematical abstraction in granting us the ability to grasp the material world, the wonder of Einstein's "sense of otherness... even alienation." He seems to be thinking out loud. The pieces oddly mix personal observation with narrative biography and evolve out of jazzlike riffs on a given topic. Whether the topic is the life of a prominent scientist (like Albert Einstein, Edward Teller or Richard Feynman) or the role of metaphor in science, each essay circles around its subject. The book's value lies in Lightman's perspective rather than in his handling of concrete information; musing on the difficulties of reaching the age of 35 (in a profession where one is then past one's prime) are far more intriguing and far more revealing than when attempting to draw something new out of the oft-told biographies of Nobel Prize winners like Einstein or Feynman. Agent, Jane Gelfman.

September 15, 2004
Scientist/novelist Lightman lights up our lives with a collection of essays.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2004
Science infuses physicist Lightman's distinctive novels, from " Einstein's Dreams" (1993) to " Reunion" (2003), just as art informs this collection of consummate essays on the nature of scientific creativity. As cogent as he is candid, Lightman describes himself as a boy who wrote poems and conducted experiments, then explicates the elegant theoretical work he performed as a young physicist. Switching from autobiography to biography, he offers succinct yet insightful and compelling profiles of Einstein, Teller, Feynman, and Vera Rubin, who discovered dark matter. But most gratifyingly, Lightman reflects on the crucial role beauty plays in scientific thought. A builder of bridges between art and science, theory and application, science and life, Lightman considers the pervasive use of metaphor in scientific writings, illuminates the astonishing correlation between pure mathematics and the physical world, and critiques our enthrallment to technology. It is a testament to Lightman's clear thinking and exceptional literary skills that, like the atom itself, his concise and well-designed essays contain so much matter, energy, and motion, and give off such inspiriting radiance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)