The Poet Physicist Whose Work I Never Stop Returning To
The magical ideas and evocative prose of Carlo Rovelli
I was never interested in physics until my mid-twenties. It all started with Cosmos, the Carl Sagan series updated for modern audiences and hosted by Neil Degrasse Tyson. From there, David and I inhaled every science and physics documentary we could find. My favourites, and the ones I return to most often, are those hosted by Brian Cox, including Wonders of the Solar System, Wonders of Life, Human Universe, Forces of Nature, The Planets and Brian Cox’s Adventures in Space and Time.
The more I learned about physics and our universe, the more I felt like I began to understand, as a lifelong atheist, what religious people get out of their religion. The sense of wonder and comfort was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before and it eventually brought me to my current ethos, which is probably something between a curious agnostic and a cheerful nihilist with a smidgen of Buddhist/Sikh beliefs tossed in for good measure.
It was through this mode of discovery that I stumbled upon the magic of Carlo Rovelli.
Where Science Meets the Ineffable
I first discovered Carlo Rovelli in a little bookshop in King’s Cross on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I was immediately drawn to its premise (as a lover of both poetry AND physics) and once I brought it home, I inhaled it pretty quickly.
Rovelli is an Italian physicist specialising in quantum gravity research. He is also a beautiful, evocative writer (and anecdotally cute as a button.)
He has an uncanny knack for seamlessly blending the most concrete scientific concepts with the most achingly beautiful mysterious magic moments of life – and helping you understand that both are able to exist at once. In fact, as he explains, they’re inextricable from one another.
This past weekend, some beautiful friends and I went away to spend some time in nature, and at some point I wound up reading them parts of my favourite of his books, The Order of Time by the fire. They loved it so much that it reminded me of why I love it so much. And so I thought this week I would share some of my favourite passages from it, and some of his other work, with you all. Since my first reading, it has never left my thoughts. I think of it often and re-read passages from it at least once a year.
Rovelli’s work never fails to provide a sense of comfort and awe in me and I hope it does the same for you.
On a Sense of Self
“I am my mother’s caresses, and the serene kindness with which my father calmly guided me; I am my adolescent travels; I am what my reading has deposited in layers in my mind; I am my loves, my moments of despair, my friendships, what I’ve written, what I’ve heard; the faces engraved on my memory. I am, above all, the one who a minute ago made a cup of tea for himself. The one who a moment ago typed the word “memory” into his computer. The one who just composed the sentence that I am now completing. If all this disappeared, would I still exist? I am this long, ongoing novel.
My life consists of it.”
― Carlo Rovelli, The Order of Time
On Our Place in the Universe
“We are made of the same stardust of which all things are made, and when we are immersed in suffering or when we are experiencing intense joy we are being nothing other than what we can’t help but be: a part of our world.”
― Carlo Rovelli, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
On Death
“I do not fear death. I fear suffering. And I fear old age, though less so now that I am witnessing the tranquil and pleasant old age of my father. I am afraid of frailty, and of the absence of love. But death does not alarm me. It did not scare me when I was young, and I thought at the time that this was because it was such a remote prospect. But now, at sixty, the fear has yet to arrive. I love life, but life is also struggle, suffering, pain. I think of death as akin to a well-earned rest.”
― Carlo Rovelli, The Order of Time
On the Relationship Between Science and Art
“To hear a cultivated person of today joking almost boastfully that they are completely ignorant about science is as depressing as hearing a scientist bragging that they have never read a poem. Poetry and science are both manifestations of the spirit that creates new ways of thinking the world, in order to understand it better. Great science and great poetry are both visionary, and sometimes may arrive at the same insights. The culture of today that keeps science and poetry so far apart is essentially foolish, to my way of thinking, because it makes us less able to see the complexity and the beauty of the world as revealed by both.”
― Carlo Rovelli, There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness
On Learning How to Think
“To the very last, the desire to challenge oneself and understand more. And to the very last: doubt.”
― Carlo Rovelli, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
I cannot recommend the rest of his work enough. If you have the chance, pick some of it up and enjoy.
Bits and Bobs
I was away living my best life with 30 friends in the Hunter Valley last weekend and this week I’ve been living almost the polar opposite of that, stuck on the couch with the flu alone. Media has been consumed.
Watching: I’m finally getting around to HBO’s Rome, which is about time given as it came out in 2005. Ancient Rome is (one of my) Ancient Rome’s though, so I’m loving it. It definitely holds up quality wise. I am not remotely surprised that they had to cut it from five seasons to two because of the high-production cost – it is gorgeous to look at, and as this video explores, admirably historically accurate.
Reading: Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip from Farm to Factory. New Yorker contributor Peter Hessler’s account of his time spent driving across China after five years of living there as a foreign correspondent. It’s a lovely, big-hearted book emphasising how similar we are at our core, no matter where we’re from.
Listening to: This week I finished the audiobook of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I really enjoyed this one (even more than The Martian, which I also loved) and look forward to seeing the film in 2026. I also learned that Andy Weir’s unique genre of science fiction has been dubbed “competency porn” and I kind of love that.
That’s all for this week. Thank you as ever for reading and hope your week is a delightful one.
Until next time!