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    The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected: A Natural Philosopher’s Quest for Trout and the Meaning of Everything
    Unavailable
    The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected: A Natural Philosopher’s Quest for Trout and the Meaning of Everything
    Unavailable
    The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected: A Natural Philosopher’s Quest for Trout and the Meaning of Everything
    Ebook224 pages6 hours

    The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected: A Natural Philosopher’s Quest for Trout and the Meaning of Everything

    By Marcelo Gleiser

    2.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Marcelo Gleiser has had a passion for science and fishing since he was a boy growing up on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. Now a world-famous theoretical physicist with hundreds of scientific articles and several books of popular science to his credit, he felt it was time to connect with nature in less theoretical ways. After seeing a fly-fishing class on the Dartmouth College green, he decided to learn to fly-fish, a hobby, he says, that teaches humility. In The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected, Gleiser travels the world to scientific conferences, fishing wherever he goes. At each stop, he ponders how in the myriad ways physics informs the act of fishing; how, in its turn, fishing serves as a lens into nature’s inner workings; and how science engages with questions of meaning and spirituality, inspiring a sense of mystery and awe of the not yet known. Personal and engaging, The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected is a scientist’s tribute to nature, an affirmation of humanity’s deep connection with and debt to Earth, and an exploration of the meaning of existence, from atom to trout to cosmos.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDartmouth College Press
    Release dateJun 7, 2016
    ISBN9781611689402
    Unavailable
    The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected: A Natural Philosopher’s Quest for Trout and the Meaning of Everything
    Author

    Marcelo Gleiser

    The first Latin American winner of the Templeton Prize, Marcelo Gleiser is a theoretical physicist and a professor of natural philosophy, physics, and astronomy at Dartmouth College. His work ranges from cosmology and applications of information theory to complex phenomena to history and philosophy of science and how science and culture interact. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a recipient of the Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House and National Science Foundation. Gleiser has authored five books and is the co-founder of 13.8, where he writes about science and culture with physicist Adam Frank. He is devoted to the public understanding of science and his books have been published in fifteen languages. A native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he lives in Hanover, New Hampshire.

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    Reviews for The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected

    2.5/5

    12 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is a story of a physicist (with the old fashioned title of Professor of Natural Philosophy) who re-discovers the art, the technique of fly fishing, which skill in turn led to a re-evaluation of childhood dreams and their linkages to science, discovery, and meaning in life. The epigraph heading his Prologue, captures the essence of this wonderful book:"Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play." Attributed to Herakleitos.
    • 2/5
      I've gotta stop signing up for these "free in exchange for an honest review" things. I've really gotta. I'm sure the author is a very smart man, and a fabulous conversationalist. Sadly, reading this book is no more (no less, either) interesting than listening to a physics undergrad who has just tried the best weed of his life.
    • 3/5
      An interesting melange of subjects including fly fishing, physics, global warming, divorce, world travel, agnostic beliefs, vegetarianism and much more. A bit disjointed at times as the author tells of relating to his younger self while wading in various rivers. Rather like reading someone's personal journal entries.
    • 1/5
      I really wanted to like this book. I've tried picking it up three times. I can't get past page 4. I tried skipping the Prologue all together (does anyone else read them anyway?) I never made it more than a couple pages into the first chapter. I've fly fished and I've pondered nature but no matter how hard I try I can't enjoy Gleiser's writing style. I can't truly tell you how the book is because I couldn't force myself to read it. I'm sure others loved it and the prose but I just didn't.