Overview

A personal and engaging tribute to nature from a world-famous theoretical physicist.    Marcelo Gleiser has had a passion for science and fishing since he was a boy growing up on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. As 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 once again 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 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.    This softcover edition features a new essay by Gleiser on how we need a profound change of worldview if we are to have a vibrant future for our species in this fragile environment. He describes how this book was an incubator for his current thinking.

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9781684581108

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Beautifully composed . . . This elegant treatise will inspire readers who relish a philosophical approach to science and travel. * Library Journal * Part memoir, part popular science blog, with interludes of closely guided casting in England, Italy, and Iceland, Gleiser, like many of us, explores angling as a conduit to the outer world of natural phenomena and the inner world of the self. * Fly Fishing & Tying Journal *

Beautifully composed . . . This elegant treatise will inspire readers who relish a philosophical approach to science and travel. -- Library Journal Part memoir, part popular science blog, with interludes of closely guided casting in England, Italy, and Iceland, Gleiser, like many of us, explores angling as a conduit to the outer world of natural phenomena and the inner world of the self. -- Fly Fishing & Tying Journal

Author Information

Marcelo Gleiser, winner of the Templeton Prize, is the Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a recipient of the Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House and National Science Foundation. He is the author of several books of popular science, including A Tear at the Edge of Creation, The Dancing Universe, and The Island of Knowledge. Gleiser is cofounder of and a regular contributor to the NPR science blog 13.7 Cosmos and Culture.

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