I'm reading a very interesting book, Reality Is Not What It Seems (the Journey to Quantum Gravity), by Carlo Rovelli. I'm only a third of the way through, but it's riveting. He starts with an historical (yes, "an" because I'm in Bermuda) treatise on our understanding of the world since BCE. From flat earth, and earth-centric concepts to modern day views and all in language readable by a layperson ( but sometimes hard to wrap your brain around). An amazing part covers the concept of atoms introduced by Democritus around 450AD but the subsequent loss of much of this knowledge when the religious establishment later made an highly effective effort to destroy all documents with a different world-view than the Church. A stunning setback for our understanding.
He later covers Einstein's explanation of the universe as a 3-sphere (which he explains). But way more amazingly, that the famous Italian poet, Dante, first introduced the concept of the 3-sphere around 1300!
Overall, great reading so far, but also a bit mind bending. The author understands the mental stretching required by the typical reader, and gives numerous examples of concepts that were previously mind-bending prior to becoming accepted as general knowledge, e.g. a spherical earth, a solar-centric (instead of earth-centric) view of our solar system, etc.
I've always valued trying to stay up with many of these concepts he is covering but never spent quite enough time to truly understand them; on the other hand maybe my brain is incapable of fully digesting some of the info. This book hopefully will help be a steppingstone to pursuing a greater understanding.
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