![]() ![]() ![]() Wilczek has a more optimistic take, though, based on quantifying the space inside us: The number of atoms in a single human body is roughly 10 28 - 1 followed by 28 zeros, “a million times the number of stars in the entire visible universe.” He sees potential in our inner vastness, too.Īnother way to write that number is 10 octillion, and “Fundamentals” is filled with facts like these - the kind of question adults think they can answer until their children ask. Early on, Wilczek quotes the 17th-century French physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal’s lament, “The universe grasps me and swallows me up like a speck.” For Pascal, that thought produced intense spiritual anxiety, but for the contemporary reader it might actually provide a certain comfort: Whatever obscene amount of damage we’ve managed to do here on Earth is insignificant when seen on an astronomical scale. Whether or not you’re accustomed to reading physics for pleasure, the Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek’s “Fundamentals” might be the perfect book for the winter of this plague year. ![]() FUNDAMENTALS Ten Keys to Reality By Frank Wilczek ![]()
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