Quotes from Carlo Rovelli

We are structured to manage precisely this: information; and remain in existence thanks to this.

Why are precisely these elements listed there, and why does the periodic table have this particular structure, with these periods, and with the elements having these specific properties? The answer is that each element corresponds to one solution of the main equation of quantum mechanics. The whole of chemistry emerges from a single equation.

Our moral values, our emotions, our loves are no less real for being part of nature, for being shared with the animal world, or fore being determined by the evolution that our species has undergone over millions of years. Rather, they are more valuable as a result of this: they are real.

The apparent determinism of the macroscopic world is due only to the fact that the microscopic randomness cancels out on average, leaving only fluctuations too minute for us to perceive in everyday life.

Loop theory describes this atomic and granular quantum structure of space in a precise mathematical form. It is obtained by applying the general equations of quantum mechanics written by Dirac to Einstein's gravitational field. In particular, loop theory specifies that volume (for example the volume of a given cube) cannot be arbitrarily small. A minimum volume exists. No space smaller than this minimum volume exists. There is a minimum "quantum" of volume: an elementary atom of space.

Non c'è più lo spazio che «contiene» il mondo e non c'è più il tempo «lungo il quale» avvengono gli eventi. Ci sono solo processi elementari dove quanti di spazio e materia interagiscono tra loro in continuazione. L'illusione dello spazio e del tempo continui attorno a noi è la visione sfocata di questo fitto pullulare di processi elementari.

Things are transformed one into another according to necessity, and render justice to one another according to the order of time.

This means not giving credence to those who say they are in possession of the truth. For this reason, science and religion frequently find themselves on a collision course. Not because science pretends to know ultimate answers, but precisely for the opposite reason: because the scientific spirit distrusts whoever claims to be the one having ultimate answers or privileged access to Truth.

The nature of man is not his internal structure but the network of personal, familial, and social interactions within which he exists. It is these that "make" us, these that guard us. As humans, we are that which others know of us, that which we know of ourselves, and that which others know about our knowledge. We are complex nodes in a rich web of reciprocal information.

The world of quantum mechanics is not a world of objects: it is a world of events.

man is what we all know.

We are complex nodes in a rich web of reciprocal information.

Einstein wrote an equation that says that R is equivalent to the energy of matter. That is to say: space curves where there is matter. That is it. The equation fits into half a line, and there is nothing more. A vision—that space curves—became an equation.

Einstein's equation shows that space cannot stand still; it must be expanding. In 1930 the expansion of the universe was actually observed.

Por un lado se tiene la certeza de conocer la verdad. Por otro está el reconocimiento de nuestra ignorancia y la duda perpetua de toda certeza. La religión, especialmente el monoteísmo, encuentra una profunda dificultad de aceptar el pensamiento del cambio, el pensamiento crítico. Eva recogió la manzana para llegar a saber. Pero ante el dios que quiere ser el Dios Único e indiscutible fue el primero de los pecados.

All of this is the result of an elementary intuition: that space and gravitational field are the same thing.

If more gently than Orpheus who moved even the trees you were to pluck the zither the life-blood would not return to the vain shadow . . . Harsh fate, but its burden becomes lighter to bear, since everything that attempts to turn back is impossible. (I, 24) WHERE DOES THE ETERNAL CURRENT COME FROM?

the obscurity of the theory is not the fault of quantum mechanics but is rather due to the limited capacity of our imagination.

If Planck is the father of the theory, Einstein is the parent who nurtured it.

Science is the human adventure of accepting uncertainty, exploring ways of thinking about the world, and being ready to overturn any and all certainties we have possessed to this point. This is among the most beautiful of human adventures.

When Einstein died, his greatest rival, Bohr, found for him words of moving admiration. When a few years later Bohr in turn died, someone took a photograph of the blackboard in his study. There's a drawing on it. A drawing of the "light-filled box" in Einstein's thought experiment. To the very last, the desire to challenge oneself and understand more. And to the very last: doubt.

In quantum mechanics no object has a definite position, except when colliding headlong with something else. In order to describe it in mid-flight, between one interaction and another, we use an abstract mathematical formula that has no existence in real space, only in abstract mathematical space.

Stars burn as long as they have available hydrogen—their fuel—then die out. The remaining material is no longer supported by the pressure of the heat and collapses under its own weight. When this happens to a large enough star, the weight is so strong that matter is squashed down to an enormous degree, and space curves so intensely as to plunge down into an actual hole. A black hole.

A scientist is someone who lives immersed in the awareness of our deep ignorance, in direct contact with our own innumerable limits, with the limits of our understanding.