Science and Inquiry discussion

For May 2025 we will be reading A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature's Deep Design by Frank Wilczek.

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

I read this book a decade ago -- it is a beautiful book -- I loved it! My favorite chapter was about Emma Noether, a mathematician with deep insights into physics. She escaped from Nazi Germany, and developed and proved a fundamental theorem of physics; perhaps the most fundamental idea in all of physics. I highly recommend this book!
Here is my review

It looks lovely! I can't get it from my library chain, so with all the other books and being behind (~42% through Fire Weather!) , will skip this month, but I look forward to other people sharing their reflections and reviews

laurena wrote: "It looks lovely! I can't get it from my library chain, so with all the other books and being behind (~42% through Fire Weather!) , will skip this month, but I look forward to other people sharing t..."

I can't get it from my library either. I thought about putting in a special order for it but I am also behind! This club has been reading some meaty books the last few months. It's hard to keep up.

I don't even try to read every monthly book. That's certainly not expected. Some people are very good about it, and I admire that, but I can't do it. Too much else going on.

Betsy wrote: "I don't even try to read every monthly book. That's certainly not expected. Some people are very good about it, and I admire that, but I can't do it. Too much else going on."

The desire to keep up is definitely self-imposed. I would love to read them all!

I finished this just over a week ago and forgot to post my thoughts here.

Physics and maths are both hard topics to write in a way that a general audience will be able to care about your message. Unfortunately, I don’t think Wilczek was as successful as he could have been in this regard.

A big part of the reason is, I think, because he’s turned this into more of a meditation (a descriptor he uses for the book). The book is a mix of hard science and philosophy of science, but philosophy of science is itself an entirely different field with its own norms and it was clear, to me, Wilczek didn’t quite grasp these norms.

The message of the book isn’t bad — its goal is to present an artistry and aesthetics to nature and the hard sciences. It just didn’t translate as well as I would have hoped.

I have a copy of this book on my shelf to read - maybe I can get to it in June.