Alan Lightman - who worked for many years as a theoretical physicist - is the author of six novels, including the international bestseller Einstein's Dreams, as well as The Diagnosis, a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the author of a memoir, three collections of essays, and several books on science. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Granta, Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and Nature, among other publications. He has taught at Harvard and at MIT, where he was the first person to receive a dual faculty appointment in science and the humanities. He lives in the Boston area.
The physicist and novelist's discursive essays on the mysteries of
the physical world are full of wonder and insight . . . Lightman
has a sympathetic gift for recreating the leaps of faith in
scientific advance.
*the Observer*
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine demonstrates Lightman's
ability to make the most abstract notions accessible to all. No
background is needed in physics, philosophy, religion or any other
field to fully understand every step of the wide-ranging
intellectual trek. No matter who you are, you will emerge ready to
be more impressive at your next dinner party . . . No matter your
views on science and the transcendent, this engaging read will be
as pleasant as a summer afternoon spent on an island in Maine with
good company.
*Washington Post*
A lyrical and illuminating inquiry into our dual impulse for belief
in the unprovable and for trust in truth affirmed by physical
evidence . . . emerging with that rare miracle of insight at the
meeting point of the lucid and the luminous . . . Searching for
Stars on an Island in Maine is a splendid read in its entirety.
*Brain Pickings*
Stimulating . . . Once again, this deft wordsmith has effortlessly
straddled the divide between the hardest of the hard sciences and
the nebulous world of existential doubts and longings.
*Nature magazine*
He's at his best describing the scientific process, able to evoke
the thrill of new discovery while explaining dizzyingly complex
theories.
*Mail on Sunday*
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