When We Cease to Understand the World

About

"When We Cease to Understand the World" delves into the lives of real-life scientists like Fritz Haber and Werner Heisenberg, exploring the moral consequences of their discoveries. Benjamín Labatut weaves a narrative that highlights the complex relationships between scientific breakthroughs, madness, and destruction. The book portrays these luminaries grappling with existential questions, experiencing strokes of genius, alienation, and descent into insanity. Labatut's storytelling captures how some discoveries improve human life while others lead to chaos and suffering, blurring the lines between progress and devastation in a fast-paced, detailed manner.

Categories

Pages

192

Publisher

New York Review of Books