I had read a book by Lee Smolin, "the trouble with physics", a work that had little controversy in the scientific world as it pointed particularly unproductive part of contemporary research in physics (especially the theory ropes). Truthfully, I had not read that two thirds of this book I finally gave up at the extreme technicality of the way, who was addressing a public more aware of mathematics and physics as I am. 180 ° turn with the new publication, since it is clearly a "consumer" oriented book, starting with the basics and do complicating very gradually. Symbolically, illustrations and diagrams are made up hand way of saying to the reader: "do not panic" in friendly letters. I had some concerns with the foreword that seemed so haphazard mix science and social and political implications, but these parallel virtually disappear in the body of the book. As for philosophical digressions, they are brief and always firmly connected to the scientific elements. Positive point # 1 of the book: its historical axis. As he was already in "the trouble with physics", Lee Smolin widely contemplates the history of physics as a result of unification of knowledge, the challenge being to unify relativity and quantum physics. This perspective also helps to start by addressing the reader familiar topics (eg, gravity) before gradually address more speculative issues.
My main criticism is more an editing choice as the heart of the book: it would have been much easier to place the footnotes page or at the end of chapters, since they are rather short and well paced, rather than end of the book. This practice is quite annoying in the scientific literature where references are important, because we got tired of constantly returning at the end of the book ...
In the end, the quality of popularizer of Lee Smolin does not reach, for example, that of a Kip Thorne. But its ability to create opportunities, even sometimes a bit speculative, Smolin remains an author worth reading.
