Anaximander and the Nature of Science

by Carlo Rovelli

Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who is brilliant at explaining his field in short books. Anaximander is about a philosopher who lived 26 centuries ago in Miletus, a Greek city on the coast of what is now Turkey. He was the first person to understand that the Earth is just floating in space, and doesn’t need to be supported by anything. Anaximander also figured out where rain comes from. “I think it’s my best book because it’s about what I think science is,” Rovelli said at an event at the annual Oxford Literary Festival on 20 January, 2023.