The Quantum Astrologer's Handbook, by Michael Brooks

Staff review by Chris Saliba

Michael Brooks has written a wonderfully accessible book on one of the fathers of quantum physics.

If quantum physics is something you've always wanted to learn about, but were too afraid to ask, then Michael Brooks's The Quantum Astrologer's Handbook offers a safe and non-threatening place to start. The book is a friendly mix of science, biography, history and even fiction. Perhaps it's even a literary first in mixing so many elements with such success.

The key figure is Jerome (Gerolamo) Cardano, a sixteenth century Italian mathematician, doctor, philosopher, astrologer and writer of some two hundred works. His stubborn character led him to suffer much poverty. To get himself out of dire financial straits he often took to gambling, which is turn led him to investigate systems of mathematical probability.  He was also the first mathematician to use numbers that were less than zero. It was this mathematical work which helped make today's quantum physics possible.

Michael Brooks tells Cardano's story in a rather kaleidoscopic way. We are given an engaging biography, full of the hair-raising, cut-throat politics of the time, then Brooks inserts himself into the story, placing himself in Cardano's prison cell just as he is awaiting trial by the Inquisition. The two men - author and subject - discuss science and politics. This may seem a bit self-indulgent and prone to error, but these  imagined dialogues work terrifically well. They are humorous, perceptive and help the reader to imagine Cardano. The rest of the book is interspersed with explanations of the development of quantum physics. Admittedly, these sections require a bit of concentration, and may escape the reader's full grasp. (Confession: some of the mathematics was a bit beyond this reader.) Nonetheless, Brooks writes in a simple style that aims for clarity. It is also a relief that once the brain has been taxed by these difficult concepts, Cardano's story is again taken up, giving the reader a bit of a break.

A work of popular science that reads like a philosophical dialogue, a Medieval history and an engaging biography of a fascinating sixteenth century Italian polymath, with liberal doses of quantum physics thrown in. A sure winner.

The Quantum Philosopher's Handbook, by Michael Brooks. Published by Scribe. ISBN: 9781925322408  RRP: $29.99

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