Reading group

[ICTP/infopoint - Emili Sabina]

Ciao, ICTP friends and colleagues,

I'd like to organize a small group together to read a short book. The book
is "When We Cease to Understand the World" (original Spanish title "Un
Verdor Terrible"), by Benjamín Labatut, translated by Adrian Nathan West.
Labatut's collection of short stories recounts the lives and discoveries
of various scientists and mathematicians of the 20th century, including
Fritz Haber, Karl Schwarzschild, Alexander Grothendiek, and others. The
book takes a more cautionary view of science, examining the personal costs
to the scientists who seek definite answers about a fundamentally
unknowable universe, as well as the potential costs to society when their
discoveries are used for war. If you're interested, email Dominic Veconi
atdveconi at ictp.it. Depending on interest and availability of the book,
the plan is to start in the end of February or beginning of March.