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Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli (translated by Erica Segre and Simon Carnell)

Louis A.’s recommendation for the 510 Club | November 2025

 

Helgoland is a delightful little book with beautiful prose and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the philosophical consequences of the development of quantum physics.
 
The book opens with a brief history of the development of quantum mechanics starting with Heisenberg's work conducted while on Helgoland, an island notable for having virtually no trees (Heisenberg went there so he was not crippled by his allergies). Though the book doesn't go into detail on what Heisenberg developed on Helgoland, beyond his ideas that one should only consider what is observable and the idea of using matrices of energy levels instead of isolated values, it does still strive to place Heisenberg's work in the context of the other developers of the theory including Born, de Broglie, Dirac, Einstein, Jordan and Schrödinger.
 
Despite the context, Helgoland does not delve deeply into the mathematics underlying the theory of quantum mechanics, or even physics in general (as much as that would be possible with scant mathematics). It does explain some of the irregularities that delineate quantum mechanics from their classical counterpart, and these are the fuel for the more philosophical part of the book. Where the book really shines is in the discussion of the philosophy of Mach and Nāgārjuna, of whom I was shamefully ignorant of previously. Mach's importance in inspiring the development of quantum theory is explored along with his importance in understanding the new world we find ourselves in. Nāgārjuna then provides Buddhist clarity to the Carlo Rovelli's favoured interpretation of quantum mechanics through 'relations'.

 

I do still recommend this book to a mathematically inclined reader because although Rovelli has clearly tried to target a broad audience, it still clearly represents his own quest as a physicist to understand his own field and the world he lives in. The closing section of the book broadens the subject further to incorporate Shannon's concept of information and even Darwinian Evolution (I loved this book).
 
Helgoland is a lovely read. It is not a biography of Heisenberg or a history of Helgoland, but it is an engaging account of how Heisenberg's ideas developed on Helgoland became a central part of physics and thus the modern world. It is by no means a substitute for a textbook, and it doesn't try to be, but I feel it could be a nice tool for a fresh student of physics trying to incorporate the new ideas of modern physics into their worldview.

I will warn any reader that Helgoland has seen my philosophical reading list forcibly expanded(!).

 

 

WHAT IS THE 510 CLUB?

The 510 Club is named after the Dewey Decimal classification for Mathematics. It is a book recommendation project facilitated by Mathateca in collaboration with Christchurch MathsJam. Each month we feature a mathematical book recommendation, whether that’s a novel, articles / essays, a puzzle book, textbook, biography... just as long as it features maths in some way. Read the above book at your leisure then feel free to comment your thoughts below, or come along to the following Christchurch MathsJam sessions to join in an informal maths/book chat with the reviewer.

We're always looking for suggestions! If you're interested in contributing a book rec one month, please email christchurch@mathsjam.com to sign up.