Reality is not what it seems : the journey to quantum gravity

Originally published in Italian under the title: La Realtà non è come ci appare.

English translation published in Great Britain by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Grains ; Is there a limit to divisibility? ; The nature of things -- The classics ; Isaac and the little moon ; Michael: fields and light -- Albert ; The extended present ; The most beautiful of theories ; Mathematics or physics? ; The cosmos -- Quanta ; Albert again ; Niels, Werner, and Paul ; Fields and particles are the same thing ; Quanta 1: Information is finite ; Quanta 2: Indeterminacy ; Quanta 3: Reality is relation ; But do we really understand? -- Spacetime is quantum ; Matvei ; John ; The loop's first steps -- Quanta of space ; Spectra of volume and area ; Atoms of space ; Spin networks -- Time does not exist ; Time is not what we think it is ; The candle chandelier and the pulse ; Spacetime sushi spinfoam ; What is the world made of? -- Beyond the big bang ; The master ; Quantum cosmology -- Empirical confirmations? ; Signals from nature ; A window onto quantum gravity -- Quantum black holes -- The end of infinity -- Information ; Thermal time ; Reality and information -- Mystery.