85 Seconds to Midnight

A lucid and erudite reflexion on the most important current affair. An engaging read.

I would recommend this startling little book to everyone. I felt jolted into reality although a regard myself as being aware of reality. I have not had this reaction to a literary wake up call since the 60s.

When my granddaughter decided that particle physics was her thing to be able to talk to her about it I needed to understand what it was all about and became acquainted with Carlo Rovelli's series of books which explain the subject clearly to a lay person like me but when I read the Guardian rev…

When my granddaughter decided that particle physics was her thing to be able to talk to her about it I needed to understand what it was all about and became acquainted with Carlo Rovelli's series of books which explain the subject clearly to a lay person like me but when I read the Guardian review of 85 Seconds to Midnight which is described as, 'A Physicist's Argument Against Rearmament' I wondered what a scientist could add to the politics of nuclear war but Rovelli is a deep thinker, a philosoper as well as an eminent, respected scientist. He sets out the history of the development of nuclear weapons, their use in the WW2 and the subsequent proliferation, threats and sabre rattling in clear and precise terms, neither emotional nor pessimistic but eminently factual, and he is critical of the morality of some of those scientists responsible for the development of nuclear weapons. In his final chapter he spells out the risk of plunging blindly into nuclear war but proposes ways to avoid the disaster. It is a small format book of 98 pages, not difficult to read but it packs a punch far above its wieight. If only those leaders driving the world towards conflict would read it!