The Science of Can and Can't
A Physicist's Journey through the Land of Counterfactuals

Quotes

Praise for The Science of Can and Can't:

“Marletto's call to probe counterfactuals is novel and interesting . . . Replete with stories from classical Greek mythology and examples of ideas drawn from biology and physics, The Science of Can and Can't is worth delving into.” —Wall Street Journal

“[A] revolutionary recasting of physics . . . Marletto’s contributions to ‘constructor theory’ reconcile what we think of as physical laws with the open-ended possibilities thrown up by biology and information theory. It is a paradigm that, for all its rigor, re-enchants the world and enriches our place in it.” —New Scientist

“[A] cerebral yet intellectually satisfying journey with a simple description of the two kinds of counterfactuals in physics . . . Marletto’s style resembles a frank conversation with the reader. Sophisticated concepts in physics, like information and knowledge, are explained using clear analogies to everyday life.” —Booklist

“[A] lyrical yet complex debut . . . References to Greek mythology, Shakespeare, chess, and Legos add life to her survey . . . Marletto’s love of physics shines through . . . Those with an interest in physics will appreciate her passion and her provocative approach.” —Publishers Weekly

“[T[here’s plenty of food for thought for those interested in the processes of conceptual breakthrough [in The Science of Can and Can't].” —Kirkus Reviews

"Marletto has a clear, sharp and imaginative style of explaining science . . . [The Science of Can and Can't] will open the doors to a dazzling, deep set of new concepts and ideas that will change and affect deeply the way you look at the world. Let her story unfold. It will be an open-ended exploration of the endless possibilities that the laws of physics allow for." —David Deutsch, author of The Beginning of Infinity

“Hugely ambitious, Chiara Marletto is the herald for a revolutionary new direction for physics. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of physics.” —Lee Smolin, author of Life of the Cosmos

"I enjoyed this book very much, not least because of the freshness of its approach to a subject that can easily become hard for the non-scientific mind to grasp. The theory of ‘can and can’t’ is an intriguing way of describing problems that are not only scientific (it describes very well what a storyteller does, for instance), and Marletto’s account of some things I thought I more or less understood (the nature of digital information, for one) illuminated them from an angle that showed them more clearly than I’d seen them before.” —Philip Pullman