Paperback review: Farewell to Reality, By Jim Baggott
A principled approach to 'fairytale physics'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.It's always good when a book of popular science has a clear line to argue, and Jim Baggott's line is very clear indeed: modern physics has become "fairytale physics", full of dazzling concepts, such as string theory and the multiverse, which are based solely on mathematics rather than empirical content, and have no predictive power.
Such wacky ideas make for great TV – but don't really tell us anything about the nature of the universe we live in. I'm not remotely qualified to judge whether Baggott is right or not, but his polemic feels persuasive. And I now understand the difference between the weak anthropic principle and the strong anthropic principle, which I didn't before.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments