Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn by Amanda Gefter

Author:Amanda Gefter [Gefter, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-345-53963-2
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2014-01-14T05:00:00+00:00

On a brisk April morning in 2008 I wandered happily into the New Scientist office, ready to kick off another day of tracking down reality, but a fellow editor greeted me with a somber expression. My smile dropped. “What’s wrong?”

“John Wheeler died.”

I was stunned. Speechless. It’s not that I couldn’t have seen it coming—he was ninety-six years old. But it felt like a blow all the same.

“You were really interested in his work, weren’t you?” my colleague asked. “Do you want to write the obit?”

I nodded silently. I couldn’t help feeling heartbroken. I had spent years imagining that when my dad and I finally did write our book about the nature of reality, Wheeler would read it. In a weird way, I had always assumed that we would be writing it for him. In my mind we would personally deliver a freshly printed copy, which he would immediately and eagerly read. As he turned the last page and let the back cover thump closed, he’d look up at us, remembering the cryptic words he had offered us years ago in Princeton, and with a twinkle in his eye say, “I see you’ve figured it out. Well done.”

As I settled into my desk chair to begin composing the obituary, I texted my dad the bad news: Wheeler died.

My phone buzzed back right away: It’s a sad day for reality.

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