From the 2021 Nobel Prize winner in Physics a remarkable journey into the practice of
groundbreaking science 'Giorgio Parisi is renowned for his scientific creativity originality
and power. In this exhilarating little book he shows his human side too. By its end readers
will feel they've made a charming witty new friend' Frank WilczekThe world is shaped by
complexity. In this enlightening book Nobel Prize winner Giorgio Parisi guides us through his
unorthodox yet exhilarating work to show us how. It all starts with investigating the
principles of physics by observing the sophisticated flight patterns of starlings. Studying the
movements of these birds he has realized proves an illuminating way into understanding
complex systems of all kinds - collections of everything from atoms to planets to other animals
like ourselves. Along the way Parisi reflects on the lessons he's taken from a life in pursuit
of scientific truth: the importance of serendipity to the discovery of new ideas the
surprising kinship between physics and other fields of study and the value of science to a
thriving society. In so doing he removes the practice of science from the confines of the
laboratory and into the real world. Complexity is all around us - from climate to finance to
biology it offers a unique way of finding order in chaos. Part elegant scientific treatise
part thrilling intellectual journey In a Flight of Starlings is an invitation to find wonder
in the world around us.
