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In this anthology of reminiscences by prominent scientists,the roll includes Richard Dawkins, Murray Gell-Mann, Joseph Ledouxand Ray Kurzweil, along with 23 others. The mandate of the book'seditor, literary agent Brockman (The Third Culture), to each ofthese authors was to write an essay explaining how he or she cameto be a scientist. Some take him at his word and write meanderingstories of childhood. David Buss found his calling—the study ofhuman mating behavior—while working at a truck stop after droppingout of school. Paul Davies says he was born to be a theoreticalphysicist. Daniel Dennett, on the other hand, seems to have triedevery other profession before landing, as if by accident, inscience. A few writers let their essays get hijacked by the sciencethey have devoted their lives to. And in the midst of this, like akeystone in an arch, is an essay by Steven Pinker explaining whythe entire exercise is a bunch of hooey: scientifically speaking,he says, people have no objective idea what influen
Spanning disciplines from biology to cosmology, chemistry topsychology to physics, Michael Brooks thrillingly captures theexcitement of scientific discovery.Science’s best-kept secret isthis: even today, thereare experimental results that the mostbrilliant scientists cannot explain. In the past, similar“anomalies” have revolutionized our world. If history is anyprecedent, we should look to today’s inexplicable results toforecast the future of science. Michael Brooks heads to thescientific frontier to confront thirteen modern-day anomalies andwhat they might reveal about tomorrow’s breakthroughs.
