Did Newton "unweave the rainbow" by reducing it to itsprismatic colors, as Keats contended? Did he, in other words,diminish beauty? Far from it, says acclaimed scientist RichardDawkins; Newton's unweaving is the key to much of modern astronomyand to the breathtaking poetry of modern cosmology. Mysteries don'tlose their poetry because they are solved: the solution often ismore beautiful than the puzzle, uncovering deeper mysteries. Withthe wit, insight, and spellbinding prose that have made him abest-selling author, Dawkins takes up the most important andcompelling topics in modern science, from astronomy and genetics tolanguage and virtual reality, combining them in a landmarkstatement of the human appetite for wonder. This is the bookRichard Dawkins was meant to write: a brilliant assessment of whatscience is (and isn't), a tribute to science not because it isuseful but because it is uplifting.
