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摘要
摘要
This is a gathering of the most illuminating thinkers and scientists of our time, each with a piece of writing relevant to their field that will challenge our intelligence and provoke our curiosity. Every entry enlightens the thoughts of the reader on the core issues that govern the world of science.
評論 (4)
《出版社週刊》(Publisher's Weekly)評論
These 34 short, succinct, deceptively simple essays by eminent scientists provide a wonderful entry into scientific thought and discovery. Some of the selections impart basic understanding of the world around usfor example, why water is crucial to the emergence and persistence of life; to what extent DNA determines an individual's traits; and symmetries in cell structures, crystals and physical forces. Other pieces deal with more fundamental questions. Physicist Paul Davies investigates whether time suddenly ``switched on'' with the Big Bang. Anthropologist Milford Wolpoff explores evolutionary links between humans and apes. Contributors include biologists Lynn Margulis, Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins, anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson, cosmologist Alan Guth. Turning to the future, demographer Joel Cohen predicts a drastic, inevitable decline in global population growth, while paleontologist Niles Eldredge ponders the possibility that war, famine, disease or ecological devastation will make humans extinct. Brockman (The Third Culture) and Matson (Short Lives) are literary agents. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus 評論
An eclectic survey of contemporary scientific thought and attitudes. Brockman (Einstein, Gertrude Stein, Wittgenstein and Frankenstein, 1986, etc.) and Matson (Short Lives, 1980, etc.) liken reading this collection of essays to being in a room full of scientists and posing one question to each of them. Forget asking questions, these thinkers are out to tell you the issues that are resonant in their lives. Thirty-four essays elucidate some important scientific concepts like evolution and quantum theory. But more significantly, these writings show us how scientists think: how their methodology tackles both the grandiose and the particular and how following the side streets of traditional theory can lead to unexpected conclusions. Authored by British and American academics, the collection is divided into six sections; Thinking About Science, Origins, Evolution, Mind, Cosmos, and the Future. While some authors demonstrate the scientific community's inclination to speak to laypeople as if they were talking to children (Marian Stamp Dawkins writes that ``understanding how things work, even your own brain, has a grandeur and a glory that no nonscientific explanation can come anywhere near''), most of the writers resist oversimplification. Some works are notable for their clarity. Stephen Jay Gould's humbling explanation of evolutionary theory, which concludes that we are ``a small, late-blooming, and ultimately transient twig on the copiously arborescent tree of life.'' Michael S. Gazzaniga discusses the misguided reliance on averages and statistical information in the effort to ``find relationships in an otherwise noisy set of data.'' Others are strikingly original: Ann Fausto-Sterling describes same-sex couplings in animals, and David Gelernter brings together disparate arguments on computer science and reading the Talmud to support his lucid critique of multiculturalism. Varied and invigorating, these essays are a light, but not insubstantial, read.
《書目》(Booklist)評論
It is truly unfortunate that so many otherwise intelligent people are afraid of or bored by science, for they will pass over these two excellent anthologies. How Things Are includes 34 articles by leading scientists on fairly circumscribed topics in their own disciplines, ranging from the origin of the universe to its end, from animal evolution to human language, and from the organization of the cosmos to the functioning of the mind. They afford a smorgasbord of science, a feast of reason. Hidden Histories of Science, however, contains just five lengthy writings, among them a Stephen Jay Gould essay on the images we employ to think about evolution and a piece by Oliver Sacks that considers a fascinating facet of the history of science. Their length offers greater scope for contemplation and rumination--on the whole, a more philosophical tone than in How Things Are. Conversely, although How Things Are does contain some articles dealing with the philosophy of science per se, most restrict themselves to the implications of a particular topic. --Dennis Winters
《圖書館雜誌》(Library Journal )書評
This is one of many books aimed at promoting the science literacy of the general public. Over 30 academic experts with a wide range of specialties contributed brief essays intended to stimulate readers' intellect and curiosity. The editors expect that in surveying these essays readers will begin to grasp the scientific method and understand the thought processes used to make hypotheses and arrive at conclusions. The essays reflect the expertise of their respective authors, who include zoologist Stephen Jay Gould, physicist Paul Davies, and chemist Robert Shapiro, but the book as a whole lacks a focal point. Limiting the articles to a single discipline would have been a better approach. A possible candidate for public libraries.Bruce Slutsky, New Jersey Inst. of Technology Lib., Newark (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.