The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing |
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Pages: 448 (Hardcover) Editor: Richard Dawkins ISBN: 0199216800 Pub: OUP Oxford Pub date: 2008-03-13 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1427 |
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Reader Reviews:
An Excellent Collection (2/2 people found this helpful)
This book contains a superb collection of excerpts from books and essays of some of the world's greatest scientists. The amount of ideas discussed is truly mind-expanding. A must have for anyone interested in where the great search for knowledge called science is taking us.
Pelucid writings from brilliant minds (15/15 people found this helpful)
As one who is convinced that Spinoza's monism provides the philosophical basis for all the sciences, reading The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing and seeing Spinoza's view (that God and Nature are one and the same thing, under the dual aspects of thought and matter) confirmed over and over again was enthralling.
While reading it I repeatedly inserted markers into articles that I wished to re-read. In fact, I shall probably read the whole book again and refer to it repeatedly. What particularly fascinated me was the revelation that a quantum of energy appears to us under two aspects: as a wave or as a particle, but never both at the same time. This discovery accords perfectly with Spinoza's dual aspect theory.
My selection of five-star articles is as follows: 'Life Itself', by Francis Crick;`One Self: a Meditation on the Unity of Consciousness' by Nicholas Humphrey; `The Language Instinct', by Steven Pinker; `Avoid Boring People' by James Watson; `Consciousness Explained' by Daniel Dennett; `The Fantastic Combinations of John Conway's new solitaire game "Life"' by Martin Gardner; `Computing Machinery and Intelligence' by Alan Turing; `The Goldilocks Enigma' by Paul Davies; `The Elegant Universe' by Bryan Green, and `Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid' by Douglas Hofstadter.
Having been brought up in an evangelical environment, and having had a taste of Roman Catholicism as well, I can only say that there is no contest between the brilliance, lucidity, humility and open-mindedness of the scientists quoted in this anthology and the tendentious, hubristic, convoluted, ill-founded speculations of theologians - few of whom will have the courage to read this book.
The introductions by Richard Dawkins are excellent. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
Perfect bedside reading (22/23 people found this helpful)
This mighty tome makes excellent bedside reading. You are unlikely to have the musclepower to take this commuting or to the beach (need to wait for the paperback edition for that) but propped up in bed with a cup of cocoa/glass of whisky (delete as appropriate) by your side, this is an excellent book for dipping into and as a previous reviewer says, will encourage you to seek out the books the excerpts come from. In this regard may I be so bold as to recommend any of the books by Richard Feynman. Dawkins himself supplies witty and erudite introductions to each essay so all in all there is absolutely nothing to criticise in this book - unless you hate science that is and even then this book might convince you otherwise.
A marvellous anthology of modern science writing. (3/6 people found this helpful)
Richard Dawkins has compiled a fascinating and intellectually stimulating anthology of excellent writing from professional scientists over the past century. There are 79 scientists included(Dawkins modestly excludes himself) with concise but illuminating introductory comments from Dawkins for each of the 83 extracts or short pieces which cover a wide range of topics from genetics and the mind to evolution and quantum physics.
The various selections are grouped into four themes: 'What Scientists Study', Who Scientists Are', 'What Scientists Think' & What Scientists Delight In'.
Anyone who reads this marvellous anthology should gain an insight into how the scientific method can help us understand and explain 'life the universe and everything'.
Why so few women? (7/79 people found this helpful)
This accessible and informative anthology provides a selection of popular science writings, predominantly from the second half of the 20th century. It is a joy to read. The book provides an insight in modern scientific thinking and methodology and shows some of the astonishing ways in which science strives to dispell ignorance. However, as an anthology, it is also remarkably skewed. Firstly, it is astonishing how few female authors are included; unfortunately, the book fails to explain why. Second, "science" is used with a restrictive interpretation, since the book focuses strongly on the natural sciences, some mathematics, the cognitive sciences and some reflections on science in general. Other fields, especially most of the social sciences and humanities, are absent.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Science & Nature -> Mathematics -> Popular Maths
Books -> Subjects -> Science & Nature -> General AAS
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Hardcover
Books -> Refinements -> Font Size (format_browse-bin) -> Regular Size