Product Description

Selected and introduced by Richard Dawkins, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing is a celebration of the finest writing by scientists for a wider audience - revealing that many of the best scientists have displayed as much imagination and skill with the pen as they have in the laboratory. This is a rich and vibrant collection that captures the poetry and excitement of communicating scientific understanding and scientific effort from 1900 to the present day. Professor Dawkins has included writing from a diverse range of scientists, some of whom need no introduction, and some of whose works have become modern classics, while others may be less familiar - but all convey the passion of great scientists writing about their science.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28181 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

Review

"Richard Dawkins's useful and entertaining anthology, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, contains essays that have already stood the test of time. Each piece has a preamble of one or two paragraphs in which Dawkins explains why he chose it. His reasoning is impeccable, and these introductions leave the reader eager to devour what follows. I found the book hard to put down."-- William Cannon for American Scientist
"This a book one reads over a prolonged period of time, being in essence written for the nightstand or the table next to a comfortable armchair. This book richly deserves to be in any library, public, private, or academic." -- CHOICE
"It is a volume intended to celebrate rather than analyze modern science writing, and it fulfills this aim well: it is a book from which the love of science and the love of language shine." -- Science Magazine
"If you could only ever read one science book, this should probably be it."--New Scientist
"Much of the writing is indeed wonderful, filled with evocative imagery, poetic prose, and profound insights into nature. Dawkins wrote brief introductions to all 84 pieces...in this volume we wee another side of the man: The Dawkins who loves science passionately, who marvels at what it teaches us about the nature of things, and who is exceptionally skillful at conveying those findings to the general reader."--Karl W. Gilberson, Books and Culture: A Christian Review

About the Author
Richard Dawkins is the first holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, and a Fellow of New College, Oxford. His bestselling books include The God Delusion (2006); The Selfish Gene (1976); The Extended Phenotype (1982); The Blind Watchmaker (1986); Unweaving the Rainbow (1998); and The Ancestor's Tale (2004). Dawkins is a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature. He is the recipient of numerous honours and awards, including the 1987 Royal Society of Literature Award, the 1990 Michael Faraday Award of the Royal Society, the 1994 Nakayama Prize, the 1997 International Cosmos Prize for Achievement in Human Science, the Kistler Prize in 2001, and the Shakespeare Prize in 2005.

Customer Reviews

The Miracle of Everything
The world as we don't know it is a miracle. The world as we know it is a miracle too. The greatest minds are open to us, once again, as soon as we open this marvelously conceived book of great scientist excerpts. Dawkins puts at work his huge experience as a scientist in studying literature (scientific and otherwise) and extracting the most significant and impressive passages. Dawkins' commentary on the selected pieces and the selected authors is in itself alone worth the value assigned to the whole book.

An eye opener, even for the most open minded and scientifically minded among us, this book was a joy for me to read and a source of exquisite literary jewels to which I will surely come back, frequently.

An essential bedside book for anyone interested in science
Dawkins is more famous for his own eloquent science writing but in this case he has selected short exerpts from a wide range of science writers (not including himself) and compiled them into one highly readable book. All the essays are short and for the most part very interesting, drawn from infuential works in all areas of scientific endeavour. Each chapter is preceed by an introduction from Dawkins explaining the significance of the essay or some interesting aspect of the authors work that may pique your interest to read on. The chapters are loosely organized under fairly general themes but each stands alone and can be read independantly. I often pick up the book when I have a few idle minutes and want something quick and thought provoking to fill my time.
This would be a great Christmas gift for anyone with a broad general interest in science, whether or not they had any formal education in these fields of study.