Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1123304 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this invigorating collection, American microbiologist Margulis and popular Spanish science TV-show host Punset do an excellent job making high science palatable, understandable and even exciting to lay-readers. The book is divided into four parts, and many of the interviews in Parts I and II concern the basic structure of the human brain and how different researchers study its evolution and development. The candid interviews unveil the origins of the curiosity that drives scientists to study particular questions-William Day's dissatisfaction with the standard models for the origin of life, why Steven Strogatz is intrigued by simultaneity and cyclicity. Part III delves into evolution and human history, but readers may find Part IV the most interesting, as it touches on such varied topics as time travel, other dimensions and "atomic consciousness." Chapters are short, move briskly and make ideal bedtime (or even beach) reading. Readers with even a casual interest in science will want to take a look.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
To understand what sets humans apart from other creatures, look at their dreams. So argues evolutionary psychologist Nicholas Humphrey as he probes the distinctive cognitive balance that humans maintain through nightly adventures in dreamland. But other scientists approach the puzzles of human life from different perspectives, now rapidly expanding in genetics, neurophysiology, biochemistry, and quantum physics. What curious nonspecialist, then, could resist a volume bringing together all of these perspectives? Originating in 36 interviews conducted by Spanish television personality Eduardo Punset, the conversations collected here provide a capacious survey of cutting-edge science. Judicious editing helps readers recognize the themes linking these wide-ranging reflections. Again and again it is the paradox of human identity that commands attention. Naturalist Jane Goodall, for instance, ponders the disturbing similarities between aggressive chimpanzees and war-prone humans. Meanwhile, biochemist Sydney Brenner muses on how humans have converted cultural evolution into the new engine driving species change. And physicist Eugene Chudnovsky contemplates a future in which human inventiveness may create half-human, half-computer cyborgs. Rich food for speculation! Christensen, Bryce