Author: John D. Barrow
Publisher: Vintage
Genre: Science
Release: Aug 2002 My Rating: 0
Summary: From our modern perspective, it is easy to deride the wranglings of medieval scholars over the number of angels that could dance of the head of a pin and whether Nature abhors a vacuum. But as John Barrow reveals in this timely and important book, new discoveries in science have shown that these scholars were right to suspect that Nothing has hidden depths.
It is a concept shot through with paradoxes: even innocent-looking phrases like "Nothing is real" flip their meanings as we ponder them, like those illusions that look like a vase one moment, and opposing faces the next. Nothing is fertile, too, as Barrow shows via a stunning trick that allows every number one can think of to be built out of nothing at all.
But his book is about far more than mind games. Arguably, the most important discovery of 20th-century physics is that there is no such thing as nothing: even the tightest vacuum is teeming with subatomic particles popping in and out of existence, according to the dictates of quantum theory. Now, many astronomers suspect that such "vacuum effects" may have triggered the Big Bang itself, filling our universe with matter. Indeed, the very latest observations suggest that vacuum effects will dictate the ultimate fate of the universe.
As an internationally respected cosmologist, Barrow does a fine job of explaining these new discoveries. The result is a book that is required reading for anyone who wants to understand why there will be much ado about Nothing among scientists in the years ahead.
--Robert Matthews, Amazon.co.uk
Publisher: Vintage
Genre: Science
Release: Aug 2002 My Rating: 0
Summary: From our modern perspective, it is easy to deride the wranglings of medieval scholars over the number of angels that could dance of the head of a pin and whether Nature abhors a vacuum. But as John Barrow reveals in this timely and important book, new discoveries in science have shown that these scholars were right to suspect that Nothing has hidden depths.
It is a concept shot through with paradoxes: even innocent-looking phrases like "Nothing is real" flip their meanings as we ponder them, like those illusions that look like a vase one moment, and opposing faces the next. Nothing is fertile, too, as Barrow shows via a stunning trick that allows every number one can think of to be built out of nothing at all.
But his book is about far more than mind games. Arguably, the most important discovery of 20th-century physics is that there is no such thing as nothing: even the tightest vacuum is teeming with subatomic particles popping in and out of existence, according to the dictates of quantum theory. Now, many astronomers suspect that such "vacuum effects" may have triggered the Big Bang itself, filling our universe with matter. Indeed, the very latest observations suggest that vacuum effects will dictate the ultimate fate of the universe.
As an internationally respected cosmologist, Barrow does a fine job of explaining these new discoveries. The result is a book that is required reading for anyone who wants to understand why there will be much ado about Nothing among scientists in the years ahead.
--Robert Matthews, Amazon.co.uk
Author: James Gleick
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Genre: Science
Release: Dec 1988 My Rating: 0
Summary: Few writers distinguish themselves by their ability to write about complicated, even obscure topics clearly and engagingly. James Gleick, a former science writer for the "New York Times", resides in this exclusive category. In "Chaos", he takes on the job of depicting the first years of the study of chaos--the seemingly random patterns that characterize many natural phenomena.
This is not a purely technical book. Instead, it focuses as much on the scientists studying chaos as on the chaos itself. In the pages of Gleick's book, the reader meets dozens of extraordinary and eccentric people. For instance, Mitchell Feigenbaum, who constructed and regulated his life by a 26-hour clock and watched his waking hours come in and out of phase with those of his coworkers at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
As for chaos itself, Gleick does an outstanding job of explaining the thought processes and investigative techniques that researchers bring to bear on chaos problems. Rather than attempt to explain Julia sets, Lorenz attractors, and the Mandelbrot Set with gigantically complicated equations, "Chaos" relies on sketches, photographs, and Gleick's wonderful descriptive prose.
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Genre: Science
Release: Dec 1988 My Rating: 0
Summary: Few writers distinguish themselves by their ability to write about complicated, even obscure topics clearly and engagingly. James Gleick, a former science writer for the "New York Times", resides in this exclusive category. In "Chaos", he takes on the job of depicting the first years of the study of chaos--the seemingly random patterns that characterize many natural phenomena.
This is not a purely technical book. Instead, it focuses as much on the scientists studying chaos as on the chaos itself. In the pages of Gleick's book, the reader meets dozens of extraordinary and eccentric people. For instance, Mitchell Feigenbaum, who constructed and regulated his life by a 26-hour clock and watched his waking hours come in and out of phase with those of his coworkers at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
As for chaos itself, Gleick does an outstanding job of explaining the thought processes and investigative techniques that researchers bring to bear on chaos problems. Rather than attempt to explain Julia sets, Lorenz attractors, and the Mandelbrot Set with gigantically complicated equations, "Chaos" relies on sketches, photographs, and Gleick's wonderful descriptive prose.
Author: John D. Barrow
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Genre: Science
Release: Sep 1999 My Rating: 0
Summary: Perhaps it's a harbinger of the end of science that so much attention is being paid to the impossible. In "Impossibility", astronomer John D. Barrow outlines a maturation pattern for areas of deep human inquiry that includes an adolescence of exciting discoveries, new formulas, and unusual predictions. As science has matured, our confidence in it has grown. We expect that science has answers, that its predictive powers are mostly accurate. But what happens when the science gets old? Oddly enough, it seems to have started trying to find the end of its own usefulness--its formulas "predict that there are things which they cannot predict, observations which cannot be made, statements whose truth they can neither affirm nor deny."
Barrow's book is a fairly tough read, delving into topics as varied as theology, art, mathematics, and cosmology in its quest to define impossibility. But for those who have noticed that, "Scientists seem no longer content merely to describe what they have done or what Nature is like; they are keen to tell their audience what their discoveries "mean" for an ever-widening range of deep philosophical questions," "Impossibility" is an intriguing look at the evolution of our thoughts on knowing everything. Without limits, there would be no science, and though our imaginations may roam freely through the realms of impossibility, we may find in the end that "what cannot be known is more revealing than what can." "--Therese Littleton"
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Genre: Science
Release: Sep 1999 My Rating: 0
Summary: Perhaps it's a harbinger of the end of science that so much attention is being paid to the impossible. In "Impossibility", astronomer John D. Barrow outlines a maturation pattern for areas of deep human inquiry that includes an adolescence of exciting discoveries, new formulas, and unusual predictions. As science has matured, our confidence in it has grown. We expect that science has answers, that its predictive powers are mostly accurate. But what happens when the science gets old? Oddly enough, it seems to have started trying to find the end of its own usefulness--its formulas "predict that there are things which they cannot predict, observations which cannot be made, statements whose truth they can neither affirm nor deny."
Barrow's book is a fairly tough read, delving into topics as varied as theology, art, mathematics, and cosmology in its quest to define impossibility. But for those who have noticed that, "Scientists seem no longer content merely to describe what they have done or what Nature is like; they are keen to tell their audience what their discoveries "mean" for an ever-widening range of deep philosophical questions," "Impossibility" is an intriguing look at the evolution of our thoughts on knowing everything. Without limits, there would be no science, and though our imaginations may roam freely through the realms of impossibility, we may find in the end that "what cannot be known is more revealing than what can." "--Therese Littleton"
Author: N.Ya. Vilenkin
Publisher: Springer
Genre: Science
Release: Aug 1995 My Rating: 0
Summary: The concept of infinity has been for hundreds of years one of the most fascinating and elusive ideas to tantalize the minds of scholars and lay people alike. The theory of infinite sets lies at the heart of much mathematics, yet it has produced a series of paradoxes that have led many scholars to doubt the soundness of its foundations. The author of this book presents a popular-level account of the roads followed by human thought in an attempt to understand the idea of the infinite in mathematics and physics. In so doing, he brings to the general reader a deep insight into the nature of the problem and its importance to an understanding of our world.
Publisher: Springer
Genre: Science
Release: Aug 1995 My Rating: 0
Summary: The concept of infinity has been for hundreds of years one of the most fascinating and elusive ideas to tantalize the minds of scholars and lay people alike. The theory of infinite sets lies at the heart of much mathematics, yet it has produced a series of paradoxes that have led many scholars to doubt the soundness of its foundations. The author of this book presents a popular-level account of the roads followed by human thought in an attempt to understand the idea of the infinite in mathematics and physics. In so doing, he brings to the general reader a deep insight into the nature of the problem and its importance to an understanding of our world.
Author: Henning Genz, Translated By Karin Heusch
Publisher: Perseus Books Group
Genre: Science
Release: Jan 2001 My Rating: 0
Summary: What can you say about nothing? Paradoxically, it turns out we know quite a lot about emptiness, and physicist Henning Genz fills us in with "Nothingness: The Science of Empty Space", a heady and delightful romp through the cold void of space. From Aristotle's "horror vacui" to modern quantum-mechanical confirmation that nature does indeed abhor a vacuum, Genz rockets us through the inky blackness with clarity and playfulness. The concept of the absolute void is one of the few that touches both the farthest reaches of philosophy and the most intimate corners of experimental physics, and the push and pull between these two fields has never been more plain. Torricelli's demonstration of the vacuum in Renaissance times turned his world inside out; it took hundreds of years for scientists to conclude that the seeming emptiness actually froths with "virtual particles" and the just barely real Higgs field. The stories are uniformly engrossing and enlightening, and while the science can get a bit abstruse from time to time, the narrative thread runs independently of the hard stuff. If you want the dirt on the most ephemeral of scientific subjects, look to Genz; he's done the impossible and created something out of "Nothingness".
--Rob Lightner
Publisher: Perseus Books Group
Genre: Science
Release: Jan 2001 My Rating: 0
Summary: What can you say about nothing? Paradoxically, it turns out we know quite a lot about emptiness, and physicist Henning Genz fills us in with "Nothingness: The Science of Empty Space", a heady and delightful romp through the cold void of space. From Aristotle's "horror vacui" to modern quantum-mechanical confirmation that nature does indeed abhor a vacuum, Genz rockets us through the inky blackness with clarity and playfulness. The concept of the absolute void is one of the few that touches both the farthest reaches of philosophy and the most intimate corners of experimental physics, and the push and pull between these two fields has never been more plain. Torricelli's demonstration of the vacuum in Renaissance times turned his world inside out; it took hundreds of years for scientists to conclude that the seeming emptiness actually froths with "virtual particles" and the just barely real Higgs field. The stories are uniformly engrossing and enlightening, and while the science can get a bit abstruse from time to time, the narrative thread runs independently of the hard stuff. If you want the dirt on the most ephemeral of scientific subjects, look to Genz; he's done the impossible and created something out of "Nothingness".
--Rob Lightner
Author: John D. Barrow
Publisher: Basic Books
Genre: Science
Release: Jan 1994 My Rating: 0
Summary: There is no more profound, enduring, or fascinating question in all of science than that of how time, space, and matter began. Now John Barrow, who has been at the cutting edge of research in this area and has written extensively about it, guides readers on a journey to the beginning of time, into a world of temperatures and densities so high that we cannot re-create them in the laboratory. With new insights, he draws us into the latest speculative theories about the nature of time and the inflationary universe, explains wormholes, showing how they bear upon the fact of our own existence, and considers whether there was a singularity at the inception of the universe. Here is a treatment so up-to-date and intellectually rich, dealing with ideas and speculation at the farthest frontier of science, that neither novice nor expert will want to miss what Barrow has to say. He shows how scientists, by exploring crucial points of contact between the behavior of matter during its early history and the observed structure of the universe today, came to understand more fully all the entities in the universefrom elementary particles to great clusters of galaxies.
Publisher: Basic Books
Genre: Science
Release: Jan 1994 My Rating: 0
Summary: There is no more profound, enduring, or fascinating question in all of science than that of how time, space, and matter began. Now John Barrow, who has been at the cutting edge of research in this area and has written extensively about it, guides readers on a journey to the beginning of time, into a world of temperatures and densities so high that we cannot re-create them in the laboratory. With new insights, he draws us into the latest speculative theories about the nature of time and the inflationary universe, explains wormholes, showing how they bear upon the fact of our own existence, and considers whether there was a singularity at the inception of the universe. Here is a treatment so up-to-date and intellectually rich, dealing with ideas and speculation at the farthest frontier of science, that neither novice nor expert will want to miss what Barrow has to say. He shows how scientists, by exploring crucial points of contact between the behavior of matter during its early history and the observed structure of the universe today, came to understand more fully all the entities in the universefrom elementary particles to great clusters of galaxies.
Author: Sten F. Odenwald
Publisher: Westview Press
Genre: Science
Release: Jun 2002 My Rating: 0
Summary: Explores the fascinating story of how the concepts of empty space, vacuum and the void reveal an incomprehensibly alien landscape in which all of existence is imbedded.
Patterns in the Void examines the great dark matter and dark regions that pervade the universe, from elementary particles to the immense areas of "vacuum" that make up most of deep space, and everything that is - or is not. Like the void itself, the book ranges in temporal and spatial scales - from our human world, down to the molecular and sub-atomic world, and up into the farthest reaches of the expanding universe. Complementing such recent books as K.C. Cole's "The Hole in the Universe" and Lawrence Krauss' "Quintessence", "Patterns in the Void" weaves the human element into understanding this modern science, telling stories of ancient sacrifices, paranormal experiences, purported alien abductions, and more - all part of the human dilemma to make sense about the vast unknown.
Publisher: Westview Press
Genre: Science
Release: Jun 2002 My Rating: 0
Summary: Explores the fascinating story of how the concepts of empty space, vacuum and the void reveal an incomprehensibly alien landscape in which all of existence is imbedded.
Patterns in the Void examines the great dark matter and dark regions that pervade the universe, from elementary particles to the immense areas of "vacuum" that make up most of deep space, and everything that is - or is not. Like the void itself, the book ranges in temporal and spatial scales - from our human world, down to the molecular and sub-atomic world, and up into the farthest reaches of the expanding universe. Complementing such recent books as K.C. Cole's "The Hole in the Universe" and Lawrence Krauss' "Quintessence", "Patterns in the Void" weaves the human element into understanding this modern science, telling stories of ancient sacrifices, paranormal experiences, purported alien abductions, and more - all part of the human dilemma to make sense about the vast unknown.
Author: Rozsa Peter
Publisher: Dover Publications
Genre: Science
Release: Jun 1976 My Rating: 0
Summary: Popular account ranges from counting to mathematical logic and covers the many mathematical concepts that relate to infinity: graphic representation of functions; pairings and other combinations; prime numbers; logarithms and circular functions; formulas, analytical geometry; infinite lines, complex numbers, expansion in the power series; metamathematics; the undecidable problem, more.
Publisher: Dover Publications
Genre: Science
Release: Jun 1976 My Rating: 0
Summary: Popular account ranges from counting to mathematical logic and covers the many mathematical concepts that relate to infinity: graphic representation of functions; pairings and other combinations; prime numbers; logarithms and circular functions; formulas, analytical geometry; infinite lines, complex numbers, expansion in the power series; metamathematics; the undecidable problem, more.
Author: John D. Barrow
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Genre: Science
Release: Oct 1992 My Rating: 0
Summary: The Holy Grail of modern scientists is the "Theory of Everything," which will contain all that can be known about the Universe -- the magic formula that Einstein spent his life searching for and failed to find. In this elegant and exciting book, John Barrow challenges the quest for ultimate explanation.
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Genre: Science
Release: Oct 1992 My Rating: 0
Summary: The Holy Grail of modern scientists is the "Theory of Everything," which will contain all that can be known about the Universe -- the magic formula that Einstein spent his life searching for and failed to find. In this elegant and exciting book, John Barrow challenges the quest for ultimate explanation.
Author: Stephen W. Hawking
Publisher: New Millennium Press
Genre: Science
Release: Jan 2002 My Rating: 0
Summary: With a title inspired as much by Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker" series as Einstein, "The Theory of Everything" delivers almost as much as it promises. Transcribed from Stephen Hawking's Cambridge Lectures, the slim volume may not present a single theory unifying gravity with the other fundamental forces, but it does carefully explain the state of late 20th-century physics with the great scientist's characteristic humility and charm. Explicitly shunning math, Hawking explains the fruits of 100 years of heavy thinking with metaphors that are simple but never condescending--he compares the settling of the newborn universe into symmetry to the formation of ice crystals in a glass of water, for example. While he explores his own work (especially when speaking about black holes), he also discusses the important milestones achieved by others like Richard Feynman. Though occasionally an impenetrably obscure phrase does slip by, the reader will find the bulk of the text enlightening and engaging. The material, from the nature of time to the possibility that the universe has no beginning or end, is rich and deep and inevitably ignites metaphysical thinking. After all, Hawking is famous for his "we would know the mind of God" remark, which ends the final lecture herein.
--Rob Lightner
Publisher: New Millennium Press
Genre: Science
Release: Jan 2002 My Rating: 0
Summary: With a title inspired as much by Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker" series as Einstein, "The Theory of Everything" delivers almost as much as it promises. Transcribed from Stephen Hawking's Cambridge Lectures, the slim volume may not present a single theory unifying gravity with the other fundamental forces, but it does carefully explain the state of late 20th-century physics with the great scientist's characteristic humility and charm. Explicitly shunning math, Hawking explains the fruits of 100 years of heavy thinking with metaphors that are simple but never condescending--he compares the settling of the newborn universe into symmetry to the formation of ice crystals in a glass of water, for example. While he explores his own work (especially when speaking about black holes), he also discusses the important milestones achieved by others like Richard Feynman. Though occasionally an impenetrably obscure phrase does slip by, the reader will find the bulk of the text enlightening and engaging. The material, from the nature of time to the possibility that the universe has no beginning or end, is rich and deep and inevitably ignites metaphysical thinking. After all, Hawking is famous for his "we would know the mind of God" remark, which ends the final lecture herein.
--Rob Lightner
Author: Bart Simon
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Genre: Science
Release: Jan 2002 My Rating: 0
Summary: Undead Science examines the story of cold fusion, one of the most publicized scientific controversies of the late twentieth century. In 1989 two Utah-based "discoverers" claimed to have developed an electrochemical process that produced more energy than was required to initiate the process. Finding no other explanation, the researchers described their findings as some kind of nuclear reaction. If they were correct, an important new energy source would have been found. Objections surfaced quickly, and in the year that followed hundreds of scientists worldwide attempted to reproduce these results. Most, though not all, failed, and the controversy became increasingly antagonistic. By 1990, the promise of an energy revolution died as scientific opinion favored the skeptics. Nevertheless, many scientists continue to do research on cold fusion, an instance of what Bart Simon calls "undead science."
Simon argues that in spite of widespread skepticism in the scientific community, there has been a continued effort to make sense of the controversial phenomenon. Researchers in well-respected laboratories continue to produce new and rigorous work. In this manner, cold fusion research continues to exist long after the controversy has subsided, even though the existence of cold fusion is circumscribed by the widespread belief that the phenomenon is not real.
The survival of cold fusion signals the need for a more complex understanding of the social dynamics of scientific knowledge making, the boundaries between experts, intermediaries, and the lay public, and the conceptualization of failure in the history of science and technology.
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Genre: Science
Release: Jan 2002 My Rating: 0
Summary: Undead Science examines the story of cold fusion, one of the most publicized scientific controversies of the late twentieth century. In 1989 two Utah-based "discoverers" claimed to have developed an electrochemical process that produced more energy than was required to initiate the process. Finding no other explanation, the researchers described their findings as some kind of nuclear reaction. If they were correct, an important new energy source would have been found. Objections surfaced quickly, and in the year that followed hundreds of scientists worldwide attempted to reproduce these results. Most, though not all, failed, and the controversy became increasingly antagonistic. By 1990, the promise of an energy revolution died as scientific opinion favored the skeptics. Nevertheless, many scientists continue to do research on cold fusion, an instance of what Bart Simon calls "undead science."
Simon argues that in spite of widespread skepticism in the scientific community, there has been a continued effort to make sense of the controversial phenomenon. Researchers in well-respected laboratories continue to produce new and rigorous work. In this manner, cold fusion research continues to exist long after the controversy has subsided, even though the existence of cold fusion is circumscribed by the widespread belief that the phenomenon is not real.
The survival of cold fusion signals the need for a more complex understanding of the social dynamics of scientific knowledge making, the boundaries between experts, intermediaries, and the lay public, and the conceptualization of failure in the history of science and technology.
Author: Stephen Hawking
Publisher: Bantam
Genre: Science
Release: Sep 1998 My Rating: 5
Summary: Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic "A Brief History of Time" to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to reveal these questions (and where we're looking for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time, and physicists' search for a grand unifying theory. This is "deep" science; these concepts are so vast (or so tiny) as to cause vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking, for, as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind of God." "--Therese Littleton"
Publisher: Bantam
Genre: Science
Release: Sep 1998 My Rating: 5
Summary: Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic "A Brief History of Time" to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to reveal these questions (and where we're looking for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time, and physicists' search for a grand unifying theory. This is "deep" science; these concepts are so vast (or so tiny) as to cause vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking, for, as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind of God." "--Therese Littleton"
Author: Frank Ryan
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Genre: Science
Release: Dec 2002 My Rating: 5
Summary: While Charles Darwin's vision of evolution was brilliant, natural selection ignores a crucial force that helps to explain the diversity and wonder of life: symbiosis. In Darwin's Blind Spot, Frank Ryan shows how the blending of life forms through symbiosis has resulted in gigantic leaps in evolution. The dependence of many flowering plants on insects and birds for pollination is an important instance of symbiosis. More surprising may be the fact that our cells have incorporated bacteria that allow us to breathe oxygen. And the equivalent of symbiosis within a species -- cooperation -- has been a vital, although largely ignored, force in human evolution. In Ryan's view, cooperation, not competition, lies at the heart of human society. Ryan mixes stories of the many strange and beautiful results of symbiosis with accounts of the dramatic historic rivalries over the expansion of Darwin's theory. He also examines controversial research being done today, including studies suggesting that symbiosis among viruses led to the evolution of mammals and thus of humans. Too often Darwin's interpreters have put excessive emphasis on competition and struggle as the only forces in evolution. But the idea of "survival of the fittest" does not always reign. Symbiosis is critically important to the richness of Earth's life forms.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Genre: Science
Release: Dec 2002 My Rating: 5
Summary: While Charles Darwin's vision of evolution was brilliant, natural selection ignores a crucial force that helps to explain the diversity and wonder of life: symbiosis. In Darwin's Blind Spot, Frank Ryan shows how the blending of life forms through symbiosis has resulted in gigantic leaps in evolution. The dependence of many flowering plants on insects and birds for pollination is an important instance of symbiosis. More surprising may be the fact that our cells have incorporated bacteria that allow us to breathe oxygen. And the equivalent of symbiosis within a species -- cooperation -- has been a vital, although largely ignored, force in human evolution. In Ryan's view, cooperation, not competition, lies at the heart of human society. Ryan mixes stories of the many strange and beautiful results of symbiosis with accounts of the dramatic historic rivalries over the expansion of Darwin's theory. He also examines controversial research being done today, including studies suggesting that symbiosis among viruses led to the evolution of mammals and thus of humans. Too often Darwin's interpreters have put excessive emphasis on competition and struggle as the only forces in evolution. But the idea of "survival of the fittest" does not always reign. Symbiosis is critically important to the richness of Earth's life forms.
Author: Ullica Segerstrale
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Genre: Science
Release: May 2000 My Rating: 5
Summary: How do scientists separate their politics from their work--or is such a distinction even possible? These questions frame the two levels of sociologist Ullica Segerstrale's analysis of the sociobiology controversy, "Defenders of the Truth". From E.O. Wilson's 1975 publication of "Sociobiology" to his 1998 release of "Consilience", he has consistently been the often-unwilling center of the vitriolic debate over human nature and its scientific study. Heavy hitters like Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, and John Maynard Smith have lined up to attack and defend the scientific, political, and moral interpretations and implications of Wilson's synthesis, and Dr. Segerstrale tells a compelling story of their battles on multiple fronts. The author knows her science, having trained extensively in biochemistry before turning to sociology. While she distances herself from assessing the validity of the various claims, Segerstrale is clearly sympathetic to Wilson, who seems almost naïve at times when his ideas are interpreted ideologically rather than scientifically.
That, of course, is the heart of the contention surrounding sociobiology. The political left, well-represented among evolutionary biologists, has long considered any genetic influence on human behavior anathema--such theories are believed to support racist policies, even in the unlikely event that they were not merely reflections of racist attitudes. To their credit, many scientists held more complex beliefs, but some used the ideological argument as a back door to introduce their own neo-Darwinian scientific theories. The struggle for understanding has been eclipsed for some time by the struggle for political and academic survival and dominance, and Segerstrale reports and scrutinizes both with humor, intelligence, and aplomb. The end of the controversy--if there can be one--is far off, but a careful reading of "Defenders of the Truth" will give insight into the forces influencing our scientific self-examination. "--Rob Lightner"
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Genre: Science
Release: May 2000 My Rating: 5
Summary: How do scientists separate their politics from their work--or is such a distinction even possible? These questions frame the two levels of sociologist Ullica Segerstrale's analysis of the sociobiology controversy, "Defenders of the Truth". From E.O. Wilson's 1975 publication of "Sociobiology" to his 1998 release of "Consilience", he has consistently been the often-unwilling center of the vitriolic debate over human nature and its scientific study. Heavy hitters like Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, and John Maynard Smith have lined up to attack and defend the scientific, political, and moral interpretations and implications of Wilson's synthesis, and Dr. Segerstrale tells a compelling story of their battles on multiple fronts. The author knows her science, having trained extensively in biochemistry before turning to sociology. While she distances herself from assessing the validity of the various claims, Segerstrale is clearly sympathetic to Wilson, who seems almost naïve at times when his ideas are interpreted ideologically rather than scientifically.
That, of course, is the heart of the contention surrounding sociobiology. The political left, well-represented among evolutionary biologists, has long considered any genetic influence on human behavior anathema--such theories are believed to support racist policies, even in the unlikely event that they were not merely reflections of racist attitudes. To their credit, many scientists held more complex beliefs, but some used the ideological argument as a back door to introduce their own neo-Darwinian scientific theories. The struggle for understanding has been eclipsed for some time by the struggle for political and academic survival and dominance, and Segerstrale reports and scrutinizes both with humor, intelligence, and aplomb. The end of the controversy--if there can be one--is far off, but a careful reading of "Defenders of the Truth" will give insight into the forces influencing our scientific self-examination. "--Rob Lightner"