Doing Science. The Reality Club - Volume 2

Thirteen essays deal with topics in the applied and theoretical sciences, by such authors as Kevin Kelly, Dorion Sagan, Lynn Margolis, and others

Brockman ( Afterwords ), founder of a society of intellectuals called The Reality Club, gathers a dozen intriguing essays from its members. MIT researcher K. Eric Drexler says the future will bring nanotechnology, with "computers and robotic arms smaller than a living cell . . . building up structures atom by atom" to construct ever more powerful computers and permit cellular surgeryp. 73 . James E. Lovelock, formulator of the controversial Gaia theory of the earth, explores how peer review, the academic "well-meaning but narrow-minded nanny," can discourage innovative approaches to research. Theoretical physicist Richard Morris tells how to distinguish "crackpot" pseudoscience from genuine, if seemingly bizarre, scientific theory. Biologist Lynn Margulis suggests that the popular Neo-Darwinism, which views the world as mechanistic, could be ripe for challenge from "autopoiesis," a concept of life focusing on its "dynamic, self-producing, and self-maintaining activities." Entertaining and stimulating, these pieces give nonscientists glimpses of lively, ongoing scientific inquiries.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In the second of the "Reality Club" series (the first was Speculations , Prentice Hall Pr., 1990), Renaissance man Brockman gathers a group of essays that can only be called a cataloger's nightmare; there are essays on the human immune system, the "measurement" of love, the metaphysics of physics, the metaphysics of sex. The book's theme has something to do with scientific thinking out on the edge; many of the writers have eminent reputations in their fields. Most of the essays are frankly and unabashedly fascinating, even if the reader isn't always sure of what exactly is going on. Unusual and provocative, this book will please curious readers with catholic taste. For larger general collections. The third volume, Ways of Knowing , is scheduled for publication in January 1991.
- Mark L. Shelton, Columbus, Ohio
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.