How Things Are: A Science Tool-Kit for the Mind

A collection of more than thirty articles by leading science writers survey the most significant, controversial issues in science today, from Steven Jay Gould's "Three Facets of Evolution" to Lewis Wolpert's "Triumph of the Embryo." 10,000 first printing.

These 34 short, succinct, deceptively simple essays by eminent scientists provide a wonderful entry into scientific thought and discovery. Some of the selections impart basic understanding of the world around us?for example, why water is crucial to the emergence and persistence of life; to what extent DNA determines an individual's traits; and symmetries in cell structures, crystals and physical forces. Other pieces deal with more fundamental questions. Physicist Paul Davies investigates whether time suddenly "switched on" with the Big Bang. Anthropologist Milford Wolpoff explores evolutionary links between humans and apes. Contributors include biologists Lynn Margulis, Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins, anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson, cosmologist Alan Guth. Turning to the future, demographer Joel Cohen predicts a drastic, inevitable decline in global population growth, while paleontologist Niles Eldredge ponders the possibility that war, famine, disease or ecological devastation will make humans extinct. Brockman (The Third Culture) and Matson (Short Lives) are literary agents.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This is one of many books aimed at promoting the science literacy of the general public. Over 30 academic experts with a wide range of specialties contributed brief essays intended to stimulate readers' intellect and curiosity. The editors expect that in surveying these essays readers will begin to grasp the scientific method and understand the thought processes used to make hypotheses and arrive at conclusions. The essays reflect the expertise of their respective authors, who include zoologist Stephen Jay Gould, physicist Paul Davies, and chemist Robert Shapiro, but the book as a whole lacks a focal point. Limiting the articles to a single discipline would have been a better approach. A possible candidate for public libraries.?Bruce Slutsky, New Jersey Inst. of Technology Lib., Newark
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.