"The dazzling clutch of scientific minds caught in mid-thought here makes for a read that provokes thought in its turn. Delights abound." -Nature "What distinguishes scientists, in your eyes?" -Stefan Klein "First and foremost, curiosity." -Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Prize-winning chemist When Stefan Klein, an acclaimed journalist, sits down to talk with 18 of the world's leading scientists, he finds they're driven by, above all, curiosity. When they talk about their work, they turn to what's next, to what they still hope to discover. And they see inspiration everywhere: From the sports car that physicist Steven Weinberg says helped him on his quest for "the theory of everything" to the jazz musicians who gave psychologist Alison Gopnik new insight into raising children, they reveal how their paradigm-changing work entwines with their lives outside the lab. We hear from extraordinary natural and social scientists, including:
- Evolutionary biologistRichard Dawkinson ego and selflessness
- PrimatologistJane Goodallon chimpanzee behavior
- NeuroscientistV. S. Ramachandranon consciousness
- GeographerJared Diamondon chance in history
- AnthropologistSarah Hrdyon motherhood
- And cosmologistMartin Reeson how "ultimately we ourselves are stardust."
Autorentext
Stefan Klein, PhD, recipient of the prestigious Georg von Holtzbrink Prize for Scientific Journalism, is one of Europe's premier science writers, as well as himself a trained physicist. His many books include the #1 international bestseller The Science of Happiness and have been translated into twenty-five languages. Ross Benjamin is a translator and a writer. He has received the prestigious Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize as well as a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship.