Mind, life, and universe : conversations with great scientists of our time

Format: Print Book 2007
Availability: Available at 1 Library 1 of 2 copies
Available (1)
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CLP - Main Library Second Floor - Non-fiction Q141.M5 2007
Location  CLP - Main Library
 
Collection  Second Floor - Non-fiction
 
Call Number  Q141.M5 2007
 
 
 
Unavailable (1)
Location Collection Status
Shaler North Hills Library Non-Fiction CHECKED OUT
Location  Shaler North Hills Library
 
Collection  Non-Fiction
 
Status  CHECKED OUT
 
 
Summary
Nearly forty of the world's most esteemed scientists discuss the big questions that drive their illustrious careers. Coeditor Eduardo Punset--one of Spain's most loved personages for his popularization of the sciences-- interviews an impressive collection of characters, drawing out their seldom-seen personalities. In Mind, Life and Universe, they describe in their own words the most important and fascinating aspects of their research. Frank and often irreverent, these interviews will keep even the most casual reader of science books rapt for hours.
Can brain science explain feelings of happiness and despair? Is it true that chimpanzees are just like us when it comes to sexual innuendo? Is there any hard evidence that life exists anywhere other than on the Earth? Through Punset's skillful questioning, readers meet one scientist who spends her waking hours assuring the freedom of African primates, another passionate about his idea that his wife's choice of husband was determined when she was a fetus, and another who explains the evidence for more than the standard four dimensions of length, width, height, and time.
In captivating conversations with such science luminaries as Richard Dawkins, Sheldon Glashow, Jane Goodall, James E. Lovelock, Lisa Randall, Robert Sapolski, Oliver Sacks, and E. O.Wilson, the editors reveal a unique, hidden world of intellectual interest, verve, and humor. Science enthusiasts and general readers alike will devour Mind, Life and Universe.
Contents
Intelligent life on earth? / Nicholas Mackintosh
Stressed chimps / Robert Sapolsky
Nearly human / Jane Goodall
A question of degree / Jordi Sabater Pi
Like ants, bees, and termites, but different / Edward O. Wilson
Can beauty be measured? / Victor Johnston
Science of happiness / Daniel Gilbert
Psychopaths / Robert Hare
No one is boss / Daniel Dennett
The hidden self / Oliver Sacks
Locked in the dark / Rodolfo Lliná́s
Dialogue with fear / Joseph Ledoux
Fretful worry / Kenneth Kendler
Drumbeats / Steven Strogatz
Survival, not truth, is imperative / Richard Gregory
Dreaming to learn / Nicholas Humphrey
Music and talk / Diana Deutsch
The secret code / Sydney Brenner
Beyond the human genome / William Haseltine
The second brain / Phillip Tobias and Ralph Holloway
Immortality from your mother / Douglas Wallace
Inevitability of aging? / Tom Kirkwood
Life, master of the earth / James E. Lovelock
Life is a mistake / Kenneth H. Nealson
Evolution and purpose / Stephen Jay Gould
The code of the dead / Richard Dawkins
Purpose of evolution / Dorion Sagan
Life as growth / William Day
Our ancestor, the bacterium / Ricardo Guerrero
Different from amoebae / John Bonner
Walk through a cloud of electrons / Eugene Chudnovsky
Atomic consciousness / Heinrich Rohrer
Too huge for the atom, too tiny for the star / Sheldon Lee Glashow
New dimensions / Lisa Randall
Manipulation by dwarves / Nicolá́s García
Space destroyed and time obliterated / Paul Davies.

Additional Information
Subjects Scientists -- Interviews.
Science.
Publisher White River Junction, Vt. :Chelsea Green Pub.,2007
Contributors Margulis, Lynn, 1938-2011.
Punset, Eduard, 1936-
Language English
Notes "A Sciencewriters book."
Description xx, 358 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Bibliography Notes Includes bibliographical references (pages [341]-345) and index.
ISBN 9781933392615 (hbk.)
1933392614 (hbk.)
9781933392431 (pbk.)
1933392436 (pbk.)
Other Classic View