Richard Dawkins - The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing

The Oxford Book of

MODERN SCIENCE WRITING

This page intentionally left blank

The Oxford Book of

MODERN

SCIENCE

WRITING

RICHARD DAWKINS

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.

It furthers the Universitys objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in

Oxford New York

Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi

New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto

With offi ces in

Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries

Published in the United States

by Oxford University Press Inc., New York

Introduction, selection and commentary

Richard Dawkins 2008

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

Database right Oxford University Press (maker)

First published 2008

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above

You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Data available

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Data available

Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain

on acid-free paper by

Clays Ltd, St Ives plc

ISBN 9780199216802

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

For Charles Simonyi,

who loves science, loves language,

and understands how to put them together

This page intentionally left blank

CONTENTS

viii . CONTENTS

CONTENTS . ix

x . CONTENTS

Atkins, Peter (1940 ) Chemist and writer. Extract from Creation Revisited, Penguin, 1994.

Bak, Per (19482002) Theoretical physicist. How Nature Works, OUP, 1997.

Blakemore, Colin (1944 ) Neurobiologist. Sight Unseen, BBC books, 1988.

Bonner, John Tyler (1920 ) Biologist. Life Cycles: Refl ections of an EvolutionaryBiologist, Princeton University Press, 1993.

Brenner, Sydney (1927 ) Biologist and Nobel laureate. Theoretical Biology in the Third Millennium, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B, 354, 19631965, 1999.

Bronowski, Jacob (19081974) Mathematician and broadcaster. The Identity ofMan, Prometheus, 2002. First published 1965.

Carson, Rachel (19071964) Marine biologist and natural history writer. The SeaAround Us, OUP, 1989. First published 1951.

Chandrasekhar, S. (19101995) Astrophysicist and Nobel laureate. Truth andBeauty, University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Crick, Francis (19162004) Molecular biologist and Nobel laureate. What MadPursuit, Basic Books Inc., 1988, and Life Itself, Macdonald and Co, 1981.

Cronin, Helena (1942 ) Philosopher of biology. The Ant and the Peacock, Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Davies, Paul (1946 ) Cosmologist and science writer. The Goldilocks Enigma, Allen Lane, 2006.

Dennett, Daniel C. (1942 ) Philosopher. Consciousness Explained, Penguin, 1993

and Darwins Dangerous Idea, Penguin, 1996.

Deutsch, David (1953 ) Physicist. Fabric of Reality, Penguin, 1997.

Diamond, Jared (1937 ) Evolutionary biologist, biogeographer and writer.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee, Vintage, 1992.

Dobzhansky, Theodosius (19001975) Geneticist and evolutionary biologist.

Mankind Evolving, Yale University Press, 1962.

xii . FEATURED WRITERS AND EXTRACTS

Dyson, Freeman (1923 ) Physicist and mathematician. Disturbing the Universe, Pan Books, 1981.

Eddington, Sir Arthur (18821944) Astrophysicist. The Expanding Universe, Cambridge Penguin, 1940.

Edey, Maitland A. (19101992) Science writer and conservationist. Donald C. Johanson and Maitland A. Edey, Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind, Penguin, 1990. First published 1981.

Einstein, Albert (18791955) Theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate. Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, Wings Books, 1954. What is the theory of relativity?

published in The London Times, 1919. Religion and Science published in the New York Times Magazine, 1930.

Eiseley, Loren (19071977) Anthropologist, ecologist and writer. How Flowers Changed the World and Little Men and Flying Saucers, in The ImmenseJourney, Vintage, 1957.

Feynman, Richard P. (19181988) Theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate.

The Character of Physical Law, Penguin, 1992.

Fisher, Sir Ronald (18901962) Statistician, evolutionary biologist and geneticist.

The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, OUP, 2006.

Ford, Kenneth (1926 ) Physicist. John Archibald Wheeler and Kenneth Ford, Geons, Black Holes and Quantum Foam: a life in physics, WW Norton, 1998.

Fortey, Richard (1946 ) Palaeontologist. Trilobite!, Flamingo, 2001. Originally published 2000. Life: an Unauthorised Biography, Flamingo, 1998.

Gamow, George (19041968) Theoretical physicist and cosmologist. Mr Tompkinsin Paperback, Cambridge University Press, 1993. Mr Tomkins in Wonderland fi rst published 1940.

Gardner, Martin (1914 ) Mathematics and Science Writer. Mathematical Games column, Scientifi c American , October 1970.

Gould, Stephen Jay (19412002) Palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist and writer. Worm for a Century and All Seasons, in Hens Teeth and Horses Toes, W W Norton & Co., 1983.

Greene, Brian (1963 ) Theoretical Physicist. The Elegant Universe, Vintage, 2000.

Gregory, Richard (1923 ) Neuropsychologist. Mirrors in Mind, W. H. Freeman

& Co. Ltd, 1997.

Haldane, J. B. S. (18921964) Geneticist and evolutionary biologist. On Being theRight Size and Other Essays, Oxford University Press, 1991, formerly published in Possible Worlds and Other Essays, Chatto & Windus, 1927. Cancers a Funny Thing, New Statesman, 1964.

Hamilton, W. D. (19362000) Evolutionary biologist. Geometry for the Selfi sh Herd, Journal of Theoretical Biology, , 295311, reprinted in Narrow Roads ofGene Land, Vol. 1. W. H. Freeman, 1996.

FEATURED WRITERS AND EXTRACTS . xiii

Hardin, Garrett (19152003) Ecologist. The Tragedy of the Commons, Science, , No. 3859, 124348, 1968.

Hardy, Alister (18961985) Marine biologist. The Open Sea: Its Natural History,Part 1: The World of Plankton. Collins, 1970. First published 1956.

Hardy, G.H. (18771947) Mathematician. A Mathematicians Apology, Cambridge University Press, 2007. First published 1940.

Hawking, Stephen