Unweaving the Rainbow
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Unweaving the Rainbow

Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder

Richard Dawkins

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eBook - ePub

Unweaving the Rainbow

Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder

Richard Dawkins

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About This Book

From the New York Times– bestselling author of Science in the Soul. "If any recent writing about science is poetic, it is this" ( The Wall Street Journal ). Did Sir Isaac Newton "unweave the rainbow" by reducing it to its prismatic colors, as John Keats contended? Did he, in other words, diminish beauty? Far from it, says acclaimed scientist Richard Dawkins; Newton's unweaving is the key too much of modern astronomy and to the breathtaking poetry of modern cosmology. Mysteries don't lose their poetry because they are solved: the solution often is more beautiful than the puzzle, uncovering deeper mysteries. With the wit, insight, and spellbinding prose that have made him a bestselling author, Dawkins takes up the most important and compelling topics in modern science, from astronomy and genetics to language and virtual reality, combining them in a landmark statement of the human appetite for wonder. This is the book Dawkins was meant to write: A brilliant assessment of what science is (and isn't), a tribute to science not because it is useful but because it is uplifting. "A love letter to science, an attempt to counter the perception that science is cold and devoid of aesthetic sensibility... Rich with metaphor, passionate arguments, wry humor, colorful examples, and unexpected connections, Dawkins' prose can be mesmerizing." — San Francisco Chronicle "Brilliance and wit." — The New Yorker

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Information

Publisher
Mariner Books
Year
2000
ISBN
9780547347356

Index

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Numbers in parentheses refer to relevant works numbered in the bibliography.

A

Abraham 217
Adams, Douglas 29
aeroplanes, scepticism about 130–1, (20)
Afrikaners, genetic disease 104, (11)
Akenside, Mark 38
aliens see life, extra-terrestrial
altruism, individual and gene selfishness 212, (31), (125)
angler fish 174–6, 245–6
animal as model of world 240
anteaters 242
ants 252–3, (68)
Appleyard, Bryan 37, (2)
aquatic mammals 242–5
arms race 232–3, (30), (145)
arts, spending on 5–6
Asatru Folk Assembly 19
Asimov, Isaac 27, 118, 142, (3)
asteroids, and mass extinctions 76, (1)
astrology 115–24, 185–6, (37)
astronomy 115–18, (122), (127), (128)
At Home in the Universe (S. Kauffman) 202–3, 207, (80)
Atkins, Peter, ix, 18, 30, (4)
Attneave, Fred 259, (6), (8)
Auden, W. H. 15, 199
aunt, Apthorpe’s or levitating 131
Australopithecus 288, 289, (90)
Aztecs 181, (54)

B

bacteria 9, (99)
bad poetry in science 180, 187, (58), (59)
barcodes x–xi, 49, 71, 81–2, 102
Barlow, Horace 257–8, (8)
bats, and sound 70, 72
beauty 63–4
Bede, the Venerable 3
Bellamy, David 124
bestseller lists 291, (30)
Beyond Belief (television series) 126–7
Big Bang theory 60, (122), (135)
birds
birthdays, coincidence 152–4
Blackmore, Susan 302, 308, (10)
Blake, William 16–17
Blind Watchmaker, The (R. Dawkins...

Table of contents