Review by Booklist Review
Every year, the website Edge.org a sort of online round table where experts in various fields trade ideas asks its contributors a specific question. The 2012 Edge question was, What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation? (A beautiful or elegant explanation is one that reduces a complex puzzle to a simple set of principles or assumptions.) The responses Brockman, founder of Edge, received range from the obvious (Darwin's theory of natural selection; DNA's double helix shape; the principle of inertia) to the obscure (the Higgs Mechanism, for example, or the Faurie-Raymond hypothesis). The more than 100 responses have a couple of things in common: they are clearly written, and their authors are enthusiastic, in some cases downright passionate, about selling their response as the one true answer to the Edge question. It's an eclectic collection of contributors, too: famed theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson is here, but also actor and writer Alan Alda; noted psychologist Susan Blackmore weighs in, as does musician and producer Brian Eno. A thought-provoking collection that should appeal to both general readers and trained scientists.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this latest volume of erudition from Edge.com founder John Brockman (This Will Make You Smarter), the question "What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?" serves as the prompt for over a hundred concise essays. The topics cover the gamut of the sciences while also including answers from other realms including economics and the arts. Darwin and Einstein, while not the precise subject of many answers, feature prominently as do ideas of human consciousness and cognition. As with other collections of this ilk, the essays widely vary in ease of comprehension and level of profundity. While there is no structure beyond the individual essays, occasionally a few essays in close proximity will touch on similar matters, as when Nicholas Christakis's essay on why the sky is blue is followed by Philip Campbell's on "The Beauty in a Sunrise", each referencing the work of Lord Rayleigh on the scattering of light. A few entries border on gimmicks, such as Ernst Poppel's series of haiku on trust or Katinka Matson's single sentence on "Occam's Razor": "Keep it simple." Still, this collection will satisfy anyone who is looking to stretch his thinking. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
Experts in a variety of disciplines were asked for explanations for everyday happenings, and the result is this collection of 150 brief answers to questions such as why the sky is blue or why humans recognize patterns. Read by seasoned narrators Peter Berkrot, Michelle Ford, Antony Ferguson, and Ann Marie Lee, the volume is a bit uneven from one explanation to the next, but there is definitely something for everyone here. Admittedly, some questions and answers are complex and difficult to grasp, while others will give listeners an "I knew that" satisfaction. VERDICT Listeners will want to play this one more than once. ["This engaging collection can be read from cover to cover or browsed as interest dictates, but all inquisitive readers will enjoy it," read the review of the Harper Perennial hc, LJ 2/1/13.]-Cheryl Youse, Moultrie, GA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
From a broad array of thinkers come answers to the question: "What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?" Every year, Brockman, a literary agent who presides over the online salon Edge, poses a challenging question to the diverse community of Edge contributors. The question posed in 2012, which asked responders to identify some simple, nonobvious idea that explains a complex set of phenomena, was suggested by Steven Pinker. The replies come from such familiar names as Jared Diamond, Richard Dawkins, Matt Ridley and Eric Kandel; a few surprising ones, such as Brian Eno and Alan Alda; and many who are lesser known or unknown to the public but are established and influential in their fields. What remains unclear is why these particular answers were selected for publication. All answers are brief, most just two or three pages. Some of the respondents' choices seem obvious--Darwin on the theory of evolution by natural selection and Freud on the unconscious--while others--the double-helix structure of DNA, the germ theory of disease, the Gaia hypothesis of planet Earth, the law of unintended consequences--will also already be familiar to many readers. Perhaps most surprising is neuroscientist Ernst Pppel's contribution: 20 linked haikus ("What is my problem? / I don't need explanations! / I'm happy without!"). Not all are as entertaining, however, and general readers may struggle with the vocabulary of special fields--e.g., "Metarepresentations Explain Human Uniqueness" or "Hormesis Is Redundancy." The sheer number of contributors and the broad scope of the book ensure that most readers will find topics to pique their interest, but that same feature means that many will find themselves flipping pages quickly. Other notable contributors include Sean Carroll, George Dyson, Clay Shirky, Stewart Brand, A.C. Grayling and Katinka Matson. A smorgasbord of ideas, best when judiciously sampled.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
