Brilliant but overlooked ideas you must know, as revealed by Steven
Pinker, Jared Diamond, Lisa Randall, Richard Thaler, Carlo
Rovelli, Richard Dawkins, Helen Fisher, Ian McEwen, and more of today's
most innovative minds - A top-ten San Francisco Chronicle
bestseller!
An MIT Technology Review Best Tech Book of the Year
What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known? That is
the question John Brockman, publisher of the acclaimed science salon
Edge.org ("The world's smartest website"--The Guardian), presented to
205 of the world's most influential thinkers from across the
intellectual spectrum--award-winning physicists, economists,
psychologists, philosophers, novelists, artists, and more. From the
origins of the universe to the order of everyday life, This Idea Is
Brilliant takes readers on a tour of the bold, exciting, and
underappreciated scientific concepts that will enrich every mind.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel JARED DIAMOND
on the lost brilliance of common sense * Oxford evolutionary biologist
RICHARD DAWKINS on how The Genetic Book of the Dead could reconstruct
ecological history * philosopher REBECCA NEWBERGER GOLDSTEIN on how to
extend our grasp of reality beyond what we can see and touch * author
of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics CARLO ROVELLI on the interconnected
fabric of information * Booker Prize-winning novelist IAN McEWAN on the
Navier-Stokes equations, which govern everything from weather prediction
to aircraft design and blood flow * cosmologist LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS on
the hidden blessings of uncertainty * psychologist STEVEN PINKER on the
fight against entropy * Nobel Prize-winning economist RICHARD THALER on
the visionary power of the "premortem" * Grammy Award-winning musician
BRIAN ENO on confirmation bias in the Internet age * advertising guru
RORY SUTHERLAND on the world-changing power of sex appeal * Harvard
physicist LISA RANDALL on the power of the obvious * Wired founding
editor KEVIN KELLY on how to optimize your chances at success * Nobel
Prize winner FRANK WILCZEK on the creative potential of complementarity
* Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter JOHN MARKOFF on the
synthetic metamaterials that soon will transform industry and technology
* euroscientist SAM HARRIS on the lost art of intellectual honesty
*Berkeley psychologist ALISON GOPNIK on the role of life history in the
human story, and many others, including DANIEL C. DENNETT, JIM HOLT,
HELEN FISHER, MARTIN REES, DANIEL GOLEMAN, STEWART BRAND, HANS ULRICH
OBRIST, GEORGE CHURCH, DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF, SEAN CARROLL, RICHARD NISBETT,
and MICHAEL GAZZANIGA.
