Even geniuses change their minds sometimes.

Edge (www.edge.org), the influential online intellectual salon, recently asked 150 high-powered thinkers to discuss their most telling missteps and reconsiderations: What have you changed your mind about? The answers were brilliant, eye-opening, fascinating, sometimes shocking, and certain to kick-start countless passionate debates.

Read Steven Pinker on the future of human evolution ? Richard Dawkins on the mysteries of courtship ? Sam Harris on the indifference of Mother Nature ? Nassim Nicholas Taleb on the irrelevance of probability ? Chris Anderson on the reality of global warming ? Alan Alda on the existence of God ? Lisa Randall on the secrets of the Sun ? Ray Kurzweil on the possibility of extraterrestrial life ? Brian Eno on what it means to be a "revolutionary" ? Helen Fisher on love, fidelity, and the viability of marriage ? Irene Pepperberg on learning from parrots. . . and many others.

The nightly news and conventional wisdom tell us that things are bad and getting worse. Yet despite dire predictions, scientists see many good things on the horizon. John Brockman, publisher of Edge (www.edge.org), the influential online salon, recently asked more than 150 high-powered scientific thinkers to answer a vital question for our frequently pessimistic times: "What are you optimistic about?"

Spanning a wide range of topics—from string theory to education, from population growth to medicine, and even from global warming to the end of world—What Are You Optimistic About? is an impressive array of what world-class minds (including Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, New York Times bestselling authors, and Harvard professors, among others) have weighed in to offer carefully considered optimistic visions of tomorrow. Their provocative and controversial ideas may rouse skepticism, but they might possibly change our perceptions of humanity's future.

In this fascinating volume, today's foremost scientists discuss their own versions and visions of Einstein: how he has influenced their worldviews, their ideas, their science, and their professional and personal lives. These twenty-four essays are a testament to the power of scientific legacy and are essential reading for scientist and layperson alike.Contributors include:• Roger Highfield on the Einstein myth• John Archibald Wheeler on his meetings with Einstein• Gino C. Segrè, Lee Smolin, and Anton Zeilinger on Einstein's difficulties with quantum theory• Leon M. Lederman on the special theory of relativity• Frank J. Tipler on why Einstein should be seen as a scientific reactionary rather than a scientific revolutionary

From Copernicus to Darwin, to current-day thinkers, scientists have always promoted theories and unveiled discoveries that challenge everything society holds dear; ideas with both positive and dire consequences. Many thoughts that resonate today are dangerous not because they are assumed to be false, but because they might turn out to be true.

What do the world's leading scientists and thinkers consider to be their most dangerous idea? Through the leading online forum Edge (www.edge.org), the call went out, and this compelling and easily digestible volume collects the answers. From using medication to permanently alter our personalities to contemplating a universe in which we are utterly alone, to the idea that the universe might be fundamentally inexplicable, What Is Your Dangerous Idea? takes an unflinching look at the daring, breathtaking, sometimes terrifying thoughts that could forever alter our world and the way we live in it.

Darwin's theories on evolution are elegant and simple, as are the theories of intelligent design, but which is correct? These 16 distinguished specialists in psychology, evolutionary biology, cognition, philosophy, physics, paleontology, anthropology, engineering and other related fields are firmly convinced that intelligent design is primarily political rather than scientific. They believe it is a tool of religious fundamentalists to interfere in the teaching of science in the classroom, with the very possible threat being that the US will lose its preeminence in science and technology and with it, its dominance of market economies. They describe how intelligent design as a theory is a hoax, that evolution is proved through scientific evidence, that Darwin himself rejected intelligent design, and that the US should take steps to ensure the teaching of evolution as a science, not a theory. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Scientific theory, more often than not, is born of bold assumption, disparate bits of unconnected evidence, and educated leaps of faith. Some of the most potent beliefs among brilliant minds are based on supposition alone - yet that is enough to push those minds toward making the theory viable.
Eminent cultural impresario, editor, and publisher, John Brockman asked a group of leading scientists and thinkers to answer the question: What do you believe to be true even though you cannot prove it? This book brings together the very best answers from the most distinguished contributors.
This collection of bite-size thought-experiments is an insight into the instinctive beliefs of some of the most brilliant minds today.
Here is Ian McEwan on absence of an afterlife; Richard Dawkins on the relationship between design and evolution; and Jared Diamond on when humans first reached the Americas. Other contributions from luminaries like Steven Pinker, Daniel C. Bennett, John Horgan, and Sir Martin Rees span the whole range of scientific endeavor and human experience, from the future of computing to the origins of intelligence, from insights into childhood behavior to cutting edge cosmology.

What makes a child decide to become a scientist?

•For Robert Sapolsky–Stanford professor of biology–it was an argument with a rabbi over a passage in the Bible.
•Physicist Lee Smolin traces his inspiration to a volume of Einstein's work, picked up as a diversion from heartbreak.
•Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a psychologist and the author of Flow, found his calling through Descartes.

Murray Gell-Mann, Nicholas Humphrey, Freeman Dyson . . . 27 scientists in all write about what it was that sent them on the path to their life's work. Illuminating memoir meets superb science writing in stories that invite us to consider what it is–and what it isn't–that sets the scientific mind apart.

John Brockman raccoglie ancora una volta attorno a sé le menti più brillanti della scienza, ponendo loro una domanda: "Cosa ha spinto dei normali adolescenti a percorrere la strada della ricerca?". Scopriamo così che Daniel Dennet, lungi dall'essere uno studente modello, si dedicò a ogni genere di lavori prima di trovare la sua strada; che Richard Dawkins da giovane mostrava davvero poco interesse per gli studi scientifici, ai quali preferiva di gran lunga viaggiare; che Stephen Jay Gould, infine, rimase a tal punto spaventato dal Tirannosaurus Rex conservato presso l'American Museum of Natural History di New York da decidere di diventare paleontologo. Un libro che svela gli aspetti più quotidiani e "normali" dei protagonisti del mondo scientifico.

A brilliant ensemble of the world's most visionary scientists provides twenty-five original never-before-published essays about the advances in science and technology that we may see within our lifetimes.

Theoretical physicist and bestselling author Paul Davies examines the likelihood that by the year 2050 we will be able to establish a continuing human presence on Mars. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi investigates the ramifications of engineering high-IQ, geneticially happy babies. Psychiatrist Nancy Etcoff explains current research into the creation of emotion-sensing jewelry that could gauge our moods and tell us when to take an anti-depressant pill. And evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins explores the probability that we will soon be able to obtain a genome printout that predicts our natural end for the same cost as a chest x-ray. (Will we want to read it? And will insurance companies and governments have access to it?) This fascinating and unprecedented book explores not only the practical possibilities of the near future, but also the social and political ramifications of the developments of the strange new world to come.

Also includes original essays by:

Lee Smolin
Martin Rees
Ian Stewart
Brian Goodwin
Marc D. Hauser
Alison Gopnik
Paul Bloom
Geoffrey Miller
Robert M. Sapolsky
Steven Strogatz
Stuart Kauffman
John H. Holland
Rodney Brooks
Peter Atkins
Roger C. Schank
Jaron Lanier
David Gelernter
Joseph LeDoux
Judith Rich Harris
Samuel Barondes
Paul W. Ewald

I "digerati" nella neolingua di internet, sono i protagonisti e gli artefici della nuova rivoluzione elettronica. John Brockhman ci illustra i loro progetti, la loro visione del futuro, i loro dubbi e le loro certezze. Tra gli altri ha interpellato: manager come Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Case e Ted Leonsis (America OnLine), Danny Hillis (Walt Disney Company), Scott McNealy (Sun Microsystem), Lew Tucker (il creatore di Java); giornalisti come David Bunnell (fondatore di "PC Magazine", "PC World", Mac World"), Jane Metcalfe, Louis Rossetto e Kevin Kelly (fondatori ed editorialisti di "Wired"); giuristi come David R. Johnson (Cyberspace Law Institute), scienziati come Esther Dyson , Jaron Lanier (il padre della realtà virtuale), Clifford Stoll.

Thirty-five years ago, C. P. Snow, in a now famous essay, wrote about the polarization of the "two cultures" -- literary intellectuals on the one hand, and scientists on the other. Although he hoped for the emergence of a "third culture" that would bridge the gap, it is only recently that science has changed the intellectual landscape.

Brockman's thesis that science is emerging as the intellectual center of our society is brought to life vividly in The Third Culture, which weaves together the voices of some of today's most influential scientific figures, including:

Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins on the implications of evolution Steven Pinker, Marvin Minsky, Daniel C. Dennett, and Roger Penrose on how the mind works

Murray Gell-Mann and Stuart Kauffman on the new sciences of complexity

The Third Culture is an honest picture of science in action. It is at once stimulating, challenging, and riveting.