Unweaving the Rainbow

by Dawkins, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780618056736
• ISBN10: 0618056734
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-04-05
• Publisher: Mariner Books

Summary

Did Newton "unweave the rainbow" by reducing it to its prismatic colors, as Keats contended? Did he, in other words, diminish beauty? Far from it, says acclaimed scientist Richard Dawkins; Newton's unweaving is the key to 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 best-selling 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 Richard 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.

Author Biography

Richard Dawkins taught zoology at the University of California at Berkeley and at Oxford University and is now the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, a position he has held since 1995. Among his previous books are The Ancestor’s Tale, The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, Climbing Mount Improbable, Unweaving the Rainbow, and A Devil’s Chaplain. Dawkins lives in Oxford with his wife, the actress and artist Lalla Ward.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
The Anaesthetic of Familiarity	1	(14)
Drawing Room of Dukes	15	(23)
Barcodes in the Stars	38	(28)
Barcodes on the Air	66	(17)
Barcodes at the Bar	83	(31)
Hoodwink'd with Faery Fancy	114	(31)
Unweaving the Uncanny	145	(35)
Huge Cloudy Symbols of a High Romance	180	(30)
The Selfish Cooperator	210	(25)
The Genetic Book of the Dead	235	(22)
Reweaving the World	257	(29)
The Balloon of the Mind	286	(28)
Selected Bibliography	314	(11)
Index	325