This Idea is Brilliant

Lost, Overlooked, and Underappreciated Scientific Concepts Everyone Should Know

By: John Brockman

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Charles Constant

The latest volume in the bestselling series from Edge.org—dubbed “the world’s smartest website” by The Guardian—brings together 206 of the world’s most innovative thinkers to discuss the scientific concepts that everyone should know.

As science informs public policy, decision making, and so many aspects of our everyday lives, a scientifically literate society is crucial. In that spirit, Edge.org publisher and author of Know This, John Brockman, asks 206 of the world’s most brilliant minds the 2017 Edge Question: What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known?

Contributors include: author of The God Delusion RICHARD DAWKINS on using animals’ “Genetic Book of the Dead” to reconstruct ecological history; MacArthur Fellow REBECCA NEWBERGER GOLDSTEIN on “scientific realism,” the idea that scientific theories explain phenomena beyond what we can see and touch; author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics CARLO ROVELLI on “relative information,” which governs the physical world around us; theoretical physicist LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS on the hidden blessings of “uncertainty”; cognitive scientist and author of The Language Instinct STEVEN PINKER on “The Second Law of Thermodynamics”; biogerontologist AUBREY DE GREY on why “maladaptive traits” have been conserved evolutionarily; musician BRIAN ENO on “confirmation bias” in the internet age; Man Booker-winning author of Atonement IAN MCEWAN on the “Navier-Stokes Equations,” which govern everything from weather prediction to aircraft design and blood flow; plus pieces from RICHARD THALER, JARED DIAMOND, NICHOLAS CARR, JANNA LEVIN, LISA RANDALL, KEVIN KELLY, DANIEL COLEMAN, FRANK WILCZEK, RORY SUTHERLAND, NINA JABLONSKI, MARTIN REES, ALISON GOPNIK, and many, many others.

Very easy listening. Highly recommended.

This book covers a wide and varied number of topics in bite sized pieces. Highly recommended.

Stimulating Scientific Morsels, 2 Great Readers

This is the perfect audiobook for transit. Many of the chapters will change the way you look at the world. The variety of male/ female narration keeps things fresh.

Better to read this book.

The production quality is sub-par. There are changes in tone, levels, voice quaility between chapters/sections. Additionally there seems to be 'corrections' or something of that sort peppered throughout the recording. The narration is stiff at some points and overly ennunciated, hard to listen to at times.

a deeply thoughtful mind broadening book that should be a requirement for us all.

Every senior high schooler in the world needs to hear this before going to college.

Learned a lot, but don’t expect an easy read

I recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about fields like science, math, psychology, etc. My only two complaints are that the female narrator’s voice/manner of speaking didn’t suit the content (in my opinion), and that many of the authors of the individual sections clearly aren’t used to writing to lay people outside their fields... which means not only that some of the sections are slightly hard to follow from a substantive perspective but also that some of them aren’t terribly well written because they’re written by people who aren’t professional writers. Still, I’m glad I read this, and I learned some interesting things.