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Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder

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Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder (Paperback)

by Richard Dawkins (Author)

3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Mariner Books; None edition (Mar 8 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0618056734
ISBN-13: 978-0618056736
Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 14 x 2.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 363 g

Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #58,653 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

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Why do poets and artists so often disparage science in their work? For that matter, why does so much scientific literature compare poorly with, say, the phone book? After struggling with questions like these for years, biologist Richard Dawkins has taken a wide-ranging view of the subjects of meaning and beauty in Unweaving the Rainbow, a deeply humanistic examination of science, mysticism, and human nature. Notably strong-willed in a profession of bet-hedgers and wait-and-seers, Dawkins carries the reader along on a romp through the natural and cultural worlds, determined that "science, at its best, should leave room for poetry."

Inspired by the frequently asked question, "Why do you bother getting up in the morning?" following publication of his book The Selfish Gene, Dawkins set out determined to show that understanding nature's mechanics need not sap one's zest for life. Alternately enlightening and maddening, Unweaving the Rainbow will appeal to all thoughtful readers, whether wild-eyed technophiles or grumpy, cabin-dwelling Luddites. Excoriations of newspaper astrology columns follow quotes from Blake and Shakespeare, which are sandwiched between sparkling, easy-to-follow discussions of probability, behavior, and evolution. In Dawkins's world (and, he hopes, in ours), science is poetry; he ends his journey by referring to his title's author and subject, maintaining that "A Keats and a Newton, listening to each other, might hear the galaxies sing." --Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Keats complained that Newton's experiments with prisms had destroyed all the poetry of the rainbow. Not so, says Oxford biologist Dawkins (The Selfish Gene) who, in an eloquent if prickly defense of the scientific enterprise, calls on the "two cultures" of science and poetry to learn from each other. Yet Dawkins cautions against "bad poetic science," i.e., seductive but misleading metaphors, and cites as an example " 'Gaia': the overrated romantic fancy of the whole world as an organism," a hypothesis proposed by atmospheric scientist James Lovelock and bacteriologist Lynn Margulis. Dawkins (continuing a celebrated battle that has been raging in the New York Review of Books) also lambastes paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould for "bad poetry," rejecting Gould's theory of punctuated equilibrium, which holds that new species emerge during relatively short bursts of evolutionary advance. In these conversational, discursive essays, Dawkins is, as always, an elegant, witty popularizer, whether he is offering a crash course in DNA fingerprinting, explaining the origins of "mad cow disease" in weird proteins that spread like self-replicating viruses or discussing male birdsong as an auditory aphrodisiac for female birds. However, in venturing into realms beyond the immediate purview of science, he reveals his own biases, launching into a predictable, rather superficial assault on paranormal research, UFO reports, astrology and psychic phenomena, all of which he dismisses as products of fraud, illusion, sloppy observation or an exploitation of our natural appetite for wonder. Dawkins is most interesting when he theorizes that our brains have partly taken over from DNA the role of recording the environment, resulting in "virtual worlds" that alter the terrain in which our genes undergo natural selection. Agent, John Brockman. 50,000 first printing; first serial to the Sciences.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

30 Reviews

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

Average Customer Review

3.6 out of 5 stars (30 customer reviews)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing more than what I was meant to be, Dec 30 2001

By	Alex Greer (Dayton, OH United States) - See all my reviews

What was I meant to be you may ask? A wonderful , loving , happy, well-centered human being! Most people think that because I am Atheist that I have no purpose, that life is bland and I just scrape my botton through it only to die! Not so . I am amazed everyday when I wake to this world, to the life within it. Dawkins explains , crosses the t's and dots the i's. A wonderful book, I say all should have it and enjoy it as much as I have.A wonderful writer with a brilliant mind.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unweaving the mysteries of the mind and universe, Dec 15 2001

By	"myerb" (Surfers Paradise, Queensland Australia) - See all my reviews

After reading Dawkins' classic works on evolution and combatting creationism (_The Selfish Gene_, _The Blind Watchmaker_ and _Climbing Mount Improbable_), I was unsure as to what more our Prof. Dawkins could relate to us in his latest instalment. However, to my delight it seems that my skepticism was ill-founded.

In this volume Dawkins does for Science in general what his previous books did for evolution. The book's title refers to Keat's criticism of Newton for destroying the mystery and beauty of the rainbow. Dawkins' mission in this book is to show the public that naturalistic science is just as, if not more intriguing than a poet's perspective of the natural world. Dawkins takes the reader on a journey that spans the mysteries of the rainbow, radio waves and genetics with occasional interludes in debunking the pseudo-science of astrology and other supersitions. Dawkins' writing is riddled with quotes from famous poets and the prose itself is akin to that poetry.

For those lay readers that consider themselves experts in the realms of ccience, this book may seem a bit simplistic in places. At times I found myself wondering about the relevance of certain chapters in the book to the central tenet that science in its most natural form is poetic, however I enjoyed the digressions as they were interesting nonetheless. Overall, I enjoyed this book thoroughly and in paritcular I felt a warmth emanating from the prose that could only have been exuded by one of the most brilliant humanistic thinkers of our time.

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A one stop shop, not a specialty store!, Jan 14 2003

By	Kevin Currie-Knight "Education Grad Student" (Newark, Delaware) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Richard Dawkins was the thinker that introduced me to evolutionary biology. His books give everything one could want - enthusiasm, wit, engagement, substance and splendor. I can't tink of many others I would want writing a book for the laity on the wonder of science.

There are a few problems - the first may be relevant to everyone and the second, to those who've read Dawkins before. The first criticism is that this book starts off with a stated goal. I, Richard Dawkins, do solemnly swear to explain that science is not stuffy, a killjoy, or a myth (as postmodernism would have it.) The problem is that from the title, we suspect the first goal to occupy the bulk of the book but #3 takes up the entire second half, where Dawkins rails against the religious and the superstitious. Of course, I can hardly blame him but this was not the book to do it in because the title would be horribly misleading if it was.

The second problem (applicable mostly to those who've read Dawkins before) is that most of this has been written before - not literally but figuratively. Most of these thing have been explained to us before, either by him, or by Carl Sagan, Isac Asimov or (second half of the book)James Randi and Michael Shermer.

If you want a one stop shop, where you can get a broad overview of science in all its mystery and wonder, than get this and/or Sagan's "Science as a Candle in the Dark". Otherwise, if you'd like to focus on one piece or aspect of science more indepth, look elsewhere.

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