Know This: Today's Most Interesting and Important Scientific Ideas, Discoveries, and Developments (Edge Question)

Know This: Today’s Most Interesting and Important Scientific Ideas, Discoveries, and Developments (Edge Question) by John Brockman“Know This” is a thought-provoking book of essays brought to you by the by The Edge that provides readers with better tools to think about the world. The Edge is an organization that presents original ideas by today's leading thinkers from a wide spectrum of scientific fields. The 2017 Edge question is, “What do you consider the most interesting recent (scientific) news? What makes it important?” This interesting thorough 608-page book includes 198 essays from the brightest minds.For my sake, I created a spreadsheet of all the essays and graded them from zero to five stars based on quality. Five star essays are those that provide a great description of the author's favorite scientific concept. On the other hand, those receiving a one or even a zero represent essays that were not worthy of this book. Of course, this is just one reviewer's personal opinion. I basically reprised the same formula I used to review, "This Explains Everything" and “This Will Make You Smarter”.Positives:1. This series by "The Edge" always deliver a high-quality product.2. A great topic, “What do you consider the most interesting recent (scientific) news? What makes it important?”3. A great range of scientific essays provided by subject matter experts.4. There were a number of outstanding essays deserving of five stars for me. I will list my favorites as positives in this review. In order of appearance, the first by Steven Pinker, “Human Progress Quantified”. Makes the compelling case that the world is actually getting better. “Human intuition is a notoriously poor guide to reality.”5. Richard Muller’s “The Greatest Environmental Disaster”. “Someday global warming may become the primary threat. But it is air pollution that is killing people now. Air pollution is the greatest environmental disaster in the world today.”6. Donald D. Hoffman’s “The Abdication of Spacetime”. “Nathan Seiberg, of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, said, “I am almost certain that space and time are illusions. These are primitive notions that will be replaced by something more sophisticated.”7. Seth Lloyd’s “One Hundred Years of Failure”. “Encouragingly, the advances in quantum gravity supplied by quantum-information theory do not yet seem to be counterbalanced by backsliding elsewhere.”8. Brian G. Keating’s “Looking Where the Light Isn’t”. Excellent essay. “The next century of general relativity promises to be as exciting as the first. “Spacetime tells matter how to move; matter tells spacetime how to curve,” said John Archibald Wheeler. We’ve seen what the curvature is. Now we just need to find out what’s the matter. And where better to look for lost matter than where the dark is.”9. Neil Turok’s “Simplicity”. “Such a theory won’t be concerned with kilograms, meters, or seconds, only with information and its relations. It will be a unified theory not only of all the forces and particles but also of the universe as a whole.”10. Steve Giddings’s “New Probes of Einstein’s Curved Spacetime—and Beyond?”. “The community has been abuzz about the possible discovery of a new particle at the LHC, seen by its disintegration into pairs of photons. If this is real and not just a fluctuation, there’s a slim chance it is a graviton in extra dimensions, which, if true, could well be the discovery of the century.”11. Rudy Rucker’s “The Universe Is Infinite”. “Many cosmologists now think our spatial universe is infinite.”12. Gregory Benford’s “Pluto Now, Then on to 550 AU”. “New Horizons is important not just for completing our first look at every major world in the solar system. It points outward, to a great theater in the sky, where the worlds of the galaxy itself are on display.”13. “Scott Aaronson’s “How Widely Should We Draw The Circle?” “By letting us simulate quantum physics and chemistry, quantum computers might spark a renaissance in materials science, and allow (for example) the design of higher-efficiency solar panels.”14. John Tooby’s “The Race Between Genetic Meltdown and Germline Engineering” “Natural selection is the only physical process that pushes species’ designs uphill—against entropy, toward greater order (positive selection)—or maintains our favorable genes against the downward pull exerted by mutation pressure (purifying selection).”15. Eric Topol’s “The 6 Billion Letters of Our Genome”. “So the biggest breakthrough in genomics—Science’s 2015 Breakthrough of the Year—is the ability to edit a genome, via so-called CRISPR technology, with remarkable precision and efficiency.”16. Juan Eriquez’s “Life Diverging”. “Thus the biggest story of the next few centuries will be how we begin to redesign life-forms, spread new ones, develop approaches and knowledge to further push the boundaries of what lives where.”17. Thalia Wheatley’s “Biology Versus Choice”. “the emergence of perhaps the greatest developing news story: the widespread understanding that human thought and behavior are the products of biological processes.”18. Gino Segre’s “Diversity in Science”. “Science has become increasingly collaborative in a way that makes diversity a paramount necessity.”19. David G. Myers’s “We Fear the Wrong Things”. “The hijacking of our rationality by fears of terrorist guns highlights an important and enduring piece of scientific news: We often fear the wrong things.”20. Oliver Scott Curry’s “Morality Is Made of Meat”. “Morality is natural, not supernatural. We are good because we want to be, and because we are sensitive to the opinions—the praise and the punishment—of others. We can work out for ourselves how best to promote the common good, and with the help of science make the world a better place.”21. Christian Keysers’s “Optogenetics”. “For the first time, we can selectively re-create arbitrary states in the brain—and hence the mind.”Negatives:1. At over 600 pages, it will require an investment of your time.2. Some essays were not worthy of this book. That said, the series has improved and there were very few lemons.3. Lacks visual material to complement the excellent narrative.In summary, I’m a big fan of The Edge. I enjoy essays from great minds covering a wide variety of topics and this one doesn’t disappoint. This has close to 200 essays and it never fails to be provocative and inspirational. The search for knowledge is a fun and satisfying pursuit. Pick up this book and enjoy the ride.Further recommendations: “This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works" and “This Will Make You Smarter” by John Brockman, "A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing" by Lawrence Krauss, "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution" by Richard Dawkins, "The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements" by Sam Kean, "The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human" by V.S. Ramachandran, "The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies" by Michael Shermer, "How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed" by Ray Kurzwell, "The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature" by Steven Pinker, "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond, "Why Evolution Is True" by Jerry A. Coyne, and "Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior" by Leonard Mlodinow.

This is the best compilation of essays from some of the worlds most renowned scientists and researchers in the fields of science and technology I have read. If you are looking for a primer on the most current news in the physical and natural sciences, psychology and human behavior, look no further. This is a must read and the best place to start before taking a deeper dive into whatever area or discipline you’re interested in. Definitely 5 stars.

As other reviewers already mentioned, this book is a collection of short articles. Of course, 1-2 page articles are too short to provide in-depth coverage of such complex topics as global warming, modern physics, recent advances in bioinformatics, astronomy and cosmology, social research, and artificial intelligence. However, each article is a glimpse into work of an expert in his/her field. And that's the real value of the book: encourage further research by reading more work of authors whose ideas resonate.

The authors produce a complete exposition about the great questions of the science. If the physics is interesting about cosmology, the biology had had big successes with the applications of results of DNA. The informatics is construing algorithms always more efficient, so we can be satisfied of this situation. Also the war against the cancer is won more often. This technology looks like winning, but the difficulties are always present, because that is a characteristic of a science which want become better.

Very interesting read with articles on a wide variety of topics. Some of the articles are repetitive but even then there is something new in each piece.

This is a strange compilation of very good essays on totally different topics placed side by side with plain stupid ones and often surprising platitudes by well known academics. Some essays require a knowledge of the subject, otherwise it is impossible to understand what the author wants to say. In this case, I believe, it is the author's fault that he/she is unable to present his/her ideas to the public. Nobody can know every subject in the world but this exactly what this book is supposed to present. If so, try to use language and metaphors that are understandable to a layman. Some of the books edited by Brockman are very good, some are so-so (which is, certainly, only natural). This one is so-so.

Deep and interesting concepts explained in less than two pages. However, most the time you need a few (many) more pages to do a topic justice. This read more like a quick encyclopedia entry. However, sometimes the full explanation wasn't there and it was more like the author's opinion on a concept. I think the book would better if it took on less concepts (there are dozens) and let the authors take 4-10 pages so it didn't come off as a sophomoric.

It was all good. Everyone should read this book! All my friends are reading it. Blah blah blah blah blah

Excellent and toughfull. A good read for understanding what’s going on !

Muito bom para você ficar em dia com os últimos avanços e percalços da ciência. Acho que todos deveriam ler.

Came quickly. Enjoying the read.

A book filled with juicy speculations, scientific ideas, conjecture and controversy.Overall, this book is a must-read for any thinking person. I found the Astronomy articles particularly mind-blowing. Others informed and raised many questions.The first article, Human Progress Quantified, by Steven Pinker, is a contentious one and perhaps an ambitious task given all the variables. I am of a different opinion to Steven Pinker, who believes Objective Data shows measurable progress. Really? With the planets wild animal population reduced by half since 1970 and the human population doubled, fed by a conveyer belt of suffering livestock, with our bodies and our oceans chocking on plastic, Steven Pinker concludes, altruism, health and intelligence increasing and setbacks and wars mainly localised. (Intuitively, he agrees, it seems the opposite is true.)Has he fully taken into account the fact that any perceived progress has come at the expense of the planet and its environment, is currently unsustainable, and with 8 billion people soon to be on board, the stakes are higher than ever? (According to another article in this book, 4000 people die of air population everyday in China – and they are the official Chinese figures).Maybe the question I am alluding to is what is the net amount of suffering? and is it higher today than ever? I think so, because of the numbers – It’s a good argument that any diabolically grim life in the middle ages, beset with hunger, disease and religiously-driven psychological torture is, mercifully, less severe because there were only a few million people on the entire earth (as opposed to several Billion today) and life was short.I suggest the, depressing but hard to counter, 'Edwardson Formula' applies, certainly given the history of human expansion and settlement -LIFE = Suffering. More Life = More Suffering.Given man’s well-documented destructive and cruel nature, if we include the higher animals, suffering goes thru the stratosphere.And if suffering has increased, then no amount of ‘quantifiable’ human progress can offset this terrible propagation of misery, given that good only offsets bad if it undoes the bad.To counter fatalism and the dangers of negative self-fulfilling prophesies, perhaps we need highly educated, creative thinkers and optimists like Steven Pinker and I look forward to reading his ‘Enlightenment’ book, just as, he agrees, we need to guard against complacency. However, I suspect, some of those dedicated and fortunate to have time for visionary analysis, propagate an optimistic illusion from their bubble of academia – connected, as they are, with nearly every incredible mind on the planet – but of course, somewhat removed from the mindless. This was also one of many impressions, good and bad, I had when a similar question put in another fine book related to Steven Pinker, What are you Optimistic About? (Perhaps those of us who have chosen to propagate the species – Unwisely I feel – may be more susceptible to confirmation bias when it comes to the future of our offspring, given humankind's documented psychological need to justify our decisions).

The media could not be loaded.  If you want a potpourri of topics, ideas, concepts and trends, this is a book to read. It is a book you can dip in and out of, and it guaranteed will make you think. Learned quite a few new things about where some smart people think will go, such as head transplants and gut robots, but also learned a few new words, such as connectome and kinematic fingerprints.A book to wander and wonder.