Nice book, Einstein
We hear a lot of talk about an arts-science divide in our culture, each side supposedly wary of and ill-informed about the other. But New Scientist is doing its bit to bridge the gap – the magazine has posted a feature on “life-changing books” as chosen by scientists.
Many of the choices are indeed rather technical in nature – Handbook of Mathematical Functions, The Idea of a Social Science, The Art of the Soluble – and a couple of sci-fi classics, from Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick, turn up as well. Some other intriguing picks include Peter Singer’s animal-rights manifesto Animal Liberation (chosen by Jane Goodall), Alice in Wonderland (developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik), and Catch-22 (physicist Lawrence Krauss).
