Big questions in science

What does life mean? How do men and women differ? How did the universe begin? We all ponder these questions from time to time, but some scientists spend their entire lives investigating them. Are they close to finding the answers? In "Big Questions in Science," eminent thinkers and scientists address twenty of the biggest questions people have been asking for hundreds of years. Contributors include John Sulston, who led the British Human Genome Project team and who presents his ideas on the possibility of ending disease; Susan Greenfield, professor of pharmacology at the University of Oxford, who describes what she considers a thought; John Barrow, professor of mathematical sciences at Cambridge, who tells us what time is; and American psychologist David M. Buss, who suggests why we fall in and out of love. Each of these questions is introduced by commentary that discusses the differing views of other contemporary scientists and demonstrates how people have addressed these questions in the past. The result is a surprising journey through scientific thought through the ages, and a look at some of the most controversial current research. Packed with fascinating insights, Big Questions in Science shows how science has investigated problems that affect us all, and suggests that we are closer than we might think to discovering the solutions to some of humanity's greatest questions.