If I were to be stranded on a desert island, with a single book to read, I鈥檇
want something big that gave me a lot to think about. I鈥檇 unhesitatingly plump
for Douglas Hofstadter鈥檚 G枚del, Escher, Bach. Why? It didn鈥檛
become a bestselling cult book by accident. I鈥檝e read it and reread it. Every
time I come back to it, I find lots of new ideas to contemplate. The book鈥檚
deepest layer is its analysis of the differences between information and
meaning, between syntax and semantics, between formal systems and the real
world. With Escher鈥檚 pictures, Carrollian dialogues and Bach for good measure,
who could resist it?
Ian Stewart,
Institute of Mathematics,
University of Warwick
AS I am occasionally banished to an island, I find it easy to answer your
query. The book I would take is the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and
Physics. To continue intellectual functioning, I carry most of the ideas in
my head. But one needs data to explore ideas. The data I need are most densely
found in the handbook. Now you know what a real reductionist is like. Number two
would be the Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy. It鈥檚 the book I
gave to my son when he left for the Peace Corps in Fiji.
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Harold Morowitz,
Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study,
George Mason University,
Washington DC
I WOULD take Philip and Phylis Morrison鈥檚 book Powers of Ten. By
examining the Universe at every possible scale of magnitude, this book would
serve as a constant reminder that my predicament on the island is pretty
insignificant in the cosmic order, and that simply being alive to wonder at
existence is already a major blessing.
Keith Devlin,
St Mary鈥檚 College of California,
Morago
ONE science book for the rest of my life? A really great book excels across a
fractal range of levels: the arc of the book鈥檚 entire argument, the roundedness
of the chapters, the clarity of the paragraphs, the shapeliness of the
sentences, and the fresh and succulent individual words.
I would choose Charles Misner, Kip Thorne and John Wheeler鈥檚
Gravitation. It is heavy in every sense of the word. Fat and thick, dense
with information, loaded with cosmically deep teachings about matter, space and
time. And, yes, deep and difficult in parts. But the authors play fair, and as
far as I can tell, all the necessary pieces for their great jigsaw puzzle are
there in the book鈥檚 1279 pages. I鈥檇 enjoy having the time to finally put the
whole thing together.
Rudy Rucker,
San Jose State University
MY CHOICE is the Handbook of Mathematical Functions edited by Milton
Abramowitz and Irene Stegun. Of course, I would do theoretical physics on the
island, hoping the isolation might lead to original thoughts (but aware that
lack of criticism from colleagues might lead to misguided ones). To keep in
mental shape, I would combine the more arcane areas of research with
investigations of the wealth of classical physics to be seen on the island:
sunsets, sand ripples, sea waves, haloes . . . The handbook contains exactly the
tools鈥攆ormulas and tables of numbers鈥攏eeded in the study of these
phenomena, and would enable me to concentrate on physics without getting stuck
in mathematics.
Michael Berry,
University of Bristol
I WOULD take Tarthang Tulku鈥檚 Time, Space and Knowledge for its
vision of where science might lead. In this century, science has been forced to
shed its initial guiding principles of objectivity and repeatability. What other
changes could be expected, while retaining its two key
characteristics鈥攗niversality and progress? Independence from cultural fads
and accumulation of insight are related to the scientific methodology of letting
theory and experiment evolve hand in hand, while giving experiment the final
say. This book envisions a wider framework, in which subjectivity and uniqueness
find a natural place.
Piet Hut,
Institute for Advanced Study,
Princeton,
New Jersey
FOR quiet reflection, I would take Freeman Dyson鈥檚, Infinite in all
Directions, whose message is the unbounded prodigality of life and the
consequent unboundedness of human destiny. Dyson takes the long view, seeing
connections bridging our present to a future that in the next century will see a
transition from metal-and-silicon technology to enzyme-and-nerve technology
formed by the intersection of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence.
From 鈥淎strochicken鈥� to new forms of humans, his ideas constantly challenge and
illuminate鈥攕uitable fare for viewing our time from afar.
Gregory Benford,
University of California at Irvine
MY CHOICE is the biography Alan Turing by Andrew Hodges. This superb
biography satisfies many of the intellectual senses. Written by a mathematician,
it describes in plain language Turing鈥檚 work on the foundations of computer
science and how he broke the Germans鈥� Enigma code in the Second World War. The
subtle depictions of class rivalries, personal relationships, and Turing鈥檚
tragic end are worthy of a novel. But this was a real person. Hodges describes
the man, and the science that fascinated him鈥攚hich once saved, and still
influences, our lives.
Margaret Boden,
University of Sussex
I LIKE my science served up as story. And so for inspiration, for beauty, for
pageantry, for entertainment, I鈥檇 bring Horace Freeland Judson鈥檚 The Eighth
Day of Creation. It first appeared in 1979 and is still the most vivid
recounting we have of the making of a science鈥攎odern molecular biology.
This is science as saga, 700 pages of heroes driven by ambition and by
technique, who labour, plot, race and stumble to unlock the grammar of biology.
Tales to be savoured in the glow of a fire. Inspiration for unlocking the
secrets of the island.
W. Brian Arthur,
Santa Fe Institute,
New Mexico
ENVIRONMENTS are invisible remarked Marshall McLuhan鈥攜ou never notice
what鈥檚 really close to you. So I would take a book that is always at hand,
Michael Machtey and Paul Young鈥檚 An Introduction to the General Theory of
Algorithms. Surprisingly short, it contains everything you have to know
about computer science and its foundations, from computational models to its
connection with logic and lots of things about computational complexity up to
the P/NP problem. I would carry it along with me without even thinking, the way
one carries a toothbrush and paste on a trip.
Francisco Doria,
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
DOYEN of the history of science, Alistair Crombie鈥檚 Styles of Thinking in
the European Traditionspans a multidimensional spectrum of topics from
mathematics to music, taxonomy to medicine, calculus to evolution. One of its
many gems stimulated my own historical research: I learnt that Leeuwenhoek, the
celebrated pioneer of microbiology, also invented population ecology 300 years
ago. The book is packed with such intellectual milestones, but it is not dry,
and the flowing sentences recall the gentle voice of the Oxford don harvesting
the fruits of a lifetime of scholarship.
John Woods,
Imperial College,
London
MY hand would hover between Judson鈥檚 The Eighth Day of Creation and
Hofstadter鈥檚 G枚del, Escher, Bach. Both of these wonderful books
were enormously influential in my deciding to become a science writer, and life
would be darker if neither was around. But I think I would grab something I
haven鈥檛 read: Richard Feynman鈥檚 Lectures on Physics. Unlike the other
two books, this is not great literature. But Feynman was an engaging lecturer,
and struggling through the volumes would surely fill years of anxious
waiting.
George Johnson,
The New York Times
I WOULD take along David Wells鈥檚 The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and
Interesting Geometry. The reason is simple. The book is just brimming with
beautiful pictures of absolutely breathtaking mathematical theorems鈥攃razy,
counterintuitive facts about triangles, circles, families of circles, spheres,
knots, conic sections, polyhedra, fractals, and so on. I would be stimulated for
a lifetime, not only in trying to prove all these fascinating facts, but also in
generalising them and bouncing from them, via analogy, to new results. My only
request would be to be permitted to take along a copy of the program Geometer鈥檚
Sketchpad so that I could watch these beautiful shapes dancing on a screen in
front of me, and make precise constructions and watch their properties as they
swivelled about under my fingers鈥� control . . .
Douglas Hofstadter,
University of Indiana,
Bloomington