“Great minds who have observed the world closely
Answering humanity's provocative questions!”
1.4 million science creators strongly recommend Orbit.
Richard Dawkins, Michael Gazzaniga, Daniel Dennett, etc.
Sharp questions and clear logic from 31 world-renowned scholars

A book that collects answers from 31 of the world's greatest minds to the questions we most wonder about.
Stories from scientists and thinkers active in various fields, including Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Paul Davis, were compiled by the renowned editor John Brockman, known as the “conductor of knowledge.”
From curious scientific questions like "When did time begin?", "Why is incest taboo?", and "How did mammals come to dominate the Earth?", to humanities stories beyond science, such as how to distinguish between valid and false evidence, how to think about things no one has thought of before, and how to learn from mistakes, let's meet the clear answers of leading scholars to various curiosities in one book.
The world is not simple.
But with this book, things will become a little clearer.

This book brings together the writings of some of the world's most distinguished and brilliant scientists and thinkers today.
Each author has contributed a very original piece related to his or her field of scientific research.
What they cover are the most fundamental and basic concepts that everyone should know.
These are basic tools, extensions that we use conveniently when we think about something.

--- p.5

All animals have developed (through a process called evolution) to be able to survive in the normal environment where other animals of the same kind live.
Lions have a body structure that is advantageous for survival on the plains of Africa.
Crayfish are designed to live in clear water, while lobsters are designed to live in salty seawater.
Humans are also a type of animal.
And we are meant to live together in a world filled with people other than ourselves.
Most people don't hunt for food like lions or lobsters.
We buy food from other people, and they buy food from other people.
We live by swimming in the ‘sea of ​​humanity.’
Just as fish need gills to survive in water, people need brains to enable them to live in harmony with others.

--- p.30

On human timescales, the Big Bang appears to be the sudden, explosive origin of space, time, and matter.
But if we look closely at the very first moment of the universe's birth on an infinitesimal time scale of a millionth of a second, we find that there was no strictly definable, discrete beginning at the moment of the universe's birth.
So now we have a cosmogony that contains two contradictory stories.
First, time did not always exist.
Second, there is no beginning where time first began.
This is the strange nature of quantum physics.

--- p.66

Bacteria, fungi, and many protists, unlike us, reproduced asexually, and still do.
They do not require a partner to reproduce, but they never die unless forced to do so by external factors.
The inevitable death of cells, and the inevitable fate of the individual that cannot escape death as a result, is the price we, the descendants of protozoa, had to pay for acquiring the characteristics of sexual reproduction and meiosis that our ancestors did not have.

--- p.
73

Today, members of many species prefer to mate with those who are not close relatives, such as siblings.
So how do they discern whether a companion is their own relative? One mechanism revealed in bird research is this:
When a bird is young, it learns the appearance of its parents and siblings and uses them as prototypes to identify close relatives.
As these birds grow older, they will begin to prefer mates that are slightly different from the archetypal norms they learned as children, and thus can mate with individuals genetically different from themselves, minimizing the negative effects of inbreeding.

--- p.135

People with mutant genes have a much lower chance of survival and are less likely to leave offspring than those without them.
Therefore, mutations usually disappear quickly.
However, sometimes mutations occur that are more advantageous for overcoming the adversity of survival than before.
This is a case where the environment suddenly changes and the genes that caused the change become more advantageous for survival.
And individuals that inherit that gene have a higher chance of surviving and producing more offspring, thus spreading the gene further.
By this simple mechanism, populations evolve through the process of 'natural selection'.
Darwin believed that evolution was a series of successful mistakes.

--- p.147

Now, let's leave the mixed populations of the reptilian and mammalian ages alone and go on a 10,000-year excursion.
When we return, what species will we encounter? Will mammals, with their baby-rearing and warm-blooded nature, ultimately prevail in the competition for space and food, ultimately driving dinosaurs to extinction? Or will dinosaurs maintain their dominance? Or will mammals and dinosaurs form a strange but wonderful harmony, allowing them to both survive? I believe dinosaurs not only outcompeted mammals in the competition for food and space, but also, over time, most large mammals disappeared.

--- p.199

The biggest difference between science and magic is that in science, mistakes are made openly and publicly.
We expose mistakes, and everyone - not just you - can learn from them.
In this way, you can gain much from not only your own path through the space of error, but also from the experiences of everyone else.
That is why we are superior to other species.
Human excellence is not due to our larger brains or higher intelligence, but to the fact that we can all share in the spoils of our individual brains' history of trial and error.
The secret is knowing when and how you made mistakes.
So, through that experience, everyone learns a lesson so that others do not suffer the same damage.

--- p.215

All objects in the spaceship, including yourself, are accelerating, gaining energy, and thus becoming heavier.
In fact, the movements of you and all the mechanical devices in the spaceship become slower and slower.
For example, a wristwatch that normally weighs only about 14 grams can weigh as much as 40 tons.
And because the spring inside the watch doesn't get stronger proportionally, the second hand only moves once an hour.
But it's not just the clock that's slowed down.
The biological clock in your head also slows down.
You are completely unaware of this fact.
Your neurons (nerve cells) have become heavier, and your thoughts themselves have slowed down to the exact same speed as a clock.
From your perspective, the clock will appear to be running normally, just as before.
There are other things that slow down too.
The same goes for all the machinery that powers your spaceship's engines.
So the spaceship gets heavier and its engines get slower.
The closer you get to the speed of light, the more dire the situation becomes.
That's why you can't run faster than the speed of light.

--- p.334