This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works (Edge Question Series)

I found the title of this book to be unfortunate but not a surprise. I read the detailed description of the book so I didn't expect an explanation for everything. With that in mind I would still give the title a two; however the 'saving grace' were the essays inside. The participants were asked to give their opinion of a "favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation." The theories range from economics, mathematics, biology, psychology to stardust and why the Greeks painted red figures on a black background. Not all of the essays have to do with the sciences though a lot of them are about scientific explanations. The authors state the explanation they like best and then explain the theory. I wondered if most of these authors were instructors because they did a very good job with their explanations. The authors seem to understand their audience might not have the same interest or background. While I have a degree in Biology, I don't know economics or physics as well. One of the reasons I would give this book a five, the contents, is because it made me hunger for more. Some of these theories I only knew in passing and a few I had not heard of at all. I don't know much about social psychology, but I want to learn more about several of the theories I read about and I think that's an amazing thing for a book to do to the reader. The essays were a nice mixture of older theories which lead to modern theory and modern theory. I found most of the essays, about 150, to be very interesting. I didn't find the language difficult. One was just silly, a politically correct word for stupid: Keep it simple. The author simply didn't try. But one of my favorite was Michael Sherman's "The Principle of Empiricism, or See for Yourself." Mr. Sherman reduced the explanation to the most basic form and in so doing his elegant, favorite theory explains everything every science stands for and how culture changed. This is a very good book and I would recommend it to any reader. You don't have to have a math or science background to get a lot out of this work. The essays are short and give the reader time to digest. For those that do have a background in science, math, etc. it will be a nice refresher course.

This Explains Everything is a collection of various experts in a wide variety of fields to "what is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation". The question was posed to dozens of experts across a variety of industries. Those who were asked ranged from hard sciences to the fine arts. Unsurprisingly there were many respondents who overlapped in which explanation they chose- natural selection was a favorite topic. Ideas discussed include the second law of thermodynamics, germ theory, the reason for the color of the sky, gravitation, the formation of snowflakes, cooperative game theory, plate techtonics, theories of dinosoar ancestry, psychology of time, QED, language and its impact on patterns of thought- the list goes on. This explains everything contains modern ideas about a host of critical theories that science and social sciences are based upon. Though each of the topics responded to can fill volumes, the short essays contain a lot of insight in condensed and digestible fashion. One will learn a lot and even if one already knows a lot about the subject/theories discussed, the perspectives given can be illuminating. Often just reading two different respondents reasons as to why the same theory is beautiful/elegant ca be extremely insightful. Not all the explanations of phenomenon included will strike the reader as well thought out, i for one thought some of the respondents answered very unimpressively and with lack of fundamental insight. But i am sure that others will feel the same about some explanations i found excellent and the opposite about the ones I was unimpressed with. I think this has something for everyone. All of the material inside this can and has been expanded upon in other works, so this book can be a catalyst for an interested reader to continue their investigations.

Rapide et conforme..

A book beautifully written, offers a deep ecological view of the world...Worth reading

Great book. I really enjoyed it and found it fascinating. Comprises lots of short well written chapters describing scientific theories. Even though it was published in 2013, it's still up to date over a decade later.

Die Edge Foundation, repräsentiert durch ihre Seite edge.org, bringt die führenden Naturwissenschaftler und Technologen unserer Zeit zusammen, mit dem erklärten Ziel, durch fachübergreifende Kontakte neue Ideen zu katalysieren. Jedes Jahr stellt der Gründer, John Brockman, eine Frage in den "Edge-Raum". 2012 lautete diese: "Welche tiefgreifende, elegante oder schöne Erklärung ist Ihre liebste?" Aus etwa 200 eingegangenen Antworten hat Brockman 148 Essays in "This Explains Everything" zusammengestellt, keins länger als vier Seiten (also auch für mediengeschädigte und sonstige ADS-Betroffene geeignet), eins nur drei Wörter lang: "Keep it simple" (natürlich zu Ockhams Rasiermesser). Es geht um die wahrhaft genialen Ideen, die Naturwissenschaften und Medizin beflügelt hatten, und denen eines gemeinsam war, dass sie nämlich mit möglichst wenigen Annahmen (Ockham!) möglichst viel erklärten, und das ohne Rücksicht auf die vorherrschenden Denkweisen und Weltbilder der jeweiligen Zeit. Manche Namen fallen immer wieder, allen voran natürlich Darwin, das Maß aller Wissenschaftsrevolutionäre, aber auch Galileo, Maxwell oder Planck. Es ist aber durchaus nicht so, dass sich alles um die großen Themen dreht, von denen jeder wenigstens schon mal gehört hat, und gerade das macht das Buch so interessant. Bei einigen wenigen Essays habe ich mich aber doch gefragt, wie sie es in die Auswahl geschafft haben, z.B. bei dem eines emeritierten Psychologieprofessors, der das "Ihre" der Frage falsch verstanden und eine eigene Arbeit eingesandt hatte. Die meisten anderen sind aber ein Vergnügen zu lesen und offerieren zahlreiche Anregungen zu weiterer Lektüre. Ohnehin besitzen fast alle Autoren die angenehme Fähigkeit englischsprachiger Wissenschaftler, auch komplizierteste Sachverhalte verständlich auszudrücken, etwas, woran sich mancher deutsche Wissenschaftler eine Scheibe abschneiden könnte. 2013 heißt die Edge-Frage "Worüber sollten wir uns Sorgen machen?". Man darf auf schlaflose Nächte gespannt sein.

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