Mind, Life and Universe

Mind, Life and Universe: Conversations with Great Scientists of Our Time contains discussions between Eduardo Punset and a number of well known scientists , taken from interviews made for Punset's TV programme.

The book is divided into four main parts. In the first 'People Primates' the scientists interviewed include Jane Goodall, Edward O Wilson, Daniel Dennett and Oliver Sacks. This part deals with topics such as animal culture, the study of happiness, and the self and anxiety. The second part 'Animal Body-Mind' includes topics related to social behaviour, genomics and aging . The third part 'Life on an Animate Planet' looks at the origin and evolution of life on Earth, and James Lovelock, Steven J Gould and Richard Dawkins are amoung the scientists interviewed. The final part 'Toward the Invisible' moves on to physics, looking at the very large and very small, and includes discussion with Paul Davies and Lisa Randall.

I wasn't entirely convinced that TV interviews such as these convert well to the printed page. In print one expects discussions to lead towards a definite conclusion, whereas these sometimes had a tendency to jump from one topic to another. However, it does give a useful overview of a wide range of topics, and the lives of the scientists studying them.