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What wonders of science will the 21st century bring? Is all
we know about gravity, DNA, and artificial intelligence only a hint of what we
have not even begun to understand? Now John Maddox takes up the challenge of describing
precisely what remains to be discovered. Building on 23 years' experience at the
helm of the world's preeminent science magazine, Nature, Maddox identifies
new areas of discovery in physics, biology, health, intelligence, and global catastrophe.
Moreover, he reveals that the rate of scientific discovery is accelerating at
a dizzying pace. Consider: - In 1900 no one knew
E=mc2, but
by 1950 a bomb built from that equation changed the world forever. In 1998 Maddox
shows that we are on the verge of going beyond Einstein -- and if we do, the consequences
by 2050 will be even more awesome than those of Einstein's little equation.
- In
1900 we had no biological explanation of how inheritance worked, but by 1957 Crick
and Watson had defined the double helix showing how evolution is carried on through
genes. In 1998 Maddox demonstrates that we are on the verge of a whole new age
of genetic manipulation: we are going to be building sheep and people and maybe
even dinosaurs.
- In 1900 we were incapable of avoiding
global threats, but we have since learned to quell epidemics, track meteors, and
respect the vital importance of the ozone layer. In 1998 Maddox identifies the
greatest calamities facing humankind: global warming, human genetic instability,
and collision with an object from outer space -- and then shows how science can
save us from them.
As the editor of Nature,
Maddox talked to scientists all over the world every day about their private doubts,
hopes, and dreams. Here in this definitive book you will find the questions that
the best scientists around the world are asking themselves today. How old is the
universe? How did life begin, and did this happen only once? Why do cells divide?
What is gravity made of? Is there a looming crisis in the integrity of our gene
pool? Maddox's reputation as a stubbornly independent
thinker will only be enhanced with this audacious book. Among numerous controversial
ideas, he proposes that we must learn how life started and how it works so we
can manipulate it in order to survive, that mapping the genomes of isolated tribal
peoples is the key to understanding human evolution, and that charting our galaxy
will revolutionize subatomic physics and cosmology. As
Maddox shows, the next century will continue the modern era's accelerating trend
toward ever more dramatic discoveries in science. They will come from the analysis
of scientific data and technology we have now, and not from the often too fertile
imaginations of theoreticians. Far from a compendium of wishful thinking, What
Remains To Be Discovered is a spirited celebration of the quickening river
of discovery that has brought us to the modern world and that will surely transport
us to the world of the future. Sir John Maddox,
Editor Emeritus of Nature, was knighted for services to science in 1994
and made Fellow of the American Academy of Sciences in 1996. He lives in London
and Wales. |
