Edited by John Brockman.
This was published in 2015, I expect that with the exponential rate science and technology has been going we can expect some other breakthroughs to have happened by now.
The book includes articles/interviews/discussions by:
01~ Richard Dawkins - discusses evolution and the selfish gene hypothesis (2015);
02~ David Haig - discusses genomic imprinting and selective gene expression (2002);
03~ Robert Trivers - discusses deceit, self-deception and genomics (2004);
04~ Ernst Mayr - discusses what evolution is (2001);
05~ Steve Jones - general discussion/ interview on genetics over time (2000);
06~ Edward O. Wilson - discusses ants, cells and the building of super-organisms (2003);
07~ Freeman Dyson - discusses the analog or digital format of biological processes (2001);
08~ Freeman Dyson, J. Craig Venter, George Church, Dimitar Sasselov, Seth Lloyd, Robert Shapiro, and John Brockmann - discuss the concept of life in an Edge Special event (2007);
09~ Richard Dawkins and Craig Venter - sketch the frontiers of genomic research, discuss genes and digital information (2008);
10~ Armand Marie Leroi - discusses mutants, defects, gene expression, and genetic differences (2005);
11~ Daniel Lieberman - discusses running and human evolution (2012);
12~ Svante Paabo - discusses mapping the neanderthal genome (2009);
13~ J. Craig Venter, Ray Kurzweil and Rodney Brooks - conversation on biocomputation, cancer, drug functioning, and new biotechnology (2005);
14~ Drew Endy - discusses engineering living organisms and the ethics of this (2008);
15~ Kary Mullis - discusses new immune treatments for various viruses (2010);
16~ Richard Plum - describes bird mating rituals and discusses the evolution of aesthetic beauty (2014);
17~ Robert Sapolsky - discusses manipulating behavior of parasites such as Toxoplasma (2009);
18~ Stuart Kauffman - discusses autonomous agents and thermodynamics (2003).
I found this book to be enjoyable and very interesting. They have been written well and is mostly accessible for the general public. Even though I got lost in a few sections but not too much to make it not understandable.
The only detail I found interesting was that every contributor was male, its kind of interesting how a site that is trying to be innovating and promote knowledge and such does not branch out to reach out to women in science. Sad that it still needs to be mentioned that women in science should not be ignored. Hope that the editors realize their bias and stop contributing to the stereotypical belief that only men have worthwhile research and discoveries to report.
The webpage Edge.org is still running and can be followed for a bit more updated data I assume.
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