An anthology ranging from Leonardo da Vinci in Renaisance times down to our contemporary world with its atomic power, its growing fears of the greenhouse effect, and its explosive technological advances. Galileo, Newton, Malthus, Lamarck, Darwin all are represented, but the choice is an unorthodox one; non scientific writers from Thoreau to Nabokov also get their say.
Steinbeck is included with a piece on sea cucumbers, Orwell with an article on toads. Carl Sagan, one of the popular science gurus of today, attempts to answer the billion dollar question: "But to what extent can we really know the universe around us?"
