http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/838356354

Unweaving the rainbow science, delusion, and the appetite for wonder

Did Newton "unweave the rainbow" by reducing it to its prismatic colors, as Keats contended? Did he, in other words, diminish beauty? Far from it, says Richard Dawkins--Newton's unweaving is the key to much of modern astronomy and to the breathtaking poetry of modern cosmology. Mysteries don't lose their poetry because they are solved; the solution is often more beautiful than the puzzle, uncovering deeper mystery. With wit and insight, Dawkins takes up the most important and compelling topics in modern science, from astronomy and genetics to language and virtual reality, and combines them in a landmark statement of the human appetite for wonder. This is the book that Dawkins was meant to write: a brilliant assessment of what science is (and what it isn't), a tribute to science not because it is useful but because it is uplifting, in the same way that the best poetry is uplifting.--From publisher description.

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