Scientists as Writers

Writings on science by a wide range of scientists and thinkers, including Aristotle, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, and Rachel Carson.

This sampler of scienfific writing introduces the reader to how science works and what it can and cannot do. These writings by scientists offer an antidote to the commonly held notion that the scientific process precludes the subjective element. The lucidity of the selection demonstrates that many basic scientific concepts are completely accessible to the general reading public and to students in the humanities as well as those in the sciences.The writings are grouped according to these eleven main themes: The Nature of the Universe; The Nature of Matter; The Nature of Life; The Nature of the Mind; The Nature of Science; Likenesses; Cause and Effect or Blind Chance?; Evolution and Man; Our Own Worst Enemies; Science and Art; and Science and Religion. The writers include such scientists and thinkers as Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Werner Heisenberg, Max Planck, Sigmund Freud, Bertrand Russell, Michael Faraday, J. Bronowski, and Rachel Carson.