Brief Candle In The Dark: My Life In Science

Product Description

In An Appetite for Wonder Richard Dawkins brought us his engaging memoir of the first 35 years of his life from early childhood in Africa to publication of The Selfish Gene in 1976 when he shot to fame as one of the most exciting new scientists of his generation In Brief Candle in the Dark he continues his autobiography following the threads that have run through the second half of his life so far & homing in on the key individuals institutions & ideas that inspired & motivated him He paints a vivid picture coloured with wit anecdote & digression of the twenty-five postgraduate years he spent teaching at Oxford He pays affectionate tribute to past colleagues & students recalling the idiosyncrasies of an establishment steeped in ancient tradition & arcane ritual while also recording his respect for the profound commitment to learning & discovery that lies at its core He invites us to share the life of a travelling scientist from fieldwork on the Panama Canal to conferences of stratospheric eminence in exotic locations in the company of some of the most prominent of the world's scientific luminaries & he describes his experiences with his many publishers television producers interviewers & partners in debate not least in the heady period when after publication of The God Delusion in 2006 he is dubbed the world's most outspoken & controversial atheist Most important of all for the first time he reviews with fresh & stimulating insights the evolving narrative of his ideas about science over the course of his highly distinguished career as thinker teacher & writer In Brief Candle in the Dark we are invited to enter with him a constantly stimulating world of discovery & to meet a fascinating cast of exceptional characters described by the talented pen of one of the most exceptional of them all