Unweaving the Rainbow
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- For the album by Frameshift, see Unweaving the Rainbow (album)
Unweaving the Rainbow (subtitled "Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder") is a 1998 book by Richard Dawkins, discussing the relationship between science and arts from the perspective of a scientist.
Dawkins addresses the common perception of ordinary people who find science dull and boring and cannot understand why scientists find it not only important but also thrilling, interesting and beautiful. Driven by the responses to his book The Blind Watchmaker wherein readers resented his describing the world as mechanical and emotionless, Dawkins felt the need to explain that for him as a scientist the world was full of wonders and a source of pleasure; this pleasure was not in spite of, but rather because he does not assume as cause the inexplicable actions of a deity but rather the understandable laws of nature.
His starting point is John Keats' well-known accusation that Isaac Newton destroyed the beauty of the rainbow by explaining it. The agenda of the book is to show the reader that science does not destroy, but rather discovers poetry in the patterns and laws of nature.
The book is divided into twelve chapters as follows:
- The Anaesthetic of Familiarity
- Drawing Room of Dukes
- Barcodes in the Stars
- Barcodes on the Air
- Barcodes at the Bar
- Hoodwink'd with Faery Fancy
- Unweaving the Uncanny
- Huge Cloudy Symbols of a High Romance
- The Selfish Cooperator
- The Genetic Book of the Dead
- Reweaving the World
- The Balloon of the Mind
[edit] External links
- Charlie Rose, April 11, 2000 - video interview with Dawkins about the book.
- Dawkins's Rainbow Reduces Science to Truth, Beauty—and Fantasy - reviewed by Robert N. Proctor, American Scientist.
- Richard Dawkins: The man who knows the meaning of life review from The Guardian.
- How, Why and Wow! - reviewed by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, The Spectator.
- The Beauty of Applied Science - review from Mail on Sunday.
- There is Poetry in Science - reviewed by Melvyn Bragg, The Observer.
- Everyone a Scientist - reviewed by Jogn Gribbin, The Literary Review.
- The Poetry of Science - reviewed by Sam Hurwitt, The San Francisco Examiner.
- The Science of Selfishness - reviewed by Andrew Brown, Salon.
- Nature of Science: A Wondrous and Poetic Spectrum reviewed by Charles M. Vest, Science.
- Frauds! Fakes! Phonies! - reviewed by Timothy Ferris, The New York Times.
- Unweaving the Rainbow reviewed by Paul R. Gross, The Wall Street Journal.
- Finding Awe, Reverence, and Wonder in Science - reviewed by Kendrick Frazier, Skeptical Inquirer.
- Unweaving the Rainbow - review from The Complete Review.
- Prophet of Pointlessness - reviewed by Stephen M. Barr, First Things.
- Disappointing Delusion - critical review from young earth creationist group Answers in Genesis.
