Dreams of Earth and Sky

Freeman J. Dyson's new collection of pieces from The New York Review of Books investigates and celebrates what he calls openness to unconventional ideas in science. His subjects range from the seventeenth-century scientific revolution, to the scientific inquiries of the Romantic generation, to important recent works by Daniel Kahneman and Malcolm Gladwell. He discusses twentieth-century giants of physics such as Richard Feynman, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Paul Dirac, many of whom he knew personally, and explores some of today's most pressing scientific issues, from global warming, to the future of biotechnology, to the flood of information in the digital age. In these essays, Dyson, whom The New York Times Book Review called "one of science's most eloquent interpreters," mixes reminiscences, lucid explanations of scientific concepts, and an engagingly imaginative approach to the triumphs, blunders, mysteries, and dreams of scientific inquiry into the natural world.Freeman Dyson

Praise

A collection of reviews and essays first published in the New York Review of Books, from Dyson, a celebrated elder statesman of modern science. The themes here are similar to those in the author's previous volume ....[The Scientist as Rebel]....Readers who enjoyed the first....will be pleased with this follow-up, and new readers will be delighted by the fascinating insider's view of the scientific community and its intersection with the political establishment. —Kirkus Reviews

[Dyson] writes with detailed, admirable conviction.—The New York Times Book Review

To observe a mind uncommonly endowed with dexterity and knowledge hop from subject to subject is exhilarating.—Time

Strikingly original ideas and viewpoints expressed in stylish yet always lucid prose...No short summary can do justice to the wealth of imaginative brilliance and contagious enthusiasm of those visions. They are mind-expanding. —Frank Wilczek, Physics Today

Dyson [is], neuron for neuron, one of the most formidably provocative minds in American life.... The bedazzled reader emerges feeling like he's been in a metaphysical Maytag on spin cycle—his perspective on man, God, and the cosmos permanently altered. —The Washington Post Book World

Dyson is a rare thinker... The sheer breadth of his thought—and his ability to cohere this breadth into intelligible wisdom—is virtually unmatched. Throughout, Dyson remains eloquent and opinionated.
—B. Mitchell, Choice

Praise for Disturbing the Universe

A passionate testament, one of the most remarkable self-portraits of a scientist that I have ever read.... Though this book is meant primarily for non-scientists, to acquaint them with how a scientist looks at the world, one does not have to read far to realize that this is the witness, not of a scientist representing his class, but of a unique kind of scientist, a man endowed with literary skill, with a rare capacity for humor and introspection, with a sensitive understanding of the language of the humanist. —The New Republic

Praise for The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet: Tools of Scientific Revolution

A most engaging and important book, as accessible as it is profound. —Oliver Sacks

A thoughtful and thought-provoking glimpse into the twenty-first century...A must-read.... Only Dyson could weave together this rich tapestry, blending ethics, ideology, science, and technology into a coherent vision of the future. —Michio Kaku, author of Hyperspace and Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century

[Dyson] writes with detailed, admirable conviction. —The New York Times Book Review