Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder by Richard Dawkins

Published by Penguin, 1999, softcover, index, 334 pages, condition: new.

Keats accused Newton of destroying the poetry of the rainbow by explaining the origin of its colours. In this illuminating and provocative book, Richard Dawkins argues that Keats could not have been more mistaken, and shows how an understanding of science enhances our wonder of the world. He argues that mysteries do not lose their poetry because they are the solution is often more beautiful than the puzzle, uncovering even deeper mysteries. Dawkins takes up the most important and compelling topics in modern science, from astronomy and genetics to language and virtual reality, combining them in a landmark statement on the human appetite for wonder.

Written a few years prior to The God Delusion, this book serves as a useful bridge for anyone familiar with Dawkins's atheist output but unfamiliar with his more scientific titles. His critics often like to portray him as arrogant, hectoring (or that other old chestnut: 'shrill') and overly absorbed with the cold clinical application of the scientific method. Well he may not be cuddly, and I may not agree with his approach to everything, but for the most part I find him genial, honorable and good-natured, and this book - essentially a non-religious celebration of life and the scientific method - displays his warmth and humanity in bucketloads as it reveals how a greater understanding of science enlarges - rather than diminishes - our sense of wonder. This was enlightening, beautifully written and highly recommended. I know I will read it again.