All the Colors

Freeman J. Dyson: A Many Colored-Glass—Reflections on the Place of Life in the Universe (University of Virginia Press; 2007; ISBN 978-0-8139-2663-6; cover art uncredited).

I've been interested to note how the books I've read about Freeman Dyson seem to be shifting their scope. With the first encounter (Disturbing the Universe), we had large concepts such as the Orion atomic bomb "powered" spaceship and the Dyson Sphere. Each subsequent entry refined its focus smaller and smaller and sharper and sharper down to the Earth and the implications of technology such as the internet and advances in biology.

This collection is based on a series of lectures that Dyson gave for the Page-Barbour series in 2004 and focuses mainly on biology and biotechnology. Dyson is always controversial, always interesting and this serves as a good introduction to his smaller focus the past several years.

Made up of: Preface; The Future of Biotechnology; A Debate with Bill Joy; Heretical Thoughts About Science and Society; A Friendly Universe; Can Life Go On Forever?; Looking for Life; The Varieties of Human Experience.

Counts as three (03) entries in the 2010 Year in Shorts.