Volume 26, Number 10 · June 14, 1979
Eternal Riddles
By Martin Gardner
Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science
by Carl Sagan
Random House, 347 pp., $12.95
Popularizers of science are a patchwork breed. On rare occasions a great scientist whose work is a pivot point in history, Charles Darwin for instance, has been a skillful writer of books that laymen could read with pleasure. But most scientific geniuses find popular writing difficult, and though publishers sometimes persuade them to try, the results are seldom notable. Einstein's best book for laymen was a collaboration with Leopold Infeld. Niels Bohr struggled to explain quantum mechanics to ordinary mortals but his style was almost impenetrable. At the other extreme are writers like the legendary Isaac Asimov who, though trained in science, recognize that their talent lies not in making discoveries but in writing about science with such enthusiasm, and such obedience to that admirable maxim 'eschew obfuscation,' that their books have done more for public understanding of science than twenty universities.
Review, 2990 words
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