Literary agent John Brockman challenged the array of scientists that he hosts on his website by asking: "What is the most important invention of the past two thousand years?". This book provides a showcase for more than a hundred of their responses, which are as varied as the participants themselves. Gutenberg's printing press wins the most endorsements, but the neuroscientist Colin Blakemore argues for the birth-control pill, biologist Richard Dawkins nominates the spectroscope and physicist Freeman Dyson makes a case for hay! An eclectic collection of ideas from some of the foremost thinkers of our age.
- ISBN10 0297645757
- ISBN13 9780297645757
- Publish Date 28 February 2000
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 27 March 2003
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Orion Publishing Co
- Imprint Weidenfeld & Nicolson
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 192
- Language English