Wonders will never cease

Different people find different things impressive. Some claim, for instance, to experience a sense of wonder at the fact of being alive. But one has nothing to compare it to, so why find it surprising? Another sensibility will find joy in the observation of E.M. Cioran, the sardonic Romanian philosopher who wrote: ‘It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.’ Between these two poles, this book offers a charming compendium of the astonishments that may be experienced in a human life.

It is, if you like, a miscellany of the sorts of things at which a secular reader may experience some analogue to religious awe. (Religion is mentioned late on, mainly for its social benefits.) The book is structured thematically, with chapters roughly about light, life, the heart, the brain, the self, the world and possible futures. The guiding discipline is science, of course, and there is much interesting history of science (for example, the impressive story of how people in the 17th century first figured out how to calculate the speed of light), as well as efficient rehearsals of our current understanding.