A Daily Telegraph and TLS Book of the Year

'An audacious tour of all that science can teach us' Edward O. Wilson

Specialist scientific fields are developing at incredibly swift speeds, but what can they really tell us about how the universe began and how humans evolved to play such a dominant role on Earth? John Hands's extraordinarily ambitious quest brings together our scientific knowledge and evaluates the theories and evidence about the origin and evolution of matter, life, consciousness, and humankind.

Cosmosapiens provides the most comprehensive account yet of current ideas such as cosmic inflation, dark energy, the selfish gene, and neurogenetic determinism. In clear and accessible language, Hands differentiates the firmly established from the speculative and examines the claims of various fields such as string theory to approach a unified theory of everything. In doing so he challenges the orthodox consensus in those branches of cosmology, biology, and neuroscience that have ossified into dogma. His striking analysis reveals underlying patterns of cooperation, complexification, and convergence that lead to the unique emergence in humans of a self-reflective consciousness that enables us to determine our future evolution. This groundbreaking book is destined to become a classic of scientific thinking.

About the Author

John Hands has devoted more than ten years to evaluating scientific theories about human evolution from the origin of the universe. He graduated in chemistry from the University of London and co-authored two research studies and published one book in the social sciences. He was the founding Director of the Government's Co-operative Housing Agency and served on three Government committees. He has tutored in both physics and management studies for the Open University and was Royal Literary Fund Fellow at University College London.

Reviews

'An audacious tour of all that science can teach us about the origin and evolution of humanity in the universe, start to finish. It's encyclopedic sweep can be read straight through or browsed in parts of special interest' Edward O. Wilson

'A substantial, sceptical survey of the current state of scientific knowledge of about the most basic questions... An invaluable, encyclopedic achievement' A.N. Wilson, Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year

'Lucid and intelligible to the non-specialists... a book of astonishing ambition and scope' Tim Crane, Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year

'Audacious, ambitious, and philosophically completist study... a thoughtful treatise for the eternally curious' Publishers Weekly (starred review)

'From dark energy to the selfish gene, Hands looks at how we know what we know - and what we don't. An overview of current thought on this ever fascinating subject' Observer

'This is a truly exceptional piece of work' Tim Crane, Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge

'A magisterial, persuasive and thought provoking survey of the horizons of modern science' Dr James Le Fanu, author of The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine

'Even in cases where one might disagree, the arguments are thought-provoking' Paul Steinhardt, Albert Einstein Professor in Science, Princeton University

'John Hands has done a remarkable job of disentangling the many topics that are long overdue for reinterpretation. The enormous effort he has made to cover so many evolutionary questions is heroic... A major accomplishment' Professor James Shapiro, author of Evolution: A View From The 21st Century

'A game-changer. In the tradition of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, this lucidly written, penetrating analysis challenges us to rethink many things we take for granted about ourselves, our society, and our universe. It will become a classic' Peter Dreier, E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, Occidental College

'A work as bold, broad, and challenging as this will no doubt tweak the bias any one of us may have regarding a particular event, but, then, so did Darwin's On the Origin of Species' Jeffrey Schwartz, Professor of Physical Anthropology and of The History & Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh

'This book is an intellectual tour-de-force... highly recommended for anyone wishing to get a deeper insight into the fundamental but typically arcane theories that purport to explain where we and the universe that surrounds us are coming from' Professor Francis Heylighen, Evolution, Complexity and Cognition Group, Free University of Brussels

'Any conventional Darwinist (and I am one of them) will find a lot to take exception to: but disagreement is the fuel of progress and if you enjoy an argument this is the book for you' Professor Steve Jones, author of The Language of the Genes

'An audacious and admirable book... written with engaging style, and the strongest scientific ideas across a swathe of fields in physics and biology are presented lucidly' Larry Steinman, Professor of Neurological Sciences, Stanford University

'Hands's voyage of inquiry will not only educate you, it will also surprise' Derek Shearer, Director, McKinnon Center for Global Affairs, Los Angeles

'A fine book... brave, very wide ranging, synoptic' Professor Stuart Kauffman, author of At Home in the Universe

'Makes us realise how much we don't know. From this book we get that big picture' Professor David Knight, author of The Making of Modern Science

Book Information
ISBN 9780715651216
Author John Hands
Format Paperback
Page Count 704
Imprint Duckworth
Publisher Duckworth Books