Author(s): Richard Dawkins

Science and Technology

Keats accused Newton of destroying the poetry of the rainbow by explaining the origin of its colours. Dawkins argures that Keats could not have been more mistaken, and shows how an understanding of science enhances our wonder at the world around us. This is a "hymn of praise" to the scientific attitude, often maligned for alienating our relationship with nature. He shows how science, properly understood, does not disenchant nature, but rather enhances the poetry of experience by revealing the workings of the natural world in their full wonder. The book's complementary strand is be a polemic against anti-science movements of all types.