In this sequel to The Scientist as Rebel 2006, Freeman Dyson—whom The Times of London calls one of the worlds most original minds—celebrates openness to unconventional ideas and the spirit of joyful dreaming in which he believes that science should be pursued. Throughout these essays, which range from the creation of the Royal Society in the seventeenth century to the scientific inquiries of the Romantic generation to recent books by Daniel Kahneman and Malcolm Gladwell, he seeks to break down the barriers that separate science from other sources of human wisdom. Dyson discusses twentieth-century giants of physics such as Richard Feynman, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Paul Dirac, and Steven Weinberg, many of whom he knew personally, as well as Winston Churchills pursuit of nuclear weapons for Britain and Wernher von Brauns pursuit of rockets for space travel.
