Big questions, bold answers

ONE of the most profound moments  in life is when, as a child, we first utter that small but powerful word, “why?” This is arguably what defines us a species. We are not so much Homo sapiens as Homo curiosum. It is not hard to imagine our earliest ancestor looking up at the stars, watching the seasons change, or holding a newborn child and wondering: why? Our curiosity knows no bounds and it has taken us a long way, from the savannahs of east Africa to world domination and beyond. Most of this progress has come in the past 300 years thanks to the invention of a systematic way of asking questions and answering them. That method is called science, and it has produced the greatest knowledge bounty ever. But we still yearn to know why. There is much that we don’t understand, and every  new discovery opens up new questions. This first issue of New Scientist: The Collection is dedicated to the wonders of human curiosity. A compilation of classic articles published in New Scientist, it explores the profound questions we ask of ourselves and the universe around us. In Chapter 1 we ask perhaps the most fundamental question of all: what is reality? Looking at the world around you, the answer might seem obvious – until you dig deep, when reality reveals itself to be a slippery customer. Chapter 2 takes a more personal and reflective turn, asking what the discoveries of modern science mean for our own existence, from the search for aliens to the bizarre possibility that you are a hologram. Chapter 3 casts a new perspective on one of the oldest answers in the book: that everything can be explained by the existence of an all-powerful supernatural being. We are now largely dissatisfied with that answer, but God continues to fascinate. Chapter 4 returns to personal experience, specifically the granite-hard problem of the nature of consciousness, how something so incredible can be produced by 1500 grams or so of brain tissue, and why you cannot be sure that everybody else is not a zombie. Chapter 5 is dedicated to a phenomenon that, as far as we know, is confined to a tiny corner of the universe: life itself. We know it got going on Earth almost as soon as the planet was habitable – but why did it take so long to give rise to complex creatures? And does it have a future? In Chapter 6, we probe one of the  universe’s most puzzling dimensions: time. The everyday ticking of a clock might seem  the most natural thing in the world, but it masks a very peculiar phenomenon. Chapter 7 focuses inwards again, dismantling the entity we call the self, which seems so solid and enduring to each of us and yet doesn’t appear to actually exist. In Chapter 8 we explore the familiar yet strange world of sleep and dreaming – a place we visit every night but which nonetheless remains eerie and elusive. Finally, Chapter 9 faces up to the end.  There is perhaps no older question about human life than why it must one day cease. But viewed the right way, death can both fascinate and inspire.  ■