2012 : WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DEEP, ELEGANT, OR BEAUTIFUL EXPLANATION?
	2010 : HOW IS THE INTERNET CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK? Buy the Book
	2011 : WHAT SCIENTIFIC CONCEPT WOULD IMPROVE EVERYBODY'S COGNITIVE TOOLKIT? Buy the Book
	2009 : WHAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING? Buy the Book
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	2007 : WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT? Buy the Book
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1998 : WHAT QUESTIONS ARE YOU ASKING YOURSELF?

2012 : WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DEEP, ELEGANT, OR BEAUTIFUL EXPLANATION?

Contributors [192] | View All Responses [192]

"The World's Smartest Website."

— John Naughton, The Observer

Scientists' greatest pleasure comes from theories that derive the solution to some deep puzzle from a small set of simple principles in a surprising way. These explanations are called "beautiful" or "elegant". Historical examples are Kepler's explanation of complex planetary motions as simple ellipses, Bohr's explanation of the periodic table of the elements in terms of electron shells, and Watson and Crick's double helix. Einstein famously said that he did not need experimental confirmation of his general theory of relativity because it "was so beautiful it had to be true."

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DEEP, ELEGANT,
OR BEAUTIFUL EXPLANATION?

Since this question is about explanation, answers may embrace scientific thinking in the broadest sense: as the most reliable way of gaining knowledge about anything, including other fields of inquiry such as philosophy, mathematics, economics, history, political theory, literary theory, or the human spirit. The only requirement is that some simple and non-obvious idea explain some diverse and complicated set of phenomena.

[Thanks to Steven Pinker for suggesting this year's Edge Question and to Stewart Brand, Kevin Kelly, and George Dyson for their ongoing advice and support.]

192 CONTRIBUTORS (128,500 words): Emanuel Derman, Nicholas Humphrey, Dylan Evans, Howard Gardner, Jeremy Berstein, Rudy Rucker, Michael Shermer, Nicholas Carr, Susam Blackmore, Scott Atran, David Christian, Andy Clark, Donald Hoffman, Derek Lowe, Roger Schank, Arnold Trehub, Timothy Taylor, Cliff Pickover, Ed Regis, Jared Diamond, Robert Provine, Richard Nisbett, Peter Woit, Haim Harari, Satyajit Das, Juan Enriquez, Jamshed Bharucha, Richard Foreman, Scott D. Sampson, Jonathan Gotschall, Keith Devlin, Clay Shirky, Steven Pinker, Gloria Origgi, Sean Carroll, Irene Pepperberg, Tor Nørretranders, Alan Alda, Jennifer Jacquet, George Dyson, Nigel Goldenfeld, Aubrey De Grey, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, George Church, Kevin Kelly, Stephen M. Kosslyn and Robin S. Rosenberg, Lawrence M. Krauss, James Croak, Armand Marie Leroi, Leonard Susskind, Douglas Rushkoff, Victoria Stodden, Daniel C. Dennett, Shing-tung Yau, Philip Campbell, Freeman Dyson, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Martin Rees, Stanislas Dehaene, Samuel Arbesman, David Gelernter, Timothy D. Wilson, Judith Rich Harris, Samuel Barondes, Peter Atkins, Robert Kurzban, Todd C. Sacktor, Gerald Holton, Frank Wilczek, Elizabeth Dunn, Eric J. Topol, Lee Smolin, Roger Highfield, Michael I. Norton, Richard Dawkins, Neil Gershenfeld, Alison Gopnik, Terrence J. Sejnowski, Rodney Brooks, Philip Zimbardo, Christopher Sykes, Nicholas A. Christakis, Marcel Kinsbourne, Thomas A. Bass, Randolph Nesse, Sherry Turkle, Gino Segre, Eric R. Kandel, Hugo Mercier, Beatrice Golomb, Benjamin Bergen, Alun Anderson, Alvy Ray Smith, Katinka Matson, Steve Giddings, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Gerd Gigerenzer , Gerald Smallberg, Paul Steinhardt, Adam Alter, Karl Sabbagh, David G. Myers, Lica DiBiase, Stuart Pimm, James J. O'Donnell, Albert-László Barabási, Simon Baron-Cohen, Charles Seife, Patrick Bateson, Carlo Rovelli, Jordan Pollack, Robert Sapolsky, Frank Tipler, Bruce Parker, Marcelo Gleiser, Richard Saul Wurman, Gary Klein, Ernst Pöppel, Evgeny Morozov, Gregory Benford, S. Abbas Raza, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Thomas Metzinger, David Haig, Melanie Swan, Laurence C. Smith, John C. Mather, Seth Lloyd, P. Murali Doriaswamy, Marti Hearst, Jon Kleinberg, Kai Krause, Joel Gold, Simone Schnall, Paul Saffo, Lisa Randall, Brian Eno, Giulio Boccaletti, Paul Bloom, Timo Hannay, Anthony Grayling, Matt Ridley, Doug Coupland, Amanda Gefter, Bruce Hood, Gregory Paul, Stephon Alexander, Bart Kosko, John Tooby, Stuart Kauffman, Barry C. Smith, John Naughton, Helen Fisher, Virginia Heffernan, Dimitar Sasselov, Eric Weinstein, Max Tegmark, PZ Myers, Andrew Lih, Christine Finn, Gregory Cochran, John McWhorter, Michael Vassar, Brian Knutson, Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran, Antony Garrett Lisi, Helena Cronin, Tania Lombrozo, Kevin Hand, Seirian Sumner, David Eagleman, Tim O'Reilly, Marco Iacoboni, Raphael Bousso, David Dalrymple, Emily Pronin, Dave Winer, Alanna Conner & Hazel Rose Markus, David Pizarro, Andrian Kreye, David Buss, Carl Zimmer, Stewart Brand, Anton Zeilinger, Carolyn Porco, Dan Sperber, Mahzarin Banaji, V.S. Ramachandran, Nathan Myhrvold, Charles Simonyi, Richard Thaler, Andrei Linde [C ontinue to responses.]

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