"Brilliant, essential and addictive. The result of this ambitious venture, for those who have already experienced navigating the web pages of edge.org, is not only brilliant, but addictive. It interprets, it interrogates, it provokes. Each text can be a world in itself."

"Fantastically stimulating...It's like the crack cocaine of the thinking world.... Once you start, you can't stop thinking about that question."

"The world's finest minds have responded with some of the most insightful, humbling, fascinating confessions and anecdotes, an intellectual treasure trove. ... Best three or four hours of intense, enlightening reading you can do for the new year. Read it now."

"Open-minded, free ranging, intellectually playful ... an unadorned pleasure in curiosity, a collective expression of wonder at the living and inanimate world ... an ongoing and thrilling colloquium."— Ian McEwan

"Astounding reading."

"...the fascinating website edge.org."

"The splendidly enlightened Edge website (www.edge.org) has rounded off each year of inter-disciplinary debate by asking its heavy-hitting contributors to answer one question. I strongly recommend a visit."

"A jolt of fresh thinking ...The answers address a fabulous array of issues. This is the intellectual equivalent of a New Year's dip in the lake - bracing, possibly shriek-inducing, and bound to wake you up."

"Even the world’s best brains have to admit to being wrong sometimes: here, leading scientists respond to a new year challenge."

"Provocative ideas put forward today by leading figures."

"One of the most interesting stopping places on the Web."

"The optimistic visions of several of Mr. Brockman's Net-savvy essayists seem not just wonderful but plausible."

"'Life: What A Concept' was one of those memorable events that people in years to come will see as a crucial moment in history. After all, it's where the dawning of the age of biology was officially announced."

"These are thoughts to make jaws drop...Nobody at Eastover Farm seemed afraid of a eugenic revival. What in German circles would have released violent controversies, here drifts by unopposed under mighty maple trees that gently whisper in the breeze."

"Uplifting ...enthralling."

"Full of fascinating discussion ... deep thinking."

"As in the past, these world-class thinkers have responded to Web site editor John Brockman's impossibly open-ended questions with erudition, imagination and clarity."

"Answers ring like scientific odes to uncertainty, humility and doubt; passionate pleas for critical thought in a world threatened by blind convictions."

"A remarkable feast of the intellect... an amazing group of reflections on science, culture, and the evolution of ideas. Reading the Edge question is like being invited to dinner with some of the most interesting people on the planet."

"A great event in the Anglo-Saxon culture."

"Scientific pipedreams at their very best."

"As fascinating and weighty as one would imagine...I strongly recommend a visit to anyone who feels browbeaten by fans of that over-rated virtue: mere consistency. "

"an array of Nobel laureates, professors, Pulitzer Prize winners and bestselling authors ... in this impressive book."

"For an exceptionally high quotient of interesting ideas to words, this is hard to beat. ...What a feast of egg-head opinionating!"

"What is the coolest online forum, one where scientists and great minds from all over the world exchange opinions and ideas, and the one that keeps the scientific debate alive? Almost certainly it’s edge.org, an American website whose most ardent supporters...are changing the present vision of the universe. This where you’ll run into debates that count."

Persuasively upbeat.

"There is much in many of these brief essays to astonish, to be appalled at, to mull over or to wish for...Most of them are vitally engaging to anyone with an ounce of interest in matters such as being or whatever."

"Recommended read to detox a tired mind."

"...reads like an intriguing dinner party conversation among great minds in science."

"Intellectual and creative magnificence."

"Sparky and provoking ... radiates bright ideas."

"A peerage culture, a peerage that network technology encouraged."

"A stellar cast of thinkers tackles the really big questions facing scientists."

"It is like having a front-row seat at the ultimate scientific seminar series."

"A fascinating site."