FROM EROS TO GAIA
By Freeman Dyson
A book commentary by Art Morgan
Carl Sagan estimates that only 5% of us are scientifically literate. I am one of the 95% of the scientifically illiterate. If I cannot be scientifically literate I can at least make an effort to be partly literate—say, 5%, at least.
Thus explains my reading of a book like “From Eros to Gaia.” It is not a science book per se, as much as it is a survey of scientific thought and some of the scientists who did the thinking. I found the book interesting a fascinating.
Freeman Dyson has been a physicist and professor at Princeton University. He speaks and writes well. He balances his science with ethics.
His survey spans the science of our century, especially the developments during his working career. He has personally known most of the current names in science, giving personal as well as professional information about their work. He lets us inside and behind the scenes of discovery.
The book opens with something he wrote at age 9 about the possibility of a collision between the asteroid, Eros, and the moon. He ends with a chapter on Gaia, the goddess of motherhood and of caring for all of life’s creatures. In between are stories and descriptions of telescopes and accelerators and atomic bombs (and bombings) and space science and field theory and quantum physics, to name a few. 
His material about some of the great scientists of our time is informative and interesting. Some of them include Michael Pupin, Robert Oppenheimer, Steve Heims, Yury Manin, Paul Forman (a historian of science), George Kennan (also a historian with thoughtful evaluation of the moral aspects of scientific discovery), Paul Dirac, and Dick Feynman.
These people live in a different mental world from the rest of us. The religious, who claim to dwell on ultimate things, pale in comparison. These people never quit trying to discover the nature of existence, beginnings, workings, destiny. They do not claim to hold the truth or try to make dogma of it. Rather, they propose theories and test them for truth. Their scope is cosmic.
Dyson gives it a human touch. A rather startling conclusion, for a scientist, comes in his last chapter:
“The central complexity of human nature lies in our emotions, not our  intelligence…Emotions have a longer history and deeper roots than intelligence…Somehow or other, when we begin to improve artificially the physical and intellectual capacities of our children, we must learn to leave their emotional roots uncut.” (p. 343, 344)
He ends by talking about Gaia.
“One hopeful sign of sanity in modern society is the popularity of the idea of Gaia, invented by James Lovelock to personify our living planet. Respect for Gaia is the beginning of wisdom…As humanity moves into the future and takes control of is evolution, our first priority must be to preserve our emotional bond to Gaia…If it stays intact, then our species will remain fundamentally sane. If Gaia survives, then human complexity will survive too.” (pp. 344, 345)
Even if one doesn’t end up quite understanding quantum physics, the reader will have a new sense of appreciation for those who do.
- Art Morgan, Summer 1999