By Freeman J Dyson
World Scientific
Hardback: £38
Paperback: £18
Birds and Frogs is a wonderful collection of essays and papers by Freeman Dyson from 1990 to 2014, and a sequel to a volume of earlier papers. It consists of a short introductory section followed by four more: “Talks about Science”, “Memoirs”, “Politics and History” and “Technical Papers”.
The book takes its title from one of the “Talks about Science”, in which Dyson classifies mathematicians – and, I would add, physicists – as either “birds” or “frogs”. He writes: “Birds fly high in the air and survey broad vistas of mathematics out to the far horizon. They delight in concepts that unify our thinking and bring together diverse problems from different parts of the landscape. Frogs live in the mud below and see only the flowers that grow nearby. They delight in the details of particular objects, and they solve problems one at a time. I happen to be a frog, but many of my best friends are birds.” This section contains a wealth of fascinating thoughts on, for example, the origins of life, resistance to new ideas in physics, and the nature of computation in the human brain.
Despite his claim to be a frog, much of the book is written with a bird’s-eye view. Dyson is perhaps uniquely placed among living scientists in having been privy to much that went on in the early days of quantum field theory, and to have met and be able to write about personal experiences with many of our modern-day heroes. In the “Memoirs” section, and elsewhere, he offers insights not only into their work, but also their lives and beliefs.
“Politics and History” ranges from science and religion to ethics, and education from the points of view of Tolstoy and Napoleon. His recollections and observations about the Second World War are as unique as they are fascinating. Ultimately, he shares spectacular and optimistic visions for our future as a species that can spread life throughout the universe.
It is the section on “Technical Papers” that shows Dyson the frog. Here, number theory, bounds on variation of the fine structure constant, detectability of gravitons and game theory all appear.
Whether you’re a frog or a bird or neither – Dyson has a penchant for classifying things into a small number of categories, often just two – you are certain to find much to delight you in this eclectic and yet somehow unified collection.
