Maverick Genius: The Pioneering Odyssey of Freeman Dyson
*Starred Review* “Our universe is the most interesting of all possible universes, and our fate as human beings is to make it so.” Few human beings have done more to make this universe interesting than the irrepressible polymath, Freeman Dyson. As Schewe recounts his arrival on the world scene, readers marvel at how a still-young Dyson penetrates subatomic mysteries that baffle more seasoned scientists, evincing a genius partly mathematical, partly imaginative. This theoretical feat marks him as a peer of Einstein, Bohr, Feynman, and Oppenheimer. But Dyson is hardly content to remain just an authority on quantum physics. He insists on applying his versatile mind to the tasks of engineering spacecraft for traversing galactic space, explaining the biological origins of life, framing international policies for a nuclear age, debating climate-change models, and advising moviemakers. Dyson’s trajectory teaches readers a great deal about the behavior of virtual particles in virtual space, technology for scanning distant star systems for signs of life, the biochemistry for transporting genetic information, and even possible ways to harmonize science and religion. But what it most fully illuminates is Dyson’s own exceptional personality—daring, optimistic, independent, even contrarian. A much-needed portrait of a compellingly human scientist. --Bryce Christensen