The End of Discovery

Here Russell Stannard asks if we are approaching the boundaries of the knowable in fundamental science, not in the naïve sense of scientists at the end of 19th century but rather the limits of what is open to us to understand in terms of our innate capacities. The author makes it clear that he does not believe in scientism - the notion that science is the only route to knowledge. Although much of the content is focused on physics and cosmology, the first chapter focuses on brain and consciousness. An interesting feature of Stannard's approach is that he highlights in the margin the outstanding questions that science is still addressing, some of which are intractable and may resist final analysis. Can we ultimately know the nature of dark matter, or whether the universe is infinite in size? This enables readers to grasp the context of his analysis and share the excitement of the questions still open.