Introduction: on the courage to spend a lifetime searching --
We are all stardust: on the beginning and end of the world / Cosmologist Martin Rees --
The genes of the good: on egoism and selflessness / Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins --
In the hall of illusions: on consciousness / Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran --
The recalcitrant zebra: on chance and necessity in history / Physiologist and geographer Jared Diamond --
Chimps are individuals like us: on our relationship to animals / Primatologist Jane Goodall --
The unity of the world: on science and religion / Physicist Steven Weinberg --
Can we become immortal?: on aging / Molecular biologist Elizabeth Blackburn --
Is luxury immoral? : on ethics / Philosopher Peter Singer --
Our well-being depends on our friends and their friends: on human relationships / Physician and social scientist Nicholas Christakis --
The software of life: on the human genome / Biochemist Craig Venter --
The poetry of molecules: on beauty / Chemist and poet Roald Hoffmann --
Do you remember?: on memory / Neurobiologist Hannah Monyer --
The others in our heads: on empathy / Neuroscientist Vittorio Gallese --
The laws of devotion: on altruism / Animal behavior researcher Raghavendra Gadagkar --
The hunger for fairness: on morality / Economist Ernst Fehr --
The strongest feeling of all: on pain / Neuropharmacologist Walter Zieglgänsberger --
The female side of evolution: on motherhood / Anthropologist Sarah Hrdy --
Babies can be smarter than us: on childhood / Developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik --
Love is the offspring of knowledge: on the beginning of modern scientific research / Artist Leonardo Da Vinci.