This is a collection of 24 essays by the Cambridge biologist J B S Haldane. He writes about various things, including history, genetics, politics, science, philosophy, and society. He comes across as very perceptive, and I enjoyed reading these essays far more than a similar collection that I read recently by another Cambridge biologist C H Waddington. The essays and lectures were written 1920s and early 1930s, and published in 1932, but are still largely relevant today from a scientific viewpoint.
What impressed me about some of the essays is how he talks about things that have become un-politically correct these days, for no rational reason, and he deals with the issues sensibly and comes to valid conclusions. There are issues that exist today, that scientist are virtually forbidden to talk about, and if they could be tackled then some of the problems of society could be reduced, and well-being improved. The main one of these is more than hinted at in the title, though one could be forgiven for thinking it didn't exist, given what the non-scientific public and the media might sometimes suggest, against common sense. The inequality of man is natural, genetic, and this was apparent to Haldane and most other biologists even before the genetic code had been solved. Most of the essays are about other things though, and the piece that I most enjoyed reading was a story about certain events that the author experienced. It involves guns, conspiracy, murders, chases across Europe, and a secret formula. When I started reading it, I thought it must be based on real events, but by the end I more or less realised that it was just a story, but I wasn't completely sure. ( )