Dear Professor Dyson

Twenty Years of Correspondence Between Freeman Dyson and Undergraduate Students on Science, Technology, Society and Life

Freeman Dyson has designed nuclear reactors and bomb-powered spacecraft; he has studied the origins of life and the possibilities for the long-term future; he showed quantum mechanics to be consistent with electrodynamics and started cosmological eschatology; he has won international recognition for his work in science and for his work in reconciling science to religion; he has advised generals and congressional committees. An STS (Science, Technology, Society) curriculum or discussion group that engages topics such as nuclear policies, genetic technologies, environmental sustainability, the role of religion in a scientific society, and a hard look towards the future, would count itself privileged to include Professor Dyson as a class participant and mentor. In this book, STS topics are not discussed as objectified abstractions, but through personal stories.

The reader is invited to observe Dyson's influence on a generation of young people as they wrestle with issues of science, technology, society, life in general and our place in the universe. The book is filled with personal anecdotes, student questions and responses, honest doubts and passions.

Contents:

• Walking with Grandfather
• Living in the Questions
• A Hexagonal Mountain
• Martha and Mary
• Engines With Souls
• Steered From Afar
• The Swamp Angel
• Rapid Rupture
• Arsenals of Folly
• To Touch the Face of the Stars
• Silence
• The Chainsaw and the White Oak
• "Why Should I Care?"
• Playing God
• Bonds of Kinship
• Two Windows
• Doubt and Faith
• Dreams of Earth and Sky
• Family First

Readership: Students and academicians who are interested in issues related to science, technology and society.
Key Features:

• Removes objective detachment and makes STS issues personal through story-telling: Science, technology and society issues are not merely objects of study; they are experiences, they are choices to be lived. Student real-time responses to Professor Dyson's insights bring the correspondence to life
• Includes honest questions that are more important than snappy answers: Few STS issues have black-and-white answers; they are, rather, about understanding the questions. For example, do we own our technology, or does our technology own us?
• Shows all things are connected: Practically every STS topic, it seems, reduces to values and ethics. STS issues are ultimately about relationships between us and nature, our machines, other species, other people — and ourselves. STS issues are too important to be left to scientists and technologists