HUMOUR often cuts something down – it slights or disparages. But while Mark Stevenson finds plenty to chuckle over in An Optimist’s Tour of the Future, he never succumbs to cynicism about what might be in store. Jokes pop up in the book as regularly as in any stand-up set, and each one only adds to the argument that science will (probably) improve our lives in every way.
Stevenson surveys a huge number of research fields – synthetic biology, nanotech, robotics and alternative energy to name just a few – in labs on nearly every continent, and weaves the most promising…
