Book Review: We Are All Stardust

Every scientist has a story. Though not all have a specific moment they can point to that ‘got them into science’, they all have people or places or moments which inspired them, or gave them some critical insight, or just kept them going through difficult or tedious times. “We Are All Stardust” is about those scientists, and about those stories.

From names as instantly recognizable as Steven Weinberg or Jane Goodall to names which aren’t as well-known outside their respective fields, “We Are All Stardust” aims to prove that scientists don’t have to put away their emotions when they put away their subjectivity, and that rigid technical language often hides leaps of intuition or personal triumphs as intense as any other grand endeavor.

Author Stefan Klein himself strikes a difficult balance with his questions between respect and obsequiousness; his questions reveal a deep familiarity with the works of all of the scientists involved, but are rarely sycophantic and are often direct challenges or disagreements. Indeed, through the course of the book, Stefan’s questions, and his background knowledge about topics from Greek mythology to the history of Eastern and Western philosophy to opera, reveal a person as interesting and knowledgeable as the people he interviews, and so the book doesn’t feel like a collection of interviews so much as a collection of conversations.

All in all, this book is strongly recommended for biography readers and science enthusiasts who want to take a look at what events have shaped the lives of influential scientists, and how their scientific discoveries have changed the way they see the world.

“We Are All Stardust” is published by The Experiment Publishing.

You can find more information and other books written by Stefan Klein here.