Customer Reviews

Quest: The Essence of Humanity

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I met Professor Pasternak a few years ago and looked up to him as an excellent researcher and lecturer. In London, I kept in touch with him, as my department and laboratory were on the same corridor. A very modest and charming person, with as everyone can see an eminent background. This book has come as a surprise. He has managed to make a compendium of all human knowledge in a very readable book. I may be biased by both knowing the author and by being a physician, but it places all things human in its own context and for the layman clarifies and dismantles a number of myths normally taken for granted. Being a fan of books like Cosmos by Sagan, a number of the Asimov books on general knowledge, Jared Diamond and Stephen J Gould, i have no reservation whatsoever to put Quest by Prof Charles Pasternak well ahead of all these other icons. I am sure it will be a pleasurable need for anyone interested and with an open mind

I love this book - I'm almost finished with it. In every chapter, I've been highlighting things. For me, this was easily understandable, not being a scientist myself, although I work with them everyday.
The whole idea, to me, was fascinating - you can't stop the progress of "man", once our species had speech, a bigger brain, hands to grasp, and upright posture. Sometimes, progress is not good, but it cannot be stopped - man will always "quest" for something new.
I often think these things are bad - cloning - why do we need any more people in the world? But, our species will do it, nonetheless!