Perspectives

the new optimists: book structure

In his Introduction to The New Optimists, editor Keith Richards explains the structure he's created:

The organisation of such diverse material must inevitably be a personal matter, but we wished to take the reader on a journey in four stages, beginning in familiar surroundings looking in on the work of scientists, then moving gradually towards their world until finally we are inside looking out. We therefore divided the collection into four parts, each comprising chapters related to the same broad theme, and within each chapter we gathered the contributions themselves:

Part 1: The Microcosm: Tackling the big challenges
(with chapters Cancer and Changing bodies)
Part 2: The Macrocosm: Interacting with our world
(with Chapters Living in the natural world and Living in the virtual world)
Part 3: Transformations
(with chapters Getting to the heart of things and Changing behaviour)
Part 4: The ways of science
(with chapters Working together, Thinking differently and From where I stand)