What If You Could Unscramble an Egg?

Anyone who thinks popularized science has to be superficial should pick up this engaging volume, by a George Mason University physics professor. Ehrlich (The Cosmological Milkshake), writing in imitation of Galileo's Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences, talks with an interlocutor who is mildly interested in both physical and biological science but not sophisticated regarding either of them, and considers more than 100 what-ifs in areas ranging from sex to space aliens to space and time. Throughout, the author retains a light touch, even when dealing with such subjects as the contributions of Maxwell, Einstein, Heisenberg and Planck, amid explanations of why unscrambling an egg is not impossible, why man emerged as the king of beasts because he was the best killer and why overpopulation is the greatest threat to our continued existence. But he demonstrates the humility of outstanding scientists as he points out that the ``laws'' of nature are provisional. The text is supplemented by witty but technically simple cartoons by Gary Ehrlich. (Feb.)