The book before you is one of four collections of a series of popular science articles that is widely known in the United States and other Western countries. A collection of essays in which we are talking about several fields of science at once - biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy. The author is a science fiction writer, biochemist, superbly erudite, fluent in language, a little skeptical - mockingly, but at the same time tactfully conducts a relaxed conversation with a free choice of topics.