"Write about your favorite, most interesting, deep and elegant explanation," asked publisher and writer John Brockman of the most famous scientists around the world working in various fields of science, and then collected the essays in a book that you now hold in your hands. Its pages contain stories about theories that help to understand the main ideas of physics and astronomy, economics and psychology, biology and many other sciences. Reading is fascinating, because among the authors of the collection are Jared Diamond, Nassim Taleb, Stephen Pinker, Matt Ridley, Richard Dawkins and other outstanding minds of our time.