Philip Ball - Science writer

Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything

Published by Bodley Head, 2012.

Now available in paperback (Vintage) and in the US edition (University of Chicago Press - here).

Curiosity is dangerous. But it’s far worse than you think, for curiosity was the original sin. In Christian tradition, all the ills of the world follow from the attempt in the Garden to grasp – literally to consume – forbidden knowledge. “When you eat of it”, said the serpent to Eve, “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.” Through curiosity, our innocence was lost.