Why: What Makes Us Curious

Astrophysicist Livio (Brilliant Blunders) makes the claim that the capacity for curiosity is one of the biggest differences between humans and other animals. He describes curiosity as coming in two forms: perceptual and epistemic. The former is “triggered by novelty, surprise, or puzzling stimuli,” he writes, and is related to negative feelings associated with lack of knowledge. Epistemic curiosity generates positive emotions and “embodies our love of knowledge and the drive for its acquisition.” Livio accessibly addresses some of the basic psychological and neurobiological underpinnings of curiosity, but he does so superficially. Similarly, he provides a shallow exploration of “two of the most curious minds to have ever existed”—Leonardo da Vinci and Richard Feynman. He also offers nine all-too-brief and wholly unsatisfying talks with successful individuals, ostensibly to determine if there are any similarities between them that might inform his quest to understand the drive to discover. Livio concludes by offering simplistic advice for educators: “Educators should frequently ask questions, but they should not provide the answers right away. Instead, they should encourage their students to give the answer themselves, and then to think of ways to test the correctness of their answers.” While there are interesting nuggets here, Livio never delves deeply enough to get beyond the surface. Agent: Susan Rabiner, Susan Rabiner Literary. (July)