Decoding the World **EXP

Rogue planets. Beyond Meat. Glaciers melting.

Bronson and Gupta decipher what's really going on behind these headlines, and why. They offer first-hand experience in funding technologies to solve these problems, most of which involve genetic engineering. But what the authors then do with that premise is always surprising and unexpected.

One moment they are ripping it down to the bare bones physics or chemistry, and then they invoke history, philosophy, or psychology, all the while using joyful literary devices and storylines from popular movies. Decoding the World is the kind of book you get when you give two guys $40 million, a world full of messy big problems, a genetics laboratory to play in, and a set of Borges' collected works. After looking through their lens, you'll never see the world the same.