Americans are dangerously ignorant about the current state of human knowledge and the history of science. This book will provide a small dose of medicine against this illness.

Dear Albert will present 25 letters from scientists written to thinkers from the past who have influenced or inspired them. The book will bring together contributors from a comprehensive cross-section of scientific pursuits – evolutionary biology to engineering, cosmology to chemistry. A NASA engineer will write to Orville Wright, sharing the dazzling advances in flight during the past 100 years; mathematicians will write to Fermat and Pythagoras, revealing the ways in which their ideas have haunted succeeding generations; geneticists will write to Darwin, explaining, among other things, how the discovery of DNA has shaped our understanding of evolution.

When complete, the volume will take the reader on a wide-ranging tour of human knowledge and provide a glimpse into the dynamism and wonder of the scientific pursuit. Also, the conceit of writing to those who lived in the past will prompt contributors to unpack their ideas in language accessible to a general audience.

Selected letters will be serialized in Natural History and the book is under development.