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A COLLECTION of essays by big thinkers answering big questions may never be a page-turner, but should still be deeply satisfying. And This Explains Everything delivers.

Its editor, John Brockman, is the man behind the website, which has been inviting scientists, philosophers, artists and science journalists to tackle a big question annually since 1998.

The 2012 question comes from neuroscientist Steven Pinker: 鈥淲hat is your favourite deep, elegant or beautiful explanation?鈥� It draws thoughtful responses, collected here, from a diverse band that includes Nobel prizewinning physicist Frank Wilczek, philosopher Gloria Origgi and Pixar co-founder Alvy Ray Smith.

Charles Darwin鈥檚 evolution by natural selection earns many nominations, but other answers range widely. For example, psychologists Stephen Kosslyn and Robin Rosenberg celebrate classical conditioning, discovered by Ivan (salivating dogs) Pavlov, and computer scientist Jon Kleinberg uses your family tree to illustrate the pigeonhole principle in mathematics, his choice.

Alan Alda, best known as Hawkeye in the 1970s TV show Mash, quotes Hamlet鈥檚 famous line: 鈥淭here are more things in heaven and earth鈥� than are dreamt of in your philosophy.鈥� Though far from science, Hamlet captures an essential truth, Alda argues: 鈥淲ith every door into nature we nudge open, 100 new doors become visible.鈥�

鈥淗amlet captures an essential truth. With every door to nature we nudge open, 100 more appear鈥�