John Brockman poses this question to 118 scientists and thinkers, including the usual Edge suspects: Dawkins, Dennett, Pinker, Diamond, etc. Would that Simon Baron-Cohen had been Sasha. Leon Lederman does provide this joke about a physicist on the witness stand: ‘”What makes you such an authority?” [the lawyer] asked. “Oh, I am without question the world’s most outstanding theoretical physicist”, was the startling reply. It was enough to convince the lawyer to change the subject. However, when the witness came off the stand, he was surrounded by protesting colleagues. “How could you make such an outrageous claim?” they asked. The theoretical physicist defended, “Fellows, you just don’t understand; I was under oath.”‘
